About this time on Christmas Eve 1914, 21-year-old Territorial soldier Percy Huggins wrote this letter home to his mum talking about his first experiences at the front and plans for Christmas. Shortly after writing, his Company got word to move up to frontline trenches (1) 
Percy was new to war but was under the watchful eye of Lance Sergeant Tom Gregory, an ex Coldstream Guard who had fought in the Boer War. D Company, 1st Herts Regt took their place in the line for the night, Percy and Tom occupied trenches near a place called 'Dead Cow Farm' (2)
The weather was atrocious. Freezing cold and waist deep in water. Many men, despite all they would see in the following four years of warfare, would call it the longest night of their lives. By 6pm it was dark and all was quiet on their small part of the Western Front (3)
At this point I should say that I will add to the story of Tom and Percy in 'real time' over the evening and tomorrow morning. Might not work out but It's a story that I think of each Christmas and means a lot to me so I thought I'd share it. Stay tuned 👍
About this time on Christmas Eve, groups of men in the 1st Herts trenches were settling down to what would be a very cold night. Tom Gregory spent time chatting to his friend, another old campaigner named Hamlet 'Harry' Bloxham. No doubt they spoke about Tom's latest news (4)
The birth of his sixth child a week earlier, an as yet unnamed daughter. The trenches in this area were conspicuously silent, the gunfire that had greeted them in this area a few days earlier had stopped. That silence was broken about this time, but not in the usual way (5)
But instead it was the sound of singing coming across the 75 yards of no man's land from the German lines. Men present reported how everyone in the British lines just stopped and listened in complete silence. A few minutes later this was followed by the raising of lanterns (6)
Above the German parapet, accompanied by shouts across from German troops. With relatively raw troops in the line for the first time, many of those present were not sure how to react to these 'overtures for peace', some called back, others did nothing. (7)
A British officer soon appeared and ordered the men of D Company to open rapid fire at the lanterns. This they duly did, breaking the spell that the singing seemed to have cast on the whole area. For Tom, Percy and the men of D Company, there would be no Christmas Truce. (7)
About now, slightly behind Tom & Percy's, the luckier men of 1/Herts were taking a few hours rest in a barn at Dead Cow Farm. The door of the barn opened,letting in a gust of cold air, and a voice said "you chaps, the Prince of Wales is here to wish you Merry Christmas". (8)
From the upper floor darkness a voice called "well the Archbishop of Canterbury is up here and he says close the fucking door". After the roars of laughter eventually subsided, the Prince of Wales walked in and the culprit was never found... (9)
Back on the frontlines, apart from the terrible cold and wet conditions, things were quiet. No doubt Percy Huggins was thinking about the pudding his mum had sent him for Christmay Day, one he was destined never to taste. All sides settled down for the night, Xmas Eve 1914. (10)
Dawn on Christmas Day for Percy Huggins and Tom Gregory had brought a welcome relief from the cold and dark. Another welcome arrival came in the form of the Princess Mary 'Christmas Tin' which were handed out about this time 105 years ago. (11)
This part of the line had one particularly nasty feature, a 'sap' running out in to no-man's-land which terminated within 10 yards of a German one doing the same from the other direction which had to be manned day and night and was accessed by a flooded drainage ditch. (12)
That responsibility fell to Percy Huggins about this time 105 years ago. Guided by the old soldier Tom Gregory, they waded up the sap until they reached and finally relieved the D Company sentry who had finished his stint of several hours. The silence held. (13)
As Percy looked out into a frost covered no-man's-land, he wouldn't know it, but just a few miles to both north and south an informal 'truce' had broken out, with enemy soldiers meeting between the lines, exchanging items, chatting and recovering their dead. Not here. (14)
A short time later, back in the main lines a single shot rang out, breaking the silence which last lasted for almost a day. Men looked around but no-one seemed hurt. Tom Gregory knew from years of experience where it had come from and returned to the sap he had just left. (15)
There he found young Percy Huggins, a 21-year-old peacetime assistant in his mother's Drapery shop in Ware, Hertfordshire, lying dead. He had been shot in the head and died instantly.
The death of young Percy enraged Tom and he raced back through the sap to D Company's commander, Captain Longmore. He remonstrated with Longmore and asked permission to "Return the Favour". As an ex-Guardsman, and known as the battalion's best shot, no-one doubted Tom (17)
Permission was granted, both Tom and Hamlet Bloxham once more made their way up the sap. Settling down into position and scanning no-man's-land, Tom located a German marksman, rifle aimed directly at him, ready to fire. Tom was quicker, he fired and killed the enemy soldier (18)
Tom turned and briefly spoke to Bloxham, probably confirming his successful shot, when in the words of his friend "he turned back and spotted a second burly Hun, and was just about to fire when a bullet through the brain sent him to join his young comrade". (19)
That brought the death-toll to this small scrap over across 10 yards of no-man's-land on the morning of Christmas Day 1914 to three. Three families who went about their day, no doubt thinking of their loved ones at war, unaware that none of then would be returning home. (20)
A few hours later Tom and Percy's bodies were recovered by their comrades and brought to the nearby Advanced Dressing Station in the village of Le Touret where they were buried, and remain to this day, side by side. (21)
I find myself thinking about Tom, Percy and that unknown German soldier every year. Its perhaps not everyone's idea of a happy Christmas, but it's one that gives me some perspective and makes me thankful for all those things I so often take for granted. Merry Christmas.
