The Christmas Truce 1914

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE 1914
One famous, and unusual, incident during the First World War was the Christmas Truce of 1914. 
On Christmas Eve 1914, along the front-line trenches of the Western Front, the noise of battle dimmed to be replaced by German voices singing Christmas carols. Looking across to the German trenches the British soldiers saw lanterns, and even fir trees, appear. The next day, initially with uncertainty and trepidation, soldiers from both sides ventures into no-man’s land in order to meet their enemy. Gifts, such as chocolate and cigarettes, were exchanged; photographs taken. Bullets and bayonets gave way to handshakes.
A few days earlier the 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment had left their billets at La Gorgue and moved into front-line trenches. Among their ranks was a Lowestoft soldier, William Ling.
William was born at Lowestoft in 1888. His family lived at Oxford Road, Lowestoft. As a boy he attended Clapham Road School and, from 1895, was a pupil at Saint Margaret’s School. By 1905 he was working as a blacksmith’s labourer for Mr. Thurtle of Lowestoft.
As a young man William wanted to be a soldier. In his teens he enlisted in the Norfolk Royal Garrison Artillery Volunteers and, on 13 September 1905, aged 17, he joined the Prince of Wales’s Own Norfolk Artillery Militia and a Gunner. He was just short of five feet five inches tall, weighted 106 lbs, had a 34 inch chest, blue eyes and brown hair. William completed his 49 days training with the Militia and decided to join the Regular Army, enlisting in the Northamptonshire Regiment on 7 June 1906.

William was posted to the 2nd Battalion, which, until early 1911, was based in the United Kingdom. In December 1910 William married Barbara Ellen Cannell at Saint Margaret’s Church, Lowestoft. Barbara lived at 257 Raglan Street. 
On 19 January 1911 the 2nd Battalion set sail for Malta. William sailed with the battalion, and Barabara stayed at home, still living with her parents at Raglan Street. William may have had to leave his bride at home but he had some Lowestoft lads serving with him in the 2nd Battalion: Ernest Gowing, from Pakefield, and Harry Hitcham. From Malta the 2nd Battalion moved to Egypt and were based at Alexandria when the First World War began. 
The 2nd Battalion sailed for England in October 1914 and, on 5 November 1914 crossed the Channel for France and the Western Front. 

Cigarettes and buttons (non-regimental) were exchanged

On Christmas Eve 1914 William and the other men of the 2nd Battalion experienced the ‘Truce’ and the Battalion War Diary gives the following account:
On Xmas Eve, the Germans and our men got into conversation, eventually meeting in no man’s land between the trenches. Cigarettes and buttons (non-regimental) were exchanged and one of our men even got to their parapet and looked in. The German private soldiers seemed very friendly and said they did not wish to fight us, eventually even cheering the English. Most of them seemed very young as was also an officer who also came and spoke to one of ours. They wished to have no firing on Xmas Day to which we agreed as far as concerned the two companies of ours (A and B) immediately opposite them on this part of their line. The cessation was to be form midnight to midnight. The next morning, 25th, acting on instructions from our brigadier, we again got into conversation with them and they admitted that they had suffered heavily from our artillery fire on the previous evening. They also sent over some cigars and bread. We sent them some papers. Further intercourse was stopped by superior orders, not, however, before two of their officers sent us a letter which was far from complimentary. The truce was, however, observed honourably by both sides. In the evening, the Germans decorated the trenches with lights and there was a good deal of singing on both sides. One of our Captains was killed in another part of the line about 8am on the 25th, but there seems no reason to suspect treachery. The battalion was relieved about 5.30pm and went into its billets at the Red Barn.
The peaceful and convivial atmosphere of that day did not last. Less than three months later the 2nd Battalion were heavily engaged in the Battle of Nueve Chapelle. William, by now an Acting Corporal, was killed in action at Nueve Chapelle on 14 May 1915, one of 330 men of the Battalion killed or wounded on that day. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, France, and on the Our Fallen Lowestoft website. 
In 1918 Barbara married Harold Wood, a sailor from Worcestershire, and they moved to Worcestershire and kept a dairy farm. CREDIT: Damon Rogers