ghtingale, the other Dulwich
master who has given his life in the war--a sterling chap if ever
there was one.

So Howard,[8] as well as R. B. B. Jones, now figures in the death
roll! It seems but yesterday that we three were ragging together
in the swimming baths, of which both these chaps were great
habitues.

[Footnote 8: C. C. Howard. Born, 1897. Killed, May 23rd,
1916. Held an exhibition in science at Trinity College,
Cambridge. Lieutenant, Loyal North Lancashires.]

I am very sad, too, at the death of A. W. Fischer.[9] He and I
got our 1st XV colours together in Killick's year, and were the
best of friends throughout his last two years at school. He was a
smallish, active forward of the Irish type, a splendid hard
worker all through the game. He and I never on any occasion got
crocked, and we played in every 1st XV match for two consecutive
seasons, 1912-1914. He was a shrewd fellow, too, and well read,
particularly in the classics. He had a very deep, rich voice, and
used to do well every time in the competition for the Anstie
Memorial Reading Prize. As a soldier he would have been almost
ideal, as he was a rare good leader, and a devil-may-care chap
who feared nothing. It is inexpressibly sad that he should have
been taken away thus. And I haven't even seen him since we parted
at the end of the summer term, 1914, just before this holocaust
started. We shook hands on saying "Good-bye" on the cricket
ground, he proceeding towards the school buildings, and I towards
the pavilion. He was to have gone to Cambridge the ensuing
October, and we had been talking of his chances of a "Blue," and
if we would be able to play against each other in the coming
season. But what use to raise up the vanished ghosts of the past?
It only makes the tragedy more heart-breaking. It is up to us to
see that these lives have not been laid down in vain.

[Footnote 9: A. W. Fischer. Born, 1895. Died of wounds, May
12th, 1916. In the 1st XV, 1912-13-14. Held the Tancred
Studentship for Classics and Science at Caius College,
Cambridge. Lieutenant, Devonshire Regiment.]

_July 25th, 1916._

I was up yesterday in the region where we won ground from the
Germans, seeing to a dump of