Sometimes one feels that one's fate is decided. He knows when the moment has come, the peak of life or its end. In the bloody trenches of World War I, many soldiers had acquired what we call a 'sixth sense', anticipating the good or evil that was about to find them and preparing themselves and their loved ones...
On July 1, 1916, the British forces launched their largest attack against the Germans on the Western Front, in the Somme River sector. Among them was John Scollen of the 27th Northumberland Fusiliers. A few days before, on June 27 and while the bombardment by the British artillery continued, Scholen wrote a letter to his wife.
Scollen was born in 1874 at Denton Barn in Northumberland, England. Born into a large family, he married Christina Johnson in 1902, with whom he had seven children. He enlisted in the army on October 28, 1914. He was already "old" when the Battle of the Somme was about to begin and knew, despite assurances that after many days of shelling the German positions the attack would be a military walk, that the coming battle it would be cruel and bloody.
So Scholen wrote the letter in question:“My beloved, wife and children, I write you with sadness these last words of farewell. We are getting ready to strike against the awful Germans. If it is God's will that I be killed I will fall doing my duty to king and country and I hope to be judged justly by Him.
"It's hard for me to part with you but I'm in a good mood, my dear Tina and I don't want you to be too sorry for me as God and his Mother will help you. I have no doubt that the motherland will also help you for the sake of her soldier who is doing his duty.
“My dear Tina you have been a good wife and mother and you will look after our little ones. God bless Joe, Jack, Tina, Aggie, our twins Nora and Hugh, and our little baby whom I only once had the pleasure of seeing when he was born.
"I will try to do my duty in this dangerous situation and if I am killed know that I die in the hands of the Glory of God. Tell our friends that I say goodbye to them too. My beloved wife, my beloved children, I have nothing else to say to you except that I bid you farewell and all I wish is that you have God's blessing. Farewell, farewell and remember me in your prayers.
"I know it's hard but God's will will be done. From your faithful soldier, husband and father John Scollen of the 27th Northumberland Fusiliers, rather beloved and DON'T CRY' . John Scollen fell on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. It was one of 59,400 British Army casualties that day. His body was never identified. But his name is on a cenotaph in the area.
