yeovil at War

Postcards from the front

Sent home from Egypt by Stanley Purchase

 

Wilfred Stanley Edwin Purchase, known as Stanley, was born in Yeovil in 1896, the elder son of carpenter Edwin Purchase and Mary née Beare. As soon as war broke out in 1914, 17-year old Stanley enlisted in the Army and became a Private (Service No 240266) in 1st/5th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. He was to serve throughout the war with the Battalion, first in India and then in Egypt. Wilfred 'Stanley' Purchase was killed in this action on 20 November 1917, aged 21, and is  interred in Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel.

The following is a series of postcards, typical of the period, sent home to his family from Egypt, probably in 1917. They are reproduced here courtesy of Dinah Cheek.