Silent night
The Christmas Truce is brought back to life in the 100-year-old letters of a Tommy who was there, says
Christmas Eve 1914, it’s icy cold, and the battlefields of northern France are, in the words of the soldiers, frozen as hard as iron. In the British trenches, a young farmer’s son in the Queen’s Westminster regiment, by the name of Edgar Aplin, starts up a song. He’s 26, he’s got a good tenor voice, and after a few verses of Tommy Lad, he hears voices coming from the German trenches, where the 107th Saxon Regiment are dug in, a short distance away. “Sing it again, Englander,” they call out, in English. “Sing Tommy Lad again.” He duly does so, thereby helping to set in train one of the most remarkable episodes ever to take place in the history of armed conflict. Similar scenes are depicted in The Christmas Truce, the critically acclaimed show at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon. Now, thanks to the letters of Pte Aplin himself, unearthed by his relatives a century later, we have written, documentary evidence of what actually took place. “We had been out of the trenches for four days’ rest, and returned on the 23rd of December, to relieve some regular troops,” writes the
The moment has arrived when I feel it is legitimate to answer letters and pay bills, tidy my study and sort out the magazines and post to the accompaniment of Christmas carols. If I start loading the CD player with Yuletide offerings too soon, then by the middle of December the effect palls and I am eager for a snatch of the Easter hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana. By soldier, in a letter back home. “On Christmas Eve, the usual war methods went on all day, sniping etc, until the evening, when we started a few carols and the old home songs. “Immediately, our pals over the way began to cheer, and eventually we got shouting across to the Germans. Those opposite our front can mostly speak English. “Soon after dark, we suggested that if they would send one man halfway between the trenches (300 yards), we would do the same – and both agreed not to fire. “So, advancing towards each other, each carrying a torch, when they met, they exchanged cigarettes and ‘lit up’. The cheering on both sides was tremendous, and I shall never forget it. “After a little while, several others delaying until the second half of the month I can allow the festive fare to wash over me and imbue me with the spirit of Christmas, confident that it will last until Boxing Day. Not that I can take anything quite so upfront as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing without preamble, so it is Bach’s Christmas Oratorio first up, with that stirring Jauchzet Frohlocket (Shout for Joy!) which stiffens the went out, and a pal of mine met an officer who said that if we did not shoot for 48 hours, they wouldn’t. And they were as good as their word, too. On Christmas Day, we were nearly all out of the trenches. “It was almost impossible to describe the day as it appeared to us here and I can tell you, we all enjoyed the peaceful time.” The letter was discovered by Pte Aplin’s greatnephew Michael, 82, while going through his late father’s papers. It had actually been published in the local paper in the Devonshire town of Axminster, near the farm where Edgar and sinews for the festivities ahead. Other compositions are seasonal without being too Christmassy: Corelli wrote a Christmas Concerto and the likes of Gabrieli, Manfredini, Torelli and Locatelli all celebrate Christ’s birth. Of modern composers, John Rutter amply deserves the title “Mr Christmas”. Each year a new CD will appear, in which the composer, along with his Cambridge Singers, treats us to arrangements of traditional carols and a heavenly host of his own compositions. This year’s double CD (one disc is of Rutter’s church music and the other of Christmas favourites) is called The John Rutter Songbook and is as good as any. You’ll find previous versions, too – all of them are worth the investment. He subscribes to the great Sir Thomas Beecham’s dictum: “I like his three brothers – who all fought in the war, and all survived – had been brought up. While the letter itself is a surprise, the contents do not come as a shock to Pte Aplin’s son Ian, now 89, who was born in 1925. “My father did speak to me quite often about the Christmas Truce,” he recalls. “We were great friends, and often spoke about these things. As it turned out, he got wounded in the legs on March 6, 1915, and was brought back to Britain; when he had recovered from his wounds, he became a captain-adjutant, and was involved in the training of officers.” Heavenly music: choristers at King’s music with a tune.” But then most of us do, and John Rutter has been responsible, almost single-handedly, for ensuring that favourites such as Away in a Manger and God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen are given new Once the fighting was over, Pte Aplin started a milk round, pushing a cart around the streets of Tonbridge. Later, he set up a small chain of tea rooms. “They were called Aplin’s Tudor Cafés, and they were in Canterbury, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge,” says Michael. “They were the sort of place you would take your Aunt Mary for a nice lunch.” Over the years the family have regularly gone on battlefield tours, around Ypres and Cambrai, and are very proud to make the letters public, a century after they were written. But despite the uplifting experience of the 1914 Christmas Truce, and the memory of soldiers in silk hats riding bicycles up and down in full view of enemy guns, Pte Aplin’s letters do not shy away from the reality of the conflict. “I am afraid nobody at home can ever imagine what the real Tommy is enduring for them,” he writes. “Some of our trenches are now knee deep in water, and the Tommies sleep very little, but they still smile and are ready for anything. “Give my old pals at Axminster my kindest regards. Tell them I am still fit and well, and really must not complain.” arrangements to refresh them while they retain their intrinsic beauty. Over the next few days I shall be allowing this sweet music to wash over me and to put me in the right frame of mind for Christmas. The village church is just across the lane from our house and we can hear the carolers through the stained glass. Happily, when Christmas is over, there is still sufficient of Rutter’s music to enjoy, including an arrangement of what, for me, is the most powerful sentiment at any time of year. The words are from the Book of Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you: the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Just so. From me and mine, to you and yours, a very happy and peaceful Christmas.