LAST MESSAGES TO HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1917, Page 9

LAST MESSAGES TO HOME.

DYING LAD'S NOTE WRITTEN OA 1 BATTLEFIELD. "MY THOUGHTS ARE >OW FOR YOU ALL. ■ His List message homo as he lay wounded on (lie battlefield! Ail intensely human document., written by a dying soldier on the battlefield of Fraiie-. was that written by the late Private Thomas Heaton, of the Liverpool Reg!ment, a clerk employed in the advorlis-, ing department of Messrs. Huiton and Co., |of Manchester and London. His parents reside at 1-10, Lower Broughton Road, Lower Broughton, Manchester. At the outbreak of war he enlisted in the Liverpool Regiment. Last week, as 'Private Moores, of the Ist Newfoundland Regiment, was searching the battlefield, he found the dead body of Private Heaton, and hanging from the pocket was a note, evidently hurriedly written aa he lay wounded. This letter, which is authenticated by Lieutenant Nunns, a Huddersfleld mail now with the Newfoundland Regiment, and. Private "loores, of the Newfoundlands, reads:— "My dear Mother, Father, Sisters and Brothers,—The good God has willed it so that my existence in this life, like many another, should be ended suddenly unexpectedly, in the time when all is young and life offers unlimited means of enjoyment, and I want this last message to you to reach you, to snow that it does not find me unready to make the great sacrifice. IN THE GREAT BEYOND. "My last thoughts are for you all, well knowing that the decree will greatly upset yon, but remember—and I hope you will draw some consolation from it—that I am not the only one, nor you tne only parents, who have been called upon to make the great sacrifice. This, then, is what I want you to do—to bear the loss as bravely, quietly ind resignedly as yon possibly can. 1 myself will have the far easier task, and yon the more diliicult, but it is the will of Him above, and He knows best. You will remember the good old hymn, 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." "And, please, for your own sakes, try not to rail at His decision for us. as we are not the only ones to suffer. Perhaps God in his goodness, although He has denied the pleasure of meeting again on this earth, may in His unbounding mercy, grant us the greater pleasure to reunion in the great beyond. ..ith the greatest affection for you "'l, I leave you.—Your lovng son and InrUiei',