Brittain, Vera, Diary, 2 January 1916

00000303-5.jpg
Description: 
Diary of Vera Brittain

Tabs

Case Study: 
From Youth to Experience: Vera Brittain’s Work for Peace in Two World Wars
Creator: 
Brittain, Vera
Source: 
diary
Date: 
2 January 1916
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Vera Brittain estate; McMaster University has a non-exclusive licence to publish this document.

Identifier: 
00000303-5
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image
Format: 
jpg
Transcript: 

took him. Colonel Harman was at the service, the first part of which was in the Church and the last part by the graveside. The Colonel says in his letter that as they carried his body out of the little church the sun came out & shone brilliantly. But all the same I cannot feel He is dead -- even though they talk about "His body". I remember I told him on the cliff at Lowestoft that if he died I should find it impossible to believe in his death. And when I think of that train journey to Buxton -- when I remember his closeness to me that Sunday evening on the cliff. I feel as if it will be impossible always. He lies beside Captain Rollason[?], the officer who was Mess President before him, who died of appendicitis in the summer, and of whom he said "It was a pity he could not die as a soldier when he had lived as one." And there they both lie together, the officer who did not die as a soldier, and that other who did. He had no Victorian Cross, but no one was ever worthier of one; of Him, at least, as one can say that His death, waste as it seems, was unworthy of his brilliant glorious morning of Life. Like a meteor He has flashed through our lives and gone gallantly to His early death, victor, in all this "jeunesse doré" of Suffering and Fear and Death - master to the end of Himself -
"La vie est vaine
Un peu d'amour
Un peu de haine
Et puis -- bonjour.
La rie est brêve --
Un peu d'espoir
Un peu de rêve,
Et puis -- bonsoir"
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Requiescat in Pace!
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