"All I Want Is Some Soap"

On the 4th March 1915, The Cambridgeshire Regiment lost it's first soldier to enemy action. 
In the trenches around Dickebusch, south-west of the town of Ypres, the 1st Cambridgeshire's were being sent up to the front line in a gradual programme of acclimatisation to get them ready to take over a section of the front line. 
As they entered the front line trenches, a German sniper shot Corporal Noble Dewey through the back. Gravely wounded, he was conveyed back to the village church; which had been converted into an impromptu hospital where he received medical aid. 
His wound however was serious, as the bullet had penetrated both lungs. Although still just able to talk with Major Saint who had accompanied him to the hospital, his condition deteriorated and he died a few hours later. The Great War had claimed its first Cambridgeshire soldier.
Dewey was a Cambridge man, a keen athlete and well respected member of the Regiment. In his last letter home to his mother, written on the 1st March, he wrote; "We are getting plenty of food of a sort, but when you are hungry anything will do. Hope you are all well. About the only thing I want is some soap, as they charge too much out here."
Noble was the first to fall, but he would not be the last. By the end of the conflict, the Great War would claim another 875 men of The Cambridgeshire Regiment.

With thanks to the excellent Cambridgeshire Regiment 1914-18 website:  
http://www.cambridgeshireregiment1914-18.co.uk/dewey.html

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