Stanley Booker wrote this letter to his mother in Bristol from Candahar Barracks on Salisbury Plain, the day before his battalion left for France. He wrote:

"If God wills I shall come back to you safe and sound; if I do not, why there is nothing hard in dying for a great cause, after all it is the cause that matters and not the life of this individual or that. I trust God will give me courage, patience and endurance in danger and hardship and I hope only to do my duty as an English gentleman; and these things are greater and worthier than long life or safety. So please be patient until I return again."

This was one of 54 letters Stanley Booker wrote to his mother while training as an officer and then serving at the front. A former pupil at Bristol Grammar School, his papers were deposited there and published in a book 'Mother Dear - Great War letters from a Bristol soldier', edited by Barry Williamson.