The Isle of Wight Observer published on 16th December 1854 contains a moving letter from a man on the front line in the Crimea – land still being fought over today.

Dear Friends, – I received your kind and welcome letter, and was glad to hear you were all well, and I am happy to say, at present, I am the same. Since I wrote to you last I have a little more to relate; our army has been engaged no less than three times, but I was only at the last battle, having been engaged on other duty on the previous occasion. The first two fights were nothing to be compared with the one I was in; the loss in our regiment alone, in killed and wounded, was 117, out of 310 that went out in the morning; this happened at daybreak, on the 5th of November. […] I had nothing to eat or drink for about 14 hours; my thirst was horrid. We were all in skirmishing order, and at times we had to run for our lives, being overnumbered by the enemy. Several times I wished myself dead, through over fatigue and weakness, with nothing in my inside; but, thank God, I got over it all without being hurt. The havoc committed by the cannon shot was a horrid sight to behold; I saw some with their heads blown off, some cut in two, and many other cases too numerous to mention at present, but I hope I shall be able to tell you all by word of mouth, sooner or later. […] I am writing this in a great hurry, having but little time to do it in. I forgot to tell you we have not received any pay since we left Turkey, and they won’t take money for the letters if we had it. I am very thankful to you for what you have done already. The times are very hard with us at present. We think it a great luxury if we get a wash once in two or three days, and lately we have had only every other night in the tent. I have been promoted to full corporal, and belong to No. 6 Company.
Yours truly, GEORGE CANN, Corporal.