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Auction: 22002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 116

The letter written by the Prince of Wales to General Hobbs, following his visit over Christmas 1918

Single-page, double sided letter, written in ink, from the Headquarters of the Canadian Corps at Bonn, dated 8 January 1919, to General Hobbs from the Prince of Wales, in a well-aged envelope addressed 'Per D.R.L.S. Lt. Gen. Sir J. Talbot Hobbs K.C.B. Headquarters Australian Corps', signed 'Edward P' to the front and sealed with 'E' in wax to the reverse, with various franking marks, very fine and a most interesting insight

The contents of the letter as follows:

'My dear General,

I must send you a line to thank you again for all your kindness to me during my stay with the Australian Corps & to tell you how much I enjoyed my 3 1/2 weeks with you & how I hated having to leave you all yesterday!!

It was a very great pleasure to me to have this opportunity of seeing most of the units of the Corps in an unofficial way & to get to know so many Officers & to be able to talk to so many of the "Diggers" & I feel I have made a lot of friends.

Anyhow everybody was so kind & nice to me that they've made me feel I've got a lot of Australian friends; in fact you all spoilt me so. I'm very greatful for everything!

I had a good trip to Spa were I staye last night at Advanced HQ RAF & then flew over to Cologne this morning in a Bristol & landed at an aerodrome where an Australian Squad is & I met some of the Officers!!! I had a stroll in Cologne this afternoon which is a fine town tho. ugly from our point of view; the German population are thoroughly cowed & walk with their tails between their legs, how galling it must be for them to be ruled by us & to see our men walking about!!

There are no men in uniform tho. one sees alot of obviously recently demobilised soldiery; the women are easily the most revolting ugly crowd one ever set eyes on. I'm staying here 48hrs & then go up to Coblenz to 2nd American Army till Sunday when I return to Cologne; I will let you know about 3rd Div. later hope the Div. Arty is all right & that you'll get your well earned & much needed leave soon!! Marvellous roads here on the Rhine!!

Please forgive such a fearful scrawl but its late. Again all my grateful thanks for eveything & I remain yours sincerely.

Edward

PS I was so [underlined] pleased to be able to give all those Medals.'

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Sold for
£450

Starting price
£240