The real story behind the 1914 Christmas truce

A previously unpublished letter written by a General on the day gives an insight into the truce
Soldiers sharing cigars, singing songs and walking about together in No-Man’s-Land on Christmas Day 1914 are some of the poignant scenes described in a rare, never seen before letter uncovered by Staffordshire County Council’s Archives Service.

In a letter to his wife, written on Christmas Day, General Walter Congreve VC explains the extraordinary circumstances around the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Congreve, who led the Rifles Brigade, was positioned at British Headquarters near Neuve Chapelle in Northern France. In his letter, he recalls how it was the Germans who had called for a day’s truce, which was agreed to when one of his men bravely came out of the trenches to agree to it.

Officers and men on both sides met in No-Man's Land where they shook hands and exchanged cigarettes and cigars. A British Captain is said to have talked with the German Colonel and “smoked a cigar with the best shot in the German army", a lad of no more than 18 years old.

In the letter, Congreve also talks of his reluctance to join in the truce himself, for fear of the Germans not being able to resist a shot at him because of his rank as a General. And, the talk of the trenches was of a game of football between the German and British soldiers taking place earlier that day further along the lines.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11271839/The-real-story-behind-the-1914-Christmas-truce.html

A specially commissioned stained glass window has been installed in Loretto School’s Chapel to commemorate one of its former teachers who was instrumental in the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Christmas Truce

Archibald Buchanan-Dunlop, a former pupil and teacher from the school, is to have a the stain glassed window unveiled to commemorate 100th anniversary of the Christmas truce on the western front.

The window depicts Dunlop shaking hands with his German counterpart Hauptmann Maximilian Freiherr (Baron) von Sinner- the commanding officer of the Machine-gun Company of the Prussian 6th Jäger Battalion, who was also involved in the Christmas Truce.

Just a couple of miles down the road in Musselburgh.