Oh, I love this. And I love the idea of Watson writing him letters this whole time and keeping them. Your descriptions of the hospital and the way you write the voice of the time is fantastic.

I confess, despite being an historian, I don't know much about WWI, so I'm not sure what "tody's news" might be. I know they were fighting the Battle of the Somme that whole summer, but was there something specific to which Watson is referring?