HGW Wood Grant Schaw Miller Letter
20.8.18 Copy of A. Grant. Schaw Miller’s letter
Dear Mrs. Wood. I think you must have been expecting a letter from me, but I did not know your address, & the Times cutting only reached me yesterday, & found me too busy to do anything personal. Today I have a very kind letter from your son at the Admiralty. Of course when your naval son’s original letter reached me (through 1st my uncle & then my own home) with the awful news I at once thought of you, for I remember you very well & I, who knew Toby so well, can realise, at least to some extent, how terrible your loss is. I cannot bring myself to write just now how I regarded Toby, but I cannot refrain from saying that I had a very very great affection for him, & were it known what his death means to me, I think you would understand what I mean when I say that I thought of you 1st. I want you please to accept my great sympathy. I fear I am not expressing myself very well, & I do not think you will want to receive long letters just now, while surely it must be wrong for me to write about his qualities to you. But this I must say: you were I know proud of him before the war, & you must be doubly so now. As I wrote to Commander Wood, Toby must have been a glorious officer to serve with. How proud you must be of his D.S.O. I am so pleased about that. But it was his personality that I wanted to refer to – Toby’s influence at Peterhouse was all for good. I know that my friendship with him has been a godsend, & I know that I am a much better man, than I would have been [2] have been, had I never met him. I thank God that I had him for a friend, & now that I have the memory of a dearly loved one, who will never become dim, because his influence will last. Toby was my greatest friend. You must be happy in the one thought that he did not suffer. There must be many others, who were his friends & who must be feeling his loss & I must not presume to write to you at any greater length. But when I realised that this is the second son you have lost in the War, I felt very very deeply for you. Please accept of my very great sympathy & I hope that you are borne up by a very great pride, because in all truthfulness if anyone should be gloriously proud, it is you & Mr. Wood. Believe me, & please understand that despite this letter being badly expressed, I am wholly sincere in everything I have written.
I am,
Yours very sincerely
A. Grant SchawMiller