The deep purple ribbon is as brightly coloured today as it was when it was carefully threaded through the delicate lattice pattern snipped into a notebook page more than a century ago. Taking care to keep it spotlessly clean, Private George Beveridge of A Company, 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, sat down in the battle-scarred fields of France to write to his beloved Gertie. It was July 2, 1916 – the second day of the Battle of the Somme – and he had already served two years away from his sweetheart. “Accept my best love and heaps of kisses,” he wrote, attaching a charming little sweetheart broch in the form of a regimental kilt and sporran to his letter, and signing off with 24 tiny kisses. “I am your ever fond sweetheart.”
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