Lawrence Historical Society

From the Archives - Remembering Austin P. Carter

The Lawrence Township Historical Collection contains extracts of two letters written by Corporal William L. Thompson recounting Austin P. Carter’s death in 1918. Sadly, we do not have the original letters. Luckily, Roscoe Howell provided typed transcripts probably in the 1960s. One of the letters dated “Somewhere in France, Sept. 24th, 1918” was sent to Helen G. Howell, Roscoe’s younger sister. The other letter, undated, was to Thompson’s mother. His moving prose from the trenches befits the son of an English teacher.

William L. Thompson to Helen G. Howell, September 24, 1918

We all, all the fellows in our platoon liked Austin and used to do him favors like remembering him if there was anything extra to eat anytime, or bring him chocolate, if we found any in our wanderings away from camp. He was always glad to take along somebody’s canteen and fill it for him at the water cart, where ever it might be. That’s the kind of kid he was, always doing something for somebody. I called him a kid, for somehow he did seem younger than most of us; Perhaps because he didn’t drink, and was such a good boy. He was absolutely good. He read his New Testament often and I’m sure it had its effect upon him. In battle I think he would have been a good man, with nerve enough to use the bayonet, but he never had the chance to shed the blood of an enemy. He was killed by the explosion of the shell that burst a building into flames, outside which he lay asleep, as runner for an officer. I don’t think he suffered. He may never have waked up. I couldn’t see that he was wounded in the face or arms or legs, or anywhere for that matter, so the shock alone may have made his body unfit to live to him, and his spirit left it, and left his face relieved and calm, almost with a smile.

William L. Thompson to Grace Thompson [mother], undated

It was still dark when “Jerry” threw up such a Barrage that Sergeant Andrews called us back from the guns. We started and I smelled gas. Out went our masks, and in the dark I rounded up my men, and gave the command “follow me”, when a shell burst so close that the shock nearly made me fall. We jumped to our shelter and another shell hit a building a couple hundred yards in rear of us and put it to flames. Cries of “Help” were heard. Oh: that was a terrible thing, but I can’t say much about it. My bunkmate, Austin Carter, was lying outside the building as a runner and was killed. He is the Baker Basin boy. His father works the canal bridge, and lives in the white house by the bridge. He was a nice kid. Everybody kidded him and petted him. Brought him chocolates from afar because he hankered for it, and everybody liked him because he didn’t drink, and he did so want to get back home.

Who was William L. Thompson?

William L. Thompson’s father Daniel taught at the Lawrenceville School from 1904-1920 and was housemaster of Cleve House. William was about ten when his family moved to town. After graduating from the Lawrenceville School, William attended Amherst College where he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, one of the country’s oldest fraternities. According to his 1920 passport application, William’s “distinguishing marks” included glasses and the “letters ΔΚΕ branded on upper left” presumably arm.

William’s college years coincided with the Great War. Amherst’s president did not stress the doctrine of preparedness like most colleges at the time. But when the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, many students left to join up. Since William claimed a religious exemption on his draft card, he was clearly not as eager as some of his classmates. He graduated from Amherst College in the class of 1918. His senior year overlapped with the great American poet Robert Frost’s first year on the faculty.

William Thompson served in France from June 1918 to July 1919 as a corporal in the Headquarters Co. of the 309th Infantry assigned to the 78th Division. He wrote to Helen Howell that Austin Carter died before he got the chance to fight. When Carter was killed on September 17, 1918, few American soldiers had experienced combat yet. That would soon change when over one million American soldiers joined their allies in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on September 26. William’s letter was written just two days before the war’s final onslaught commenced.

After the war, William did not stay stateside for long. By spring he was back in France working as a clerk for American Express in Paris. It looks like he crossed the Atlantic for a ‘Mademoiselle’. About one month after he arrived, on June 12, 1920, William married Genevieve Rose Justine Salles in Montpellier, France. Nothing about their love story is known. William was one of thousands of American soldiers to wed their French sweethearts after the Great War.

William and Genevieve lived in France for several years and started a family. They moved to a suburb outside Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-1920s where he worked at a bank. By then William’s father was headmaster at the nearby Roxbury Latin School.

William L. Thompson’s (1894-1977) younger brothers became renowned professionals and educators. Daniel Varney Thompson (1902-1980) was a noted art historian and engineer, while Randall Thompson (1899-1984) was a choral composer most famous for Alleluia (1940), written after the Nazi invasion of France.