A letter written by a World War One officer from Falmouth just days before his death has been rediscovered by his granddaughter.

The letter from Captain William Cecil Holt Cree, which provided a graphic account of the Western Front in the early months of the war, was sent to relatives in Falmouth days before his death on October 22 1914, and published in London’s Globe newspaper on November 7 of that year.

His granddaughter Penelope Moore, who lives in Honiton, was recently given a copy of the published letter by her Cornish cousin Richard Hichens, a relative of Second World War hero Robert Hichens.

The introduction to the article, headlined ‘From the Front: In the trenches near the Aisne’, reads: “We publish the first portion of a long and interesting letter describing in graphic detail life in the trenches near the Aisne which has been received from a gallant officer, Captain Cecil Holt Cree, of the Royal Field Artillery, dated October 19. Three days later, to the deep regret of all who knew him, he was mortally wounded by a shell and died at Boulogne on the 24. He was buried at Falmouth on the 29, and the letter arrived on the following day.”

Penelope said her grandfather was an adjutant, and had the dangerous job of travelling around the front, making sure that his colonel’s orders were carried out.

She said: “It was really extraordinary, because he wrote that letter which is a very detailed account of what went on.”

In his letter, Cecil painted what he calls a “word picture” of the fighting near the Aisne, where trench warfare had begun in earnest in September.

He described the force and accuracy of the German artillery that British soldiers faced, often from hastily dug trenches which offered little protection, or while exposed on roads leading to the front line.

Talking about one bombardment, he wrote: “I was looking at two field batteries moving along a road a mile or two behind our ridge.

“Suddenly we heard that whirr changing into a whistling shriek that warns one that Black Maria [a slang term for an artillery shell]. Those of us on foot lay down, but the teams and mounted men coundn’t. It came and wiped out eight or ten horses, six men and an officer.”

He also described with admiration the work of stretcher bearers and the wounded men they carried in to shelter behind a hay stack.

He wrote of the “Spartan pluck” of “those poor devils” the wounded, and said “a burst of shrapnel would come, which over those makeshift trenches was all too deadly. As the smoke cleared one would see stretcher bearers bob up... as they were walking slowly along in the open with their burden, bang would go some more shells, but they ignored them.”

He also wrote of panicked men fleeing their trench after several close hits by enemy artillery, and said: I’ve seen through my glasses the German officers’ method of dealing with affairs of this sort. I think our method is nicer, and I believe more efficacious.”

In a second article from the Globe, Cecil described an attack in which German troops carrying a white flag and appeared to surrender before shots were fired.

He said: “At the first blast of fire we lost heavily, but in a very few seconds our fellows were down to it again, shooting as at Bisley.

“For two or three days after one could see from our trenches wounded Germans moving. One pitied them, as the dastardly act was their officers’ and did not originate with the men themselves.

“A fortnight after one of our patrols had to cross those turnips, and reported that they were full of German dead.”

Penelope said: “It made me feel incredibly close to someone I knew was there but didn’t know about until I got this letter.

“I think a lot of people are suddenly becoming aware of their ancestors 100 years ago.”