Grandfather’s RMS Moldavia letter and more.

[Singlebill]

Happy holidays all! I have been meaning to share some items of my grandfather Pvt. George T. Singleton, Co. B, 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry, 4th Division. He died when I was very young (more about that later) and I came across these in my grandmother’s closet. Grandpa was a cook, but while being transported on the RMS Moldavia was torpedoed by the U-Boat UB-57 on May 23, 1918 off Beachy Head in the English Channel. Most of the 56 killed were in his company. As the attached letter shows, he survived, but was later shot in the wrist, gassed somewhere in France (I’ve tried to get his records, but most were lost in the St. Louis Records fire) He survived it all and returned to the states after months in a field hospital. The Red Cross bag contained several Stars and Stripes hospital edition papers, the carved peach pit monkey, and what looks to be an incomplete sweetheart ring. He was hit and killed by a Volkswagen while getting his mail in 1966. My dad used to say it took the Germans nearly 50 years to finish him off.