French handwriting on WWI card

[issi]

Thanks everyone, I already have the newspaper articles, but I really appreciate you posting them - if I hadn't  had them I'd be really over the moon right now 
His father, a journalist, at the request of the town council, went on to write the limited edition book "Todmorden and the Great War". Must have been hard for him to do.

Thank you for those who posted other links too, much appreciated 

A rough summary (I'm not an expert):
In terms of casualties, the Devonshires were particularly hard-hit. The British officialdom were determined to use gas (1st time for the Brits, the Germans had already used gas so it was 'ok' for us to do so)  and released it even though they were advised against it due to the prevailing conditions, by the Royal Engineers that had manufactured it. On release it hung around so our troops had to advance through it. Also the Germans were dug in deeper underground so it affected them less.

As it happens, my grandfather on the other side of my family tree was gassed when he transferred from the Red Cross to the Royal Engineers, Special Brigade in 1916(they were grabbing anyone with a chemistry background to work in the gas-making part of the army). The family tale is that it was an accident while carrying a gas cylinder (so not in action). Messed up his lungs for the rest of his life.

If you're interested in this side of the war I found "Chemical Soldiers: British Gas Warfare in World War I" by Donald Richter useful

[Andy J2022]

Yes, the use of chlorine gas was one of several errors made by the British during this attack which led to many lives being lost needlessly. However I doubt if Clarence was killed by the gas as his body would have remained intact and could have been recovered if that had been the case. I think it more likely that he was killed by the shelling, which again may have been from British guns as the coordination of the barrage was not good, or he was buried in a crater. The Sappers blew up two large mines under the forward German trenches in the early stages of the attack which destabilised the ground.