'I shall be home for Christmas': Heart-breaking final letter from soldier who never came back home alive

Britain: This is the heart-breaking letter sent home by a 21-year-old soldier who was serving with the British Medical Expeditionary Force in Gallipoli in World War One.

He was tragically killed in action just nine days after he sent his final letter - he never made it home.

The letter, written to his younger sister said that he was looking forward to having 'a jolly nice time' at Christmas, and enclosed a poppy picked from no man's land while snipers shot at him.

Private Charles P. Johnson promised that he would be home for Christmas, but his family never saw him again.

Here is the full transcript of the letter:

“My Dear Mamie,

Just a few lines to wish a you Many Happy Returns of the Day. I am sorry I cannot send you anything along, but I have picked a flower in the dead of night on that space between the trenches they call No Man's Land.

I hope you will treasure them. I was sniped at many a time, going out for them but with lying flat & crawling I managed to get them.

Never mind Mamie I shall be home for Christmas I hope we will have a jolly nice time.

I must close now

With heaps of love

Your affectionate brother

Charlie”

His parents Charles Herbert and Amy were left heartbroken by the early death of their only son. A letter sent to his mother from the War Office on 30th November 1915 said that she would receive four pounds, four shillings, and three pence (around £400 today) as settlement. Charles, who lived in Manchester, is buried at Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery in Gallipoli, Turkey.

His sister Mamie who the letter was written to became a school teacher and lived to the age 89, passing away in 1993.