My father was Harry Buttress of Osbaldwick. He grew up living at number 4 East Parade, York.

His father, Samuel, did not survive the First World War and the letters he wrote home were all the family had left of him, so were very precious.

Samuel told of his involvement in the Christmas truce but he did not mention football. What he did say was that he and the German he met showed each other pictures of their wives and families, and he was surprised his enemy was a nice ordinary family man like himself and not a monster as he had been led to believe.

The truce was not spoken about for may years as it was in military terms a disgraceful fraternisation and I understand the front-line troops had to be moved back.

Samuel died of pneumonia on his way home on leave in 1916 and is buried in Calais. His letters were buried with his wife. My grandmother was left a widow and became a housekeeper for the vicar of Heworth and as my father had a good singing voice he was in the church choir and hardly missed a service until he left home.

He was brought up by his elder sister, who taught him to read before he went to school, unusual for a pupil from a poor background.

His progress was encouraged by the vicar. He survived his early life to go on to grammar school and become a school master, councillor and magistrate, so it is a happier story than it might have been.

Hilary Wilson (neé Buttress), Appleby in Westmorland, Penrith, Cumbria.