On 23 December 1915 The North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser for the Principality printed the contents of a letter Vernon's father had written to Lleyn Rural Council. It confirms that Thomas had gone to France to be with his son:
I note that at their last meeting the Council most kindly passed a resolution expressing their sympathy and wishing my son a speedy recovery from his wounds. Since then the Guardians have met, and through you have sent me a letter of condolence, which I most highly appreciate. It was a source of great comfort to me, and my son, to be in each other's company during his last days. Naturally, his chief wish was recovering to see Aberdaron - the dear old place, as he called it. But it has been willed otherwise, and he now sleeps with many of his brother officers out in foreign soil, for you will remember the opening lines of a stanza by Rupert Brooke, entitled, "The Soldier:"—
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.Yes, he went voluntarily at the call of duty, and has been offered a willing sacrifice on the altar of patriotism.
Mil gwell yw marw'n fachgen dewr,
Na byw yn fachgen llwfr.Please convey my heartfelt gratitude to the Council and Guardians for their kind words.
The lines in Welsh are from "I Blas Gogerddan" by the poet
John Ceiriog
Hughes
and I believe they can be paraphrased by:
"It is better for a young man to die bravely, / Than for that young man to live as a coward."