Yet another young member of the Sunderland Jewish community has laid down his life on the field of battle. Pte Lionel Bernstein, R.A.M.C. eldest son of Mr and Mrs Sam Bernstein, of 12 Mowbray Road, has died of wounds received while rescuing and assisting the wounded in the field. The sad news, conveyed by the Senior Jewish Chaplain to his heartbroken parents has spread a feeling of the keenest regret among all sections of our community. For Lionel Bernstein was one of the lads whom we all loved, whose growth and development and educational attainments we watched with the liveliest interest and with justifiable pride. Having successfully gone through the Bede Collegiate School and matriculated at London University, he interrupted his educational career about two years ago, as a lad of eighteen, in order to join the army as a member of the R.A.M.C. He was attached to a hospital in Woolwich as a dispenser, but he was not satisfied. He insisted on going out to France as a stretcher-bearer after qualifying himself for the work by a special examination.
He was a deeply religious lad, and as one of my best and most ambitious pupils he attained a high standard of knowledge of the Hebrew language and literature. Being of a genial disposition, always cheerful and smiling, he was loved by all who knew him. His letters from the Front were always worth reading, and in one of them in which he described to me a religious service conducted by one of the Jewish Chaplains, he sad: "We do not often have the chance of services or even of saying prayers, but still thoughts will come into our minds of higher import than the ordinary, and it just proves that although unfortunately we are leading an uncivilised life, our thoughts are always of the best and leading to a high ideal... It was fine to see once again the familiar type of face and to enter into very sane discussions appertaining to our faith."
Pte Bernstein alluded to the "rough time" which the "Sunderland Boys" are having at the Front, told me how grieved he was when he learned of the death of some of his chums and concluded by saying: "We can be well proud of our boys and at the end of the war I hope to see a Roll of Honour of all the boys from the old school." Alas he will not see it, but his name will be among the most honoured and loved on that Roll of Honour.