No.3 London General Hospital
Trinity Road
Wandsworth S.W.
10/8/1915
Dear Everybody,
Here I am sitting up in bed, the hour being 7.30 A.M., & I am just waiting the morning meal. I am very pleased to be able to report progress in my general condition. It is just about six weeks since I left Penni, little did I think then that six weeks hence I would be stranded in a London Hospital. How much longer I am going to be here yet I am not quite sure, but am making a bid to get out at the end of the week, whether they will let me go or not remains to be seen. I have been up & walking about the room for a few days now, & yesterday took a taxi along with the two other fellows in this ward, up to Victoria St. to purchase a new kit. By Jove, if you could have seen us, I reckon we were the three hardest looking cases in the Streets that day. I went first to the N.Z: War Conting. Association offices, & was warmly welcomed, they could not do enough for me, & gave me all the information & advice I wanted & an invitation to return to their offices for anything I wanted; in short use them unreservedly for any information I required, as that was what they were there for.
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The Assoc has been responsible for opening a hospital at “Walton on Thames” for N.Z. soldiers, & for maintaining a convalescent home for officers at Brighton. The hospital at Walton is staffed by N.Z. nurses & doctors, have not been there yet, but intend, if all goes well to go along there this week. I am told by everybody who knows the place that it is a most beautiful spot, & that the building is most elaborately fitted up. Our soldiers are being much better looked after than the Aust. are. The Assoc, is very well organised & is in touch with all the wounded N.Z. in England, while on the other hand there are numbers of Aust who know nobody, & have never heard from their Association at all. These two officers in here have never heard a word from their Assoc, while I was hardly settled down before I had a letter from ours. Besides the convalescent home & hospital they have the names & addresses of people all over England & Scotland who have sent to them expressing their willingness to take convalescent N.Z. officers in as guests, & hoping that they will not be left out. There are quite a number of places where soldiers are able to go, in fact there is quite a out at these places now. Some people have gone so far as to establish a small hospital in their houses, staff it and run it at their own expense moneyed people of course. It is the Assoc that is responsible for keeping these places supplied with wounded.
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When I went to the High Comm office re new kit, I was agreeably surprised to find that I could draw on the Gove. to the extent of £20 to replace clothing lost. However I do not require that much but it will go very near it. So you will readily see that we have no cause to complain of the treatment that is being handed out to us. As for the hospital we are being treated like lords. When I was in Dunedin Jean Gillies gave me the address of a Mr R.R. Smith in Dundee, & they made me promise that I would go & see him. Well, I wrote him about a week ago, & received a very nice letter in reply. He was very pleased to hear from me & wants me to be sure & go & see him. He wrote to the effect that he expected to get some leave about the 23rd Aug. & that if I could arrange to go up about that time it would work in very nicely. On the other hand if I can not arrange it, it does not matter. However I think I will be able to fix it up all right, I may not be very good on my feet, but the interric is all right; it is only a matter of time & patience with me now to get up condition & strength. I am going to try a have a board this week, that is three medical officers inquire into the state of your health & decide how much furlough you are to have. If I can get that over this week, that is on the 14th. I intend to go to Greenich with this Lieut Leslie that is in this ward, his Aunt, that Mrs Hooper who has written you
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has asked the three of us to go down there for a week after we leave here, & I think Leslie & I will get out together. If we do of course it is there we will go, if we do not I can go to the Brighton convalescent home a the week prior to going to Scotland, or I can stay here. I intend to leave here on the morning of the 21st, & break the journey halfway just where that will be I have not yet decided. I am to get all the information I want on this matter from the N.Z. Assoc. I guess you will all reckon I am a lucky beggar, & so I am perhaps. Particularly when I leave here, I get a warrant for a return ticket to any part of Scotland I want to go to. Needless for me to say how much I or any of us appreciate how much is being done. When I leave for Scotland I will take with me from the N.Z. Assoc the addresses & a letter of introduction to, two Lady’s somebody, in Scotland, who are very anxious to have convalescent N.Z. officers as guests for as long a period as they like, & one of them added Southlander preferred. “What do you think of that now; stick you nose in that now!” Is that right Lottie? When I know their names I will let you know who they are. Oh!, before I forget, be sure & write to Mrs Hooper. They are the kindest people I think I have ever met. They have two sons fighting in France both officers, & they have just recently lost their eldest son. He was a doctor in one of the hospitals & died quite suddenly.
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I think I wrote & told you I had quite a number of photos of different views of Gallipoli. Well I have had these developed, & they are splendid, out of 24 films I have had done I have only two failures, & those two I did not take myself. I will send a print of each of them home with this letter & write on the back of each as usual what the view is. The photographer here who is developing & printing them for me, say he does not think he has ever seen better negatives than some of the ones I have got. I intend to try & sell some to the papers here, of course if I do I will take off a good number of prints before parting with the negative. This photographer, thought that the Kodak company would pay a good price for some of them as an advertisement. Unless they are prepared to give me a pretty good sum I am not prepared to part with them at all. For some of them are practically invaluable to me. When I left the Penni, all the lads that you are likely to know, were in great form. What has happened since then I can not say, for I have had never a word from there yet, but at the same time there has been very little doing out there, that I do not think there is much chance of anything happening to any of them. So far as we know, or can gather from the reports here, they have had a very quiet time on the whole of the Penni, a calm before a storm I should say. We know for certain that large numbers of reinforcements have been sent out from here. Also that the British are landing troops on the Asiatic side. Looks like something doing.
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I have had another visit from Mrs Raymond & one from Mr Raymond also. They have both been very nice, the old man in particular. They brought me along several Otago Witnesses among them the 9th of June number, giving of course the results of Dunedin races. As a consequence, must congratulate Mr Thos B. McIntyre of his double success, both of which seem to have been meritorious wins. When I saw the weights I expected the results. I am afraid Spanish Princess had a good bit more to carry than she had any right to in such company. On the other hand I thought Buller was very well treated the first day, & from the account of the race in the paper he seems to have had a pretty easy win. The second day I thought he was pretty harshly treated, & the fact he just home in the last few strides proves that it must have been a capital race, & that he was not so badly treated as he looked to be on paper. I also noticed that he was well down on the list of favourites. So I presume speculation was small. I think you might have had his photo taken Tom, after such a finish. Spanish Princess seemed to get the handicappers cold shoulder properly, for even after her loss the first day, he put her up a pound the second day. She seemed to be liked very much by the public, for if I remember right she went out 2nd favourite both days. The remarks in the paper were very complimentary indeed, better luck next time James.
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It is now Wed. the 11th & we are just finished a very fine dinner. When you used to write & tell me you were just sitting down to plums & cream you knew perfectly well how my teeth would water, but you did not think for one minute that I would be likely to sit down to the same kind of dish this season. We have had plums several times since we arrived over here, done up something similar to what we have them done at home. In fact the dishes at this place are got up very much the same as we have them in N.Z. I have been before the medical board, I have alread spoken in this epistle. It came on a few days sooner than I expected, however I do not suppose it affected the result materially. The upshot of the matter is that I have 3 months furlough dating from 2 o’clock today. It seems an awful time to be doing nothing when things are as they are, but they insisted on me having so long, so I suppose they know best. I asked them if I felt fit at the end of 2 months could I report for duty, but again I was blocked, it is a case of we give you 3 months furlough & you have to take it. Perhaps they are right in saying that it takes all that time for one to get over it properly, but I doubt it. I am now going to send a cable-gram on Friday, purport of which will be that I have 3 months furlough, & that I want you to address my letters to the N.Z. Record Office, Westminster Chambers, 13 Victoria St., London S.W. I want you to continue addressing them there until such time as I notify you by cable to address them elsewhere. By doing that there will never be any chance of me missing
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them. Even when I leave here it will not matter, It might be a bit longer in receiving them, but it is a case of better late than never. The postal authorities on the Penni are very lax about the mail, & should you continue sending them there, goodness only knows when I will get them, it is about 7 weeks since I had any last. However I know they are pretty safe for I made arrangments, about them before I left. When you get my cable I hope to goodness you will not go and imagine all sorts of rot, it is purely on that account that I have not sent one sooner. I thought if I left you in the dark until you got one of my letters there would be no harm done. However it is now over four weeks since I posted one at Malta, so that by the time you get my cable my letter ought to be only about a week off. We had a great trip round in a car today, the car was sent along by Miss Raymond, & I can tell you we had a real good spin, to say nothing of what we saw. The first place of note was Batersea Park, & magnificent big Park with gardens attached running for about a mile along the bank of the Thames. Turning out of the Park we crossed one of many bridges over the Thames, this one being Chelsea Bridge. This being Wed, of course it is a half holiday, & pleasure seekers were enjoying themselves on the Thames. Of course this season corresponds with our Christmas & New Year holidays, and as a consequence the Park was literally swarming with children, & I was rather surprised to see how healthy & well dressed they were. After what we read and heard about London, one would expect to see a good number
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of half starved & badly clothed children amongst them. However one has to remember that even after pushing that far towards the centre of the town, some 4 miles, further, one is still only in what is called West End. I suppose when we get right into the heart of the town proper we will see all these unwelcome sights. Next place of interest we passed was Buckingham, & sight one is not likely to forget, the statuory in front of the main entrance gate is wonderfully glorious, & beyond description. From here we first passed the Wellington barracks, where a number of soldiers were being drilled, & being put through musketry; in the same St we passed “Queen Ann Mansions”, the highest buildings in London, & very old looking. Next we came to, well the you know how famous Westminster Abbey, & Parliment house. Here are inside 20 acres, I suppose the most famous & renowned buildings in the world. To look at them one does not need a very great stretch of imagination to know how old they are, yet their very oldness lends them greater beauty. As we passed along the front of the Abbey, Parliment Buildings were looking us fair in the face, & Big Ben was on our left; by the way we can hear it striking from here, & it must be, as the crows fly, at least 4 or 5 miles away. From Big Ben we persue our course passing White Hall on our right, this is headquarters of the Horse Guards. Next we come to a huge archway built during King Edwards Reign & known as “King Edwards Arch”. Then we come to the wonderful memorial a huge column it is, the Nelson’s Memorial in
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Trafalgar Square. I have often heard of the height & size of this column, but never dreamt it was anything like what it is, it must be nearly 160ft. In passing out of Trafalgar Square we entered passed along Regent St, & what a St it is, everything here is an awful price, & it is the place to see the Lords & Lady’s doing their shopping. Out of this St we passed into Regent Park, & through the famous “Marble Arch”. Passing through the Arch we entered Hyde Park, & low what a sight. Again the mothers & children were in evidence, to say nothing of the military, of the beauty of the place, enough said. While passing through here we must have passed millions of chairs in under the trees, what they are wanted so close together for, I can not imagine, if they were scattered about in different places in the Park I could see some sense in it, but here they are just like the seats in the stalls of a theatre, about a mile in length & about 3 chains across. The orderly has just told us that during the London season these seats are all occupied, & that just over the fence from them is the street known as Park Lane. When we turned from Park Lane we ran along what is commonly called Rotten Row, & much to our amusement there was a couple of gents out exercising their horses, & really they could not ride for nuts. Persuing the same course we passed on our right the Albert Memorial, & straight opposite on our left Alber Hall, the best concert hall in London, seating accommodation for 12.000. From there we came straight home.
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Another day has dawned, it is now Frid. 12th , the hour is 11.20 A.M. & we are just awaiting the doctor, prior to going into the Army & Navy Stores for our new kits. We are rather elated this morn over the reports from Dards, the only thin that mars out pleasure is that we are placed in such a position that we have to read of these things instead of taking part in it. The N.Z. & Aust. have been up to their eyes in it, & have made marked progress. I bet the Otago Mtd. Regt. have been up to their eyes in it. This new landing that has taken place near Anz Ac. Cove is just on the left of our out-post position, you will see it if you look up the map in the Graphic I sent you. Where I marked the x indicating our position, the new landing would be just a little nearer the salt lake, or might even be in behind the high ground on which we have our position. A new division was to be landed about there somewhere, having as its objective, Mt. Mal.Tepe, I think that is the name, at any rate it is marked 9.71ft on the map. Whether our Regt. would remain in its present position & give covering fire to the division while it was advancing or whether it would have to advance further in & take some trenches about 300 yds in front, I am not quite sure, but either one or the other would be their lot, & a pretty severe one in either case. We are pretty sure to have another heavy casualty list both in Austs. & N.Z.s, as there has been a general along the whole line. According to reports we now hold in Anz Ac Cove 3 times as much as we did before. Well now I must again say Au rêvoir. Your Affectionate Brother E.S.Mc.I.
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I am afraid I had better not send photos this time because it will make the letter far to heavy. This is very heavy paper, & the postage regulations here are not as liberal as they are in N.Z. Over & above that I have not got any good prints taken off yet, they were to have been here today but the man has not arrived yet.
E.S
Oh! If any of you know Chris Gibbons whereabouts or address you could let me know she may be here in England or she may be out at Lemnos or even in Egypt for all I know. If she is in England I would like to see her.
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Send this back here Jess is at Otautau & has not seen it. Hope you are all well it is a great rain this morn but better than wind of yesterday.
Mary.
This was sent to Orepuki nothing to do with any body else
