Aust & N.Z.
Base Dêpot
Montevideo Camp
Weymouth
20/12/1915,
Dear Everybody,
Mail day again tomorrow which means that I must have this posted here this afternoon. It is now 11. A.M. & we are just in from a short route march, just something to keep the men together & to let them know exactly where they stand. I was extremely pleased to get more mail from home on Sat. morn, that is 18/12/1915. The first I have had for a fortnight, except one I received from Kate a few days before, which was written on 8th Aug. & addressed to Netley Hospital. Has been some time in catching me up hasn’t it. I also got one from Lottie dated 19th Oct. It came along in good time. Altogether the mails are not a bit punctual. Amongst those received on Sat. was one from Jessie written 19th Oct. same mail as Lotties yet it did not arrive here until a week later. One from the Children Cornation dated 22nd Oct, also a letter card from Annie dated 25th Labour Day. So you see how they are arriving. I am pleased indeed to hear that Kate is getting away with the Hospital ship,
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she will be much better on that than with any of the reinforcements. When I saw there was another ship coming I was wondering & hoping she would strike it, makes up for her former disappointments. She will be more or less settled there than she would be floating around in Egypt or Malta, or any of these places & much more healthy too. Regards work, I guarantee she will get plenty of that. I wonder what trips she will get, whether the boat will be carrying wounded from Dards to Alex. England, Malta, or whether they will be taking the wounded back to N.Z. It would be splendid if we were to meet somewhere in Egypt, quite on the cards if she were to go to Alex. for I somehow think she will call there before going anywhere else, never know your luck. I am thinking she will be well on her way somewhere at time of writing this. If I knew how to address her I would write a line to Alex. on the off chance of her reaching there. Hope to receive her address from you befor long. Striking these letters like this makes them very hard to answer, however in reply to yours of 19th Oct. Lottie, you were hoping it would catch me in Scotland & that I would still be enjoying myself. You must have forgotten to take into account that I was going back to the Peni some day, & that my furlough was up on 10 Nov. So that if I stayed in
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Scotland to the end of my furlough I would not be there when your letter was timed to arrive. In fact if right was right I should not be receiving it here in Weymouth. However here I am & I suppose lucky to be here, yet very reluctant to admit it. You were counting on the day that you were to leave Dunedin. How strange it is, that instead of it being 2 months & 5 days as it was when you wrote, it is now only 4 days. Yet it will be at least 6 weeks before you get this. I only hope you are at home, & having a real good holiday. Am wondering where you will be afterwards. The hope that I would meet Hutton has as you know, been fulfilled. Nurses Brown & Gibbons’ addresses I have taken a note of & dropped a line to the latter, may seen her in Alex. To M Brown I did not write a line, for I am afraid it is she who was reported to have gone down with that transport. I have received no word from anywhere to confirm my fears, but if they are correct it is too dreadful isn’t it. I do not know whether I ever mentioned this before or not, but if not it was not because I did not know about it, but because it slipped my memory. Yours of the 19th Jessie, & you wrote of the fact that it was just a year since you were travelling down from Dunedin, after having seen us off at Wellington. Time does fly indeed, & many things have happened since that memorable day in Wellington. I have often thought of our days there, some of our best, although we did not
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think so then. Am pleased to hear you enjoyed yourself up country. You spoke of Uncle Walker having relations in Nottingham, & that he was sorry he had not sent me their addresses, well so am I, very sorry indeed. While in Dundee I met a man Walker from Nottingham, he was staying at the same place as Mr Smith, & we had quite a good time. What a fool I was not to have inquired if he had any relations in N.Z. It never struck me until I read it in your letter. However I am at liberty to inquire from him yet. He is not in Dundee now, shifted to Aberdeen but comes down to Dundee now, for his week ends’, all the attractions is there! When writing Smith again I will get him to pop a few questions. You have managed to get Jack Hamilton away all-right, & had a big time over the party. If the war keeps going long enough the Thornburyites will get away yet. Fancy Percy & Bert stepping forward, they are a surprise packet indeed. Jacks present was quite a serviceable one, but much prefer the other sort myself. That reminds me I had mine stolen the other day, & had perforce to buy a new one, I regretted loosing it very much not because of the value of it, but it was a good one & good razors are extremely hard to get over here. I am glad to see the Children have not forgotten to write a line or two, it is just splendid getting their account of things, they remember many things that you all forget. I have Norman’s & Rolly’s at my hand now, written 22nd Oct. Rolly is evidently
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studying pretty hard, & seems to enjoy it. He well knows what a keen man Poley is for base-ball. Hope he did not suffer any more from the knock he got from the cricket ball. You may all tell Rolly that if we had moved up to time, his supposition re my peppering of the Turks when I received his letter, would have been quite correct. Next on the list is a note from Annie, I have it a bit mixed up, it came along with another letter, I think it must have been Jessies, because she speaks of having received wire from Kate telling you that she was to be home on the Sat. night. It is pretty hard to follow exactly what is happening when you get letters like this. However I am glad you got the notes from Aviemore & Rothiemurchus all right, also from Inverness. I can assure you I was very pleased when I read that you were sending something to the Hoopers for Xmas, they will appreciate it very much. I think I wrote saying they were coming down to Bournemouth for Xmas & that I was going to join them if I could get leave. Well, owing to their being no available room in Bournemouth they can not get now, except for Xmas day. They have asked me to join them for that, & I am going to do so if still here. It was absolutely out of the question for me to have gone along for any longer period, will not grant leave here, to anyone attached to a draft. Will not require any leave for Xmas day, will able to go over & back in the one day. Although it is now 20th we are not yet sure whether we are going or not before the 25th but it looks mighty like we are not.
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Am now up to Annie’s letter card written on 25th Oct, in which you state that the guns are off to Gore races. Incidentally I have the doings of the horses, set forth in Ruths of the 28th, lying beside me. With them it is a case of better luck next time. The fruit cake you wrote of, has not yet arrived, but am keeping a look out for it. Very kind of Wilkinson to remember me so, but I haven’t got anything for him today. Next on the list is Ruths & Kates of 28th & I think by the tone of it there must be some mail of mine floating around here somewhere. You write as if I knew all about Kate being chosen to go with the hospital ship, whereas I know nothing but what you have written in this one. Of letters from Rothie I don’t think I have missed any, but from Jeanie & Kate I am sure I have. However I suppose they will turn up some time. The three of you evidently enjoyed yourselves at Orepuki, despite the fact of the bad weather. How much I would like to see those two kiddies I had better not mention. What a thought, when will I see them again, perhaps sooner than we think, & perhaps not for many months to come. Fancy the old car breaking down, Kate you are the unlucky one.! Not too much of the smile Ruth, when I read of the Marshale visit, is it the first time they have been along since Kate & you were along there? You wrote of the Catholics not enlisting out there, I did not think that spirit had gone so far. It is simply awful the way
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they are holding back over here, absolutely dodging registering & everything else. They say that sedition in Ireland is rife, however I did not hear anything like that forom any of them that I have met, so had better say nothing. I did not understand before that the place where Eileen & Rothie are boarding is the same place as where Sgt Williams came from. I was sorry to hear he was so badly wounded, he was one of the best & senior N.C.O.s. He was in my troop for quite a long time when we first started, but owing to the fact of me having the two senior N.C.O.s of the regt. one had to go, & that is how I lost him. The other Sergt. was C English, & a fine young fellow too, he has been badly wounded also, permanently unfit I believe, he is over here in England somewhere, just wrote him a line the other day, but have not received a reply yet. Tell Eileen & Rolly to tell the Sergt. that I was asking for him, would like to get a line from him in fact. The cake toffee & socks which you have been kind enough to send along have not come to hand yet, neither has the present from Lizzie. However there is time enough for them yet, but am hoping they will turn up all right. As regards sending parcels it is a good idea not to make them too big, but the chief thing is to pack them well, for they get a pretty rough handling. I am rather dubious about them coming in the mail bag however small you
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make them. Would advise you to pack everything in the eating line in a tin & tie it up very securely, & then put it into a linnen bag with the name written on the bag in ink. Such things as socks want putting into something like that also, because if done up in brown paper & the address put on there, it invariably gets torn to pieces & consequently lost. As a matter of fact I just received today the two parcels sent off at different times. One I suppose that was to catch me for 19th Sept, arrived, at least I am thinking that that will be one of them. It has two pairs of socks & 4 blue & white handkerchiffs in it. All the paper had been torn off it, & it had been done up afresh at the base, & sent on here. Written on it was, “Arrived in a bad condition, done up by W J Johnston”. The other was one pair of socks, the paper being badly torn on it too. Now I am thinking that you sent some short-bread & cake with one of those parcels, so it must have been in the one that arrived in a bad condition. The socks & handkerchiefs will both come in very useful, & many thanks. Oh! Regarding the letter in the paper re War Contingent Assoc. written in Inverness, & signed an officer, your surmise was quite correct. I am glad you mentioned it, for I had forgotten all about it but wanted to know if it was ever published.
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A board of five officers, of which I was one, met the other day to decide what was to be done with the parcels belonging to deceased men, & of men returned to N.Z, that were accumulating here. What an insight it was, I am quite sure if our men had received all the things that had been sent out to them our list of sick men would have been very much smaller. Cake, short-bread chocolate & sweets of all kinds, we came across by the lbs, just the things we would have given pounds for. The chocolate & sweets when well packed, were in good condition, but very few of the cakes were any good, none of them were well packed, or not as well packed as they should have been. None of them were as well packed as that tin I got from you while in Egypt. There was a good deal of clothing also, it was all quite good, but was all badly done up, the paper in many cases torn right off it. The clothing is to be given to those men returning to the front, & the other stuff is to be given to the N.Z.s in the hospital here in Weymouth. I have got in with Lieut Rhodes down here, he is a cousin of the M.P. & Post Master General, a real fine fellow. We went over to the Bournemouth yesterday to see some of his relations, & enjoyed ourselves very much. Bournemouth is a very pretty town right on the south coast, & famed as a great watering place. I only wish we were encamped there rather
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than here, it would be much more pleasant & the surrounding country is very pretty, even in midwinter. The town reminds me very much of Dunedin, very irregular, hilly & plenty of trees. The people too seem to be of a better class than over here. When one gets over here & sees what some of these people really are, one does not wonder so much at the class distinction, really some of them are hopeless. We got rid of 63 officers & 117 N.C.O.s yesterday. About a week ago the War Office sent an urgent wire for 63 officers & 117 N.C.O.s to be held in readiness to embark immediately, the result being that we got this lot off yesterday. Where they are going we know not, do not even know from what port they will sail, suppose we will hear some day. We strongly suspect they have gone to Egypt, & the news we heard tonight, if true will rather confirm our suspicions; will refer to this news later. When this word re officers & N.C.O.s. came down I thought I would have a good chance of getting away, but was disappointed. The Maj. In charge of No 15 draft got Lieuts Tracy Rhodes & myself to remain behind with him to officer said draft, consequently here I am. When the matter was looked into afterwards, it was found that he had kept two mounted officers to officer a mixed draft of infantry & mountedmen. Net result is that I was posted to next draft in charge of N.Z.s. This draft had an Aust Maj in charge & an Aust Light Horse Capt. in charge of mounted section. The Capt. is a very slack customer, & after putting in the morning with him, I thought it was no place for me. At lunch time I moved round & got into
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No 17 draft which is being run by an NZ Maj. At present time I am in charge of all N.Z.s belonging to this draft, but tomorrow hope to have an infantry officer to take over infantry section. I do not think it will make much difference which draft I belong to, because I think we will all go together, at any rate I sincerely hope so, & it is the general opinion of everyone that we will. If not goodness only knows how much longer I will have to put in here. Now the news I referred to before is a cablegram stating that the Anzac position has been evacuated. This has just come to hand & we are not yet certain as to the truth of it. It has been accepted as highly probable, & also with very mingled feelings. The cablegram states that Anzac has been evacuated with insignificant losses. The latter part makes us doubt the truth of it, for we do not think it possible to come off there without loosing heavily. When we know at what cost, the mingled feelings will give way to that of perhaps relief. Until then it is impossible to say how it will be taken. I am quite sure if report is true, that is has not been done without very grave deliberation from both political & military points of view, & not without due consideration as to what the Dominions will think. One thing is almost certain & that is, that if they have come off there with small losses it will have been a greater feat than the landing. Now I have missed the mail this week, it is now getting pretty late at night being 9.30 by the watch, & this should have been posted 5 hours ago, I have been so busy
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that I was not able to get it written. So seeing that I have missed I will not close it till the morning, by which time there should be a bit more news. Oh! my photos have turned up at last, & I am sorry to say the full sized ones are absolute failures. As a consequence I will not be able to send one to as many as I wanted to do. I ordered a dozen, but only 6 of them are any good, & after giving two to the Hoopers I have only 4 to send on. I want you to send one to Orepuki one to Auckland, one to Cornation & the other is for Rothie. If I thought I had enough time, I would get more done, but it is too uncertain, & they have been very slow over the last lot, took me just a month to get them. Have seen a good deal of Geo Menzies since coming down, he was to have come along to my room to night, but I was so busy all day that I did not get along to see him. He is in splendid form except for his knee. He is expecting to get leave to go to Scotland for Xmas. Lucky beggar. I think if he gets away from here for Xmas he will not come back again, he will then be quite satisfied to go back to N.Z. He is the most disappointed man I have met yet, at not seeing more of the Peni, he would have given pounds to have his chance over again, reckons he would be a bit more careful. However he has done his share like a great many more, & should be content. Here it is Tues. night the 21st this is the first chance I have had of getting back to this. Well sure enough, the evacuation of Anzac is an established
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fact, & by all accounts as a great a feat of arms as the landing was. If they have come out of there with, as is stated, insignificant losses, it is indeed a blessing that they are out of it. For now that the Germans can get munitions & guns through, I believe they would have blown us out sooner or later. Of course Cape Helles is still held, no knowing whether they are going to leave there or not, but if not, there is no question but what they will receive a pretty hot time. Now that we are not likely to return to Anzac, it is highly probable that we will land in Egypt before going anywhere else, in fact almost certain. Am now preparing to enjoy my Xmas in camp, no likely-hood of being able to join the Hoopers, they are not coming to Bournemouth at all. So Cheerio & Au Rêvoir.
Your,
Affectionate Brother
E.S.McI
