Somebody’s Pigstye
Somewhere in France
25.4.16
Dear Mother
Have just received a mail, including your letter of Feb 24th. Am glad the Xmas photos arrived. The other photos & coins will probably be there by now also the Maltese lace & silk. I hope they carried no germs on them. I got them in respectable French shops in Cairo & Ismailia so they should be alright. I was not surprised to hear that some of the goods sent from Egypt had spread disease. It beats me how the the troops had so little trouble from the different diseases. It is all over now & I think we are in a much healthier place. I found out all
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I could about Rob Cameron & you will have received my letters by now. It seems practically certain that he got either 1 or two bullet wounds in the leg & then took fever, of which he died. He was buried at Lemnos but of course there is no chance of our ever being there again now. Have told you about meeting the other W’side boys. I think they are all here. Mark Collins & Farrington are still in England I think. Your parcel & Ensigns have not come yet but the shift has delayed our mail & we are lucky to get the letters so soon. The chlorodyne will be handy stuff to have but medicine is a thing I have never required so far & it is eight months today since we arrived at Trentham.
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Today, 25th, is also “Anzac” day but we have had no celebration of any sort. As for news we have seen a lot but there is so little of an outstanding nature that it is difficult to know what to write about. We are now billeted out. Shifted last Sat. in a drizzling rain & carried our packs about 5 miles to a farm house & are now quartered in a sort of barn affair that was used for stabling pigs, cows etc. The pigs still claim the privilege of coming in when they feel inclined & carried off one man’s bag of biscuits & knocked down half the wall to get at our bread. About 2 am the roosters just through the wall give us a bit of a ditty, & the pigs, cows, dogs,
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& ducks keep things going merrily till b’fast time. For the first two days it rained & the thatched roof leaked badly, we had one blanket ea & a wet overcoat, & rations were decidedly short, however we were fairly happy. Since then the weather has cleared & we have had two lovely warm days & evenings and we can see quite a pleasant time ahead of us. There are lovely walks here. The country is undulating & there are light foliage trees all over the landscape & along the roads. Roads are narrow & winding & there are no fences along the sides of them. Yellow…
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cowslips, violets & a pretty white ranunculus (I think), with a flower like a small bush clematis, are growing all along the roadside. I’ll try to send you some ranunculus if I can get any of them up but I suppose it is a bad time to shift them. We have all been supplied with gas helmets for use during gas attacks & today we had a trial “attack”. The gas was turned into the trench & we walked along it quite unharmed. “Tear” shells are another weapon used here. They make the eyes smart & water but have no other effect. Altogether their various chemical attacks are now just about harmless as they can be counteracted.
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We are pretty certain of getting a trip to England but it might not be for some time. They are letting our Coy. go at the rate of one a day, but the old hands will probably get preference. The leave is for eight days. Of course a big move might upset the plan. At present we know little of our future movements but are having a very peaceful time here, we like the country very much & the people treat us well. Goodbye just now. Hope you are all well.
Love from
Len
