1 D2109/9/4/C 3rd London General Hospital Dec. 9th 1915 Dearest Papa Thank you so much for your letter and for
the nice packet of sweets, it was good of you to
send them. When are you going to have some
business in London? I should like to have a
glimpse of you again. My seven months will
soon be up now and all those who are not
signing on again have to give in their names be-
fore the 15th of this month. I think they should
give us a holiday in between, but see no chance
of getting one. We are now to get at least
£2 a month, (probably more) government allowance
which is over from our keep, as well as
an £20 pay, so I think we are very lucky
in that way, the advantage of being under
the war office, as I don't think ordinary
in civil hospitals get any pay at all, or very
little. 2 I am rather sick at being put on night duty
again, especially as I had to change my
rooms and move into a night house where I
don't know any of the nurses. Fortunately
my stable companion, a Miss Gosse, is a very
nice girl who has travelled about the
world a lot. This ward is full of Australians and New
Zealanders, nice big men, but much more
free and easy than the British tommy,
some of them have lived in the wild all
their lives, and they are all looking for-
ward to seeing snow for the first time.
They make me laugh sometimes, They have such queer
expressions and ways of putting things; one
has just asked me to put the block of
wood in that hole, meaning that he
wanted the door shut. Dinkum is a
great expression with them all, meaning
yes, really. Two of them here are
maoris and can talk to each other in
some unknown tongue. I have awful
trouble in getting them up in the mornings, as
they must be dressed and their beds made
when the day nurses come on, unless they
are bed patients. They try all sorts of tricks,
and pretend the doctor has ordered them
back to bed. To-night when I came on duty,
one of them would creep out of bed and
switch all the lights out, so that I had to grope
my way up the ward in the dark, and when
I got back to my seat again, out they all
went again. I am having my night off on Friday, so
I expect I shall go to Epsom and spend
the night there. Have you been playing any golf lately? not
if the weather is anything like what we have
here, it has been raining a lot. What do you think of the war news, it all
sounds rather depressing at present, but I
suppose we will struggle through in time.
The hospital is always warned when
zeppelins are expected, but they never seem 3 to arrive. Is it true that the Arsenal at
St. Petersburg had a German manager and
that it was blown up when war was de-
cl and the Russians left with practically
no ammunition? One hears such a lot of
stories. Emma seems to be enjoying the life at
Alexandria, perhaps we may be sent
abroad soon, but nobody knows any-
thing, and nobody seems to be able to give
you any information. I cook myself funny meals to keep myself
awake; to-night I have an egg and
tomatoes, and last night I fried potatoes
and found they tasted much better
straight from the pan. I hope you are keeping well this
winter and you throat isn't bothering you.
I have made horrid blots over this, but
I have to jump up every now and then. Best love, dearest Papa,
Ever your own Celia