Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 22 November 1915 Letters 1916-1923 Emma Duffin

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Last page of this letter is missing (possibly not photographed). Assuming it is from Emma Duffin (1883 - 1979) to her mother, Maria Duffin (1854-1954) as it is sent from Egypt where Emma was serving as a V.A.D. at the time. Emma was the fourth daughter and fifth child of Adam and Maria Duffin's nine children. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College. Emma served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) during the First World War. She served initially in Egypt and was transferred to northern France just before the Battle of Somme, where she remained to the Armistice in 1918. On her return to Belfast, Emma worked as an illustrator of cards and books, including children’s stories written by her sister Ruth. This letter is part of a rich correspondence between various members of the Duffin family, a large prosperous family living in Strandtown, Belfast. Several family members served in the war, including Major Terence Duffin, who served as a staff officer with 107 Brigade, and later with Royal Irish Rifles; Major Charles G Duffin MC, Royal Field Artillery; and their sisters Emma, Celia and Dorothy who served as Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADS) in Egypt and France, and with the YMCA.

 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Duffin Papers, D2109/9/4/B/2 https://letters1916.ie/item/4119 English Emma Duffin 1915-11-22 Khedivial Hotel, Alexandria, Egypt Maria Duffin Dunowen, Belfast, Ireland Female 1979 Personal Relations World War I (1914-1918) Personal Relations

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 D2109/9/4/B Khedivial Hotel Alexandria Nov. 22/15 My dearest Mamma Your letter with the great news about Drosie& me from her herself arrived on the 20th. I am sure it isthe best thing that could happen to her, & it sounds very nice. I wasglad to details for she gave me really were. I know howanxious you & Papa will be until you see him. I hate to thinkthey may be married before I get home, as indeed they mostlikely will be, for all being well I have 5 months in front of mestill. I try hardly say, wheresome me to share the newswith, let me know when I may tell Molly! Let me have moredetails when you can, I presume he is not well off, but no one canexpect the that after this war. I am awfully glad about it,but we will all miss him a lot, won't we? I am very happybut there is no cause for your suspicions, the only me I havemet so far have all been married! Yesterday we gotpaid £15 up till the end of October all expenses of board etc.having been deducted, so that is pocket money to do what we like withwe nearly fainted with surprise, but it appears we get colonialallowance for active service of 3/— a day, and various other allowancestoo, this includes our time on the boat so we will not getquite so much next time but as far as I can see we will haveabout £10 a month free, so Papa's £10 will certainly not be D2109/9/4/B 2 required. I am awfully glad about it, for though Idon't mean to spend it all, still it is a pity not to have somecash to go about to see things & buy things which we might neverhave the chance of seeing & buying again. I must alsoacknowledge your £20, it is really splendid to have that, we wentout straight away & bought some books & papers, flowers &sweets, & the men were delighted. The Australians love, whatthey Call lollys, any form of sweets & they all delight inhaving flowers. Tell Mrs. Heyn I will spend her £1 on flowersand I know it will give the greatest pleasure to them. They aresuch fine men, great handsome fellows, & such nice manners they nearlyall tell you they have never been ill in their lives & it is difficultto persuade them they must stay in bed. One of them is nearly madwith delight because he is going to England, he has asked me again& again to persuade the doctor to send him, & Inow is firmly con—vinced that it was my doing, especially as Capt. Connor's familiarIrish manner makes them think that I am very great with him.I have just enticed our chambermaid on to the roof to take hisphotograph, unfortunately the minute he saw the camera, withmutterings & of gesticulations he fled to return in 2 minutes dressed inhis best clothes, red fez & all. I am afraid he will never allowme to take him in his housemaid's apron! I wish I coulddescribe all the things I see here. A funeral has just goneby below my window, the women wailing, & the men chanting, the coffin 3 has a little thing like a stove pipe in the end in which sits the dead man's Fez, or when it is a girl a white veil & wreath of flowers. The children here are sweet, such wonderful velvety brown eyes & such lashes, the better class children wear chiefly European clothes with the inevitable red Fez for the little boys, but the poor children wear bright picturesque clothes, are always dirty but look jolly & well fed. The women carry their babies stride legson their hips or their shoulders, & spring along often with a big bundle on their heads as well, but they have awful hijabs and generally hideous feet and ankles which they have no modesty about covering displaying. At night when we are waiting for the mule wagon, I see such pictures sometimes, a man in a white turban & a lovely green eau de nil garment rides past on a pure white mule with the moon behind him and a perfect sky, a woman all in black, withveiled, follows presently on a dark mule, andold man the colour of old mahogany goes all bent up with a gourdskin water bag on his back, & a little brass mug to give drinks, to children a boy & a girl, on donkeys with panniers & big shining tin water jars on each side, it is like living pictures, I never get tired of watching them. If I had only Ruth's gift of writing, I could write not one but 20 articles, I think of you shivering round the fire when I am basking in the sun! Think not a drop of rain since we came! I am as usual bursting with health & that reminds me, you asked about Celia! Well firstly I'm afraid she hasn't a chance for a new lot of V.A.D.s came lately. I think if anything they have more than they want, here anyway. It is very difficult to say, undoubtedly it doesn't suit some people, & a fair amount leave some home and one or two were very ill with enteric & dysentery, two died the first week we were here, on the other hand if it suits you 4 you are very well, it is not too hot now at all and as far as hardwork goes, she has stood that for 6 months already. It certainlyis the chance of a lifetime well this peace. I think a lot of illnessthough of course by no means all, is due to carelessness, one girl whosat by me at latte the other day, said gaily Oh I forgot to wash myhands since I left hospital, & it transpire that she had beenbathing enteric patients back, this I think not only disgustingbut madness. She has been ill, not I must admit with enteric, butdyre diahoerrea which has been so bad that she goes home to—morrow, still if she was as careless as I have that what can she expect.I have come to the conclusion that nursing like every other walkof life is a case of common sense. Sister Sargeantwho was the night superintendent sister, & whom I did not liketold one of my friends, that she had a great admiration forme & that she had to write a report of us as well as our ownsisters, & according to herself she gave me a most glowing one. Iwould love to see it! I thought her & soon latter eat! Shehas now been with 19th hospital where she BehandIt was she who asked me if I have engaged to him, I think Itold you about it! By the way, yesterday I went to see one of my friends Nell Ryland,such a nice girl who was had jaundice, she asked me if I could order her a tea service, the same as the one you gave mefor her sister in France, I said I knew you could do it withpleasure if they were who had. Could you please, get me,not a basket but one the same as mine, it is so convenienttell Mitchell to send it toMiss C. W. RylandV.A.D.13th General HospitalB.E.F.Nr. Boulogne France. Nell was most anxious to send the money, but I could notremember the exact price, so will you pay for it & let me Emma Duffin Letter from Emma Duffin to her sister Celia Duffin, 29 December 1915Letter from Emma Duffin to Maria Duffin, 5 February 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to Maria Duffin, 29 December 2015Letter from Emma Duffin to Celia Duffin, 15 January 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to her aunts, 9 January 1916, Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 5 March 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 27 March 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 22 November 1915 Maria Duffin Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 24 January 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, February 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to Maria Duffin, 5 February 1916Letter from Terence Duffin to Maria Duffin, March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 15 March 1916Letter from Dorothy to Maria Duffin, 25 March 1916Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 30 March 1916Letter from Terrence Duffin to his mother, Maria Duffin, 31 December 1915Letter from Emma Duffin to Maria Duffin, 29 December 2015Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 8 December 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to Adam Duffin, 9 December 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, January 1916Letter from Olive Duffin to Maria Duffin, circa 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 8 January 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 13 February 1916Letter from Terence Duffin to Maria Duffin, 29 February 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 6 February 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 9 January 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 27 February 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 14 February, 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria DuffinLetter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 19 March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria DuffinLetter from Emma Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 5 March 1916Letter from Dorothy to Maria Duffin, 22 March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 10 February 1916Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 31 July 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 27 March 1916Letter from Olive Duffin to Maria Duffin, 28 March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, April 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to her mother, 15 November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother, November 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 3 November 1915.From Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 9 April 1915Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 22 November 1915Letter from Terence Duffin to his mother Maria Duffin, 26 November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 8 November 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 26 November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Dorothy Duffin to Maria Duffin, 28 November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to Maria Duffin, 1 November 1915 Dunowen, Belfast, Ireland Letter from Helen Duffin to Celia Duffin, 22 December 1915Letter from Terence Duffin to Maria Duffin, March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria Duffin, 15 March 1916Letter from Helen Duffin to Celia Duffin, 16 March 1916Letter from Dorothy to Maria Duffin, 25 March 1916Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 30 March 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 13 February 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 9 January 1916Letter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 27 February 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria DuffinLetter from Maria Duffin to Celia Duffin, 19 March 1916Letter from Celia Duffin to Maria DuffinLetter from Emma Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 5 March 1916Letter from Dorothy to Maria Duffin, 22 March 1916Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, 31 July 1916Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 27 March 1916Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother, Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 22 November 1915Letter from Terence Duffin to his father Adam Duffin, 10 November 1915Letter from Terence Duffin to his mother Maria Duffin, 26 November 1915Letter from Olive Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, November 1915Letter from Adam Duffin to his daughter Dorothy Duffin, 7 November 1915Letter from Dorothy Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 8 November 1915Letter from Celia Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, November 1915 Khedivial Hotel, Alexandria, Egypt Letter from Emma Duffin to her mother Maria Duffin, 22 November 1915