1 Dear Father Just had the news through Edmund
of Dorothy's engagement. I am most
awfully glad to hear of it and am
sure he will prove nice—I should
very much like to meet him but there
is no possibility of that. We are up here in the fighting
line once more and getting on well
though the heavy rain lately has
played havoc with our trenches—
many subsidiaries and endless
work keeping them under repair
and making them habitable — )
am sorry for the unfortunates who
have to spend their time constantly
standing in water or cold slush
up to their knees; and yet through
it all they keep cheerful and
in good health. Strangely
enough nearly all the casualties
we have are caused through
carelessness or rather callousness 2 men looking over the trenches
to see how things are going
on etc. It seems strange
that they have to be taught
how to take care of themselves. Our Hd. On is in a
small village about a mile
from the nearest trenches—
The village has been fairly
well shattered through shell
fire at different times.
We have our office and
2 rooms in one house and
the men and other rooms in
a house next door. My bed room is a bit
skew-eyed and most of the
windows gone and the room
next door is a complete waster —
a shell next door went clean
through it about 2 months
ago, knocking out both
walls and pretty well
making a muck of things 3 inside! We are all
perfectly comfortable nevertheless
and in a palace compared to
the poor souls in the trenches. We have a large cellar
to which we are able to fly when
they start shelling — so far
we have been left in peace! We come up here for a
spell and then are relieved by
another Brigade, when we
retire to another village farther
back till our tour of duty
comes round again— Everybody is at it hard in
both cases and there is no
time to stop and think, which
is really a blessing. my work up in their
part changes a bit.—
corrospondence still continues 4 but is varied by my having
to draw and deespatch to
the trenches each night what
they require in trench stores —
barbed wire, stakes, questionable reading
for any cuts. Corrugated iron
etc. The difficulty of
course is the supply which
is only a fraction of the demand
and the trouble is to apportion
it off equally to all. Every thing is wonderfully
systematic — I am in charge
of a Brigade workshop where
we keep 40 men employed
making everything we can deal
with to help men in the
trenches, floor boards,
fire slips, parts of dug
outs etc. The men now get a hot
bath nd change of clothes
when they come from the 5 trenches — They work it by seizing
any old barn or broken down
factory and make baths out
of barrels and tubs; hot water
is raised in many ingenious way
— in one place they still work
the stem boiler of a sugar
factory though to look at
the place outside you could
scarcely believe it as it has
been so much knocked about. I am getting a few papers
from Belfast for the men but could
swallow dozens more — we have
a small recreation room run
by a person in the rest &
I send most of them round
there. Tell Ruth her "whig"
arrives regularly. There is what they call a
Field Force Canteen near here where
we can buy additional luxuries
to add to our Government rations 6 so I am in no need of food
luxuries and find that I can now
get tobacco and cigarettes there. Glad to hear all goes well
at home and that you are still
getting some business through — We get a free of papers here but I scarcely even have
time to read them so know nothing
of what is going on and are
always glad of the summ—
aries in your letters I have been at work every
day so far from about 8AM till
11 P.M at night and just as
hard at all the time as I can
lay into it. Just received mothers letter
tonight dated the seventh for
which please thank her. My pockets are filling
with letters, mostly all unanswered
I fear — One of my many 7 jobs is making out warrants for
all officers and men of the Brigade
who go on leave — it is no small
task in itself as each warrant
requires two signatures and I
find it tantalising signing
warrants to Belfast and the North
of Ireland — However all who
go in have earned it 20
times over. Best love to all
from
Your own Terry P.S. I should be glad if my winter
flannels could be sent out. They are in a drawer in
my room
Ter