Monthly Archives: May 2015

May 9^th

Dear Mother

Just a line to say I have been very slightly wounded, by a shell, in the calf & wrist absolutely nothing, shall be out of hospital in 2 days. This is just so as if you see my name in the paper you need’nt be alarmed. Fit as a fiddle.

Ted

May 8^th/15

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your last letter. The weather now has indeed changed & last week in the trenches it was really quite hot, and almost like India at times! It was very thundery too, & one day we did actually have a thunderstorm- Today it is much cooler again with a lovely breeze.

All the country round here is a mass of orchards, so you can imagine how perfectly gorgeous they are all looking now, a mass of blossom. And the meadows all full of dandelions and cowslips, really too gorgeous for words; I feel I should just like to wander about in a place like this always, it is so eminently perfect. One can almost forget war and its attendant horrors, in fact I could hardly help doing so in such gorgeous surroundings, only there are a whole lot of guns round about here & they are constantly reminding us where we are and what we are doing. How lovely it must be at home now with all the trees and hedges coming out. I got the baccy all right yesterday, I think I told you, did’nt I? I hope so, as I try to write as often as I can.

Excuse this rather shabby paper, but I can find nothing else just for the present

I had a long letter from Jane yesterday, she seems to be enjoying herself with Dick all right- I’m so glad Jim is going to get a commission, I’m sure it’s the right thing to do. Please send me some soap, Coal Tar is the best I think. I don’t think there is anything else I want just at present. Best love to all, from your loving son

Ted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright%27s_Coal_Tar_Soap

May 7^th

Dear Mother

Just got your letter and the tobacco; thanks awfully. Most fearfully muggy here today & it’s just started to rain. No news; very fit. Had a long letter from Jane today

Love from

Ted

Order of St John of Jerusalem.
INDIAN SOLDIERS’ FUND.

6 May 15

Dear Mother

I wrote you a p.c. today & have been looking for it everywhere, as I find I have time now to write a letter & I thought I’d tear up the p.c. but it does’nt matter.

Who d’you think came to see us today, the Prince of Wales. Absolutely informal, he just strode in, exactly like his pictures, in that mackintosh with the collar turned up & rather a rakish hat. He was very ordinary & talked to us all in the mess & someone came in & tapped someone on the shoulder & said “the Prince of Wales is just outside”; & he really was of course, but this chap thinking he was rotting, turned round & said “well tell him to stay there!” However I don’t think the Prince heard. He’s an awful handful as he will want to go wandering about in the firing trenches & dangerous places like that.

Prince of Wales later Edward VIII c1915
(Source: Daily Mail)

So hot & muggy today, & very thundery too. Just met some fellows back from Ypres; they say these 17 inch shells of the Germans’ sound just like a motor ‘bus coming through the air, and make a hole 15 feet deep & 35 feet wide! One chap was standing by a gun & a huge shell burst right between his feet, & sent him sky high but did’nt wound him! but he collapsed from shock shortly afterwards, but will get all right they say-

I hear the Canadians did awfully well up there, as all the papers say; they were full of beans the whole time, & went again & again into action singing & shouting. Splendid they must have been.

Very late tonight so must finish up. We only came out of the trenches last night, & did’nt get in here till 3.30 a.m. & I got up at 7, so I am rather tired & sleepy as I have had a busy day. Very late, after 11 o’clock so I must go to bed

Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Regimental Diary

Muggy day. All B.O’s [British Officers?] went up to Rue du Bois during the day to reconnoitre the ground and trenches in the vicinity.

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales paid and informal visit to the Battalion during the afternoon. He just came in and was introduced to the British Officers and a few Native Officers. He asked the C.O. several questions concerning the regiment, and ask the C.O. to tell the Native Officers that he was very pleased to come and see them and congratulated them on the way the regiment had worked.

Col Drake-Brockman, writing after the War

On 6th May H.R.H the Prince of Wales paid the regiment an informal visit in its billets in a large farmhouse in Loretto Road. I brought him into our mess and introduced him to all British Officers and afterwards to the Garhwali Officers. He said some very nice, kind and appreciative words about the regiment and its work. He asked several questions about the men and regiment,a nd said how pleased he was to come and see us all and congratulate us on the splendid work the regiment had done. This visit “bucked” us all up very much, and the Garhwali ranks were ever so pleased with it. H.R.H. has the knack of saying things which are so much appreciated, and more especially so at such a time of stress that we were going through.

The Prince of Wales was later, briefly, Edward VIII, who married then abdicated the throne to marry Mrs Simpson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII#Prince_of_Wales

6^th May

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter & the cake, most welcome. Funny old Ben getting measles! I had a long letter from her today. Very muggy weather & thundery. All well here & I’m very fit & well.   Love from

Ted

May 5^th

Dear Mother

Just a line to say I’m very fit and well. We have been in these trenches 8 days now and are being relieved tonight thank goodness. It has been a bit wet lately & yesterday we had a thunderstorm; & today is very muggy again. Otherwise the weather has been perfectly lovely and really very hot.

Send me out one of those new absorbent cotton wool face masks, but I expect you have already done so. I’ve got a rotten wire one, but I think the other kind are better & easier to carry-

I got a whole bundle of papers this morning, including “the Boy’s Realm” which has been read with much gusto in the trenches-

Nothing much going on here nowadays; all the fun is going on up near Ypres apparently. We have got to bivouac tonight out in the open, I hope it stops raining by then. I wonder why they can’t find billets for us.

No more news

Tons of love

from yr loving son

Ted

Boys’ Realm – http://www.friardale.co.uk/Boys%20Realm/Boys%20Realm.htm

May 4^th

Dear Mother

Just a scrawl. No news; all serene and quiet here. We have been in these trenches just a week now, and I believe are being relieved tomorrow night.

It was ripping weather up till today when it began to rain & has made everything beastly & muddy now

The cake has nearly all been eaten now & was voted a complete success in our dugout; it was’nt a bit heavy but just right.

I see a book advertised called “The Indian Army ABC” by Captain Aliss; rhymes & pictures I think, published by Thacker @ 1/-; I thought it might be amusing, so could you send me one please.

Good north sea news I see by the paper; any news of Paul by the way.

Just had a whole lot of mouth organs sent to us! Imagine our men playing, they don’t know one note from another.

A packet of Pink’ uns etc has just come by post, looks like Jane’s writing; many thanks.

Post just off; the dugout is beginning to smell damp & fuggy, I shall be glad to get out of it tomorrow.

Love to all yr loving son

Ted

The Indian Army ABC scanned – http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/87039 –

Warning: this includes the n-word used in the the context of someone who is offensive because they show a lack of respect for “our Sepoys”, ie our soldiers. The booklet is racist, but it also shows the pride that the Indian Army officers had for their troops and the distaste they had for the more extreme racism of those British who had no experience of Indian soldiers. 

It’s naive to think of the Indian Army officers as not being racist: whatever their personal views, the army they held a comission in was structurally racist because it was impossible for an Indian to become a comissioned officer and because it enforced a racist imperial regime. However, the racism in the Indian Army had a certain paternalism to it and I am willing to speculate that in practice it may not have differed much from the class-divisions in the regular British Army with the ambiguities that implies. I suspect that things may have been different in the Imperial civil service, the diplomatic and the plantations.

“Pink ‘uns” are explained in the next letter.