Monthly Archives: April 2016

C/o Cox & Co

Karachi.

April 28.

My dear Mother.

I’ve had 3 letters from you one after the other, mails all funny I suppose. The first one came from Alex, you had written on Feb 17^th. The others, one just before you got my Bombay letter, & one just after which you sent direct to Karachi.

You might tell the Aquascutum people that my coat has arrived. Goodness knows where the boots are. If they left on March 8 for Alex they should be rolling up here soonish I should fancy. I never ran across Mr Harrison, we were’nt in Alex long enough. So Jim sold his mo-bike, I had’nt realised that.

You know I have the pills by now, but thank goodness June keeps very fit (tap wood) & awfully popular both with men & ladies. Everyone begs me to leave her with them if I go. Popular at all?

I am so glad Jim has his 2nd star, I must drop him a line. I think I’ll see if I cannot get my third now. I ought to easily.

I wonder if you’ve had Topher home lately, I hope so, & I hope he had plenty of money to have a good time. Wonder what Paul’s task is. Yes, you had told me Ruth was thinking of going to Guy’s.

Your weather does sound awful. Fancy us, never rains at all here, & you can arrange tennis & any old thing ages ahead knowing it will be all right.

How interesting that Cordwalles Chronicle must be. Send ’em 10/- for me. Did you ever send the head those old ones of yours to look at. Nice of ’em to mention our visit.

I do remember Read in B.A. How funny his marrying Joy Dolphin. I expect I’ll be hearing from Winnie soon. She owes me a letter.

The Bystander & L. Mail turn up alright & many thanks. Did you see in the London M, “Things we want to know”. Why does the sub on leave like spending his holiday at Bournemouth? I know! Ted says your mail to him was evidently lost in the Sussex, but mine were alright. Crowds of people had none. Luckily I sent your letter to me to Ted, so he got some news. We correspond quite frequently nowadays.

Many thanks for your Easter card, not so very late.

How funny old Kellie being so annoyed with me. Most amusing. I hope you told them that you all used to laugh just as much at me.

I dine out a good deal nowadays, as I suppose I am getting to know people. I hate it really as you never see anyone new. Last night we played rather an amusing game of cards, “Manners”. I expect the girls know it. When you ask for a card you say Please & if you get it you have to say “Thank you darling”. Of course you always forget & back you have to give it. Awful tommy rot really.

We are only just going to get patients in now. As a matter of fact the hospitals are only just ready, it’s been a business getting everything ship-shape.

Must write to Ben.

Best love to all

Your loving son

Richard.

Cordwalles School

http://www.stpirans.co.uk/stpirans/school-history/4

Probable derivation of “Manners”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_%28card_game%29

2^nd BATT. 39^th GARHWAL RIFLES

LANSDOWNE

U.P.

April 27^th 1916

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for 3 letters from you. Rather curious this week, we got 2 mails, 2 days running, I don’t quite know how it happened, but it was very nice especially as we had gone for a fortnight without mails owing to the “Sussex” show.

How cold & miserable it seems to have been lately at home, Nell says just the same down her way in Gloster. I got 9 letters from her in the 2 days! I also got all the Pink papers all correct & the weekly Times, thanks very much. Yes, are’nt the French magnificent at Verdun, and all the time our so-called Ministers are squabbling about conscription. Disgraceful is’nt it & they deserve to be hung. What must our allies think, who are putting all their strength into the war, and we are still debating whether we are to or not.

So glad Jim has got his second star, it will buck him up & it’s certainly time he got it. Any chance of his getting out to France soon? And old Topher coming home on leave is ripping of course, it’s quite time he did as he must have been having a rotten time. How ripping of old Stopford to have a talk with him, & you seem to have had quite an F.F with Mrs Stopford. Dick sent me on your letter last week, as I did’nt get any-

We are still very busy up here, & it’s rather hot & stuffy as we’ve had practically no rain lately. Pardon this horribly official looking paper but I am writing in office. Funny you saying Bud Fox is so like me; was he like me before ever? I don’t remember it.

I’m afraid I’ve been far too pushed again this week to write many letters, I really must get down to it on Sunday & try & polish some off. I heard from Kathleen Thompson yesterday, such a nice letter.

Will you please send one of my photographs – a Goldalming one, whichever you think best, side face perhaps – to Louie Fielding; you’d better order six, & send one to her & give one to Ruth as I believe I promised her one, & please send me the other 4.

No more for the present. I do hope these Zepps keep quiet for a bit.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Ted

FF was family slang, probably for Face to Face

Second star – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_%28British_Army_and_Royal_Marines%29

c/o Cox & Co

Karachi.

April 19.

Dear Mother.

Many thanks for your letter. Of course I knew you’d get no mail from me when you wrote as it was the mail I missed when sur la mer. Even then I doubted if I’d get yours as the Sussex sinking seems to have upset a good many letters, & very few people got home mail. Anyhow yours arrived & John Bull & the Tasmanian letter. What a house party you seem to have had the weekend before you wrote, but what a pity they all missed Bud & Bunchie. So funny he should be so like Ted. I remember Jane used to talk about Beres & Madge.

How nice for Topher Gen Stopford speaking to him during that inspection. There’s no one else to send a photograph to yet. Did I say Mrs Laws, Ben’s friend in Assam. She wants one. I don’t want them out here.

I am writing today from our new bungalow. Just moved in. I am sick of the hotel I was in & four of us have taken a bungalow. Two Majors, one a great friend of Ted’s, a Capt & myself. They all belong to No 1 I.G.H. so I have deserted my lot, however as I have this mo-bike I can get to the hospital alright; though a bit further away than the hotel was. We are not mealing here today, but shall start tomorrow. It’s so nicely furnished & near the sea, so we get all the breeze.

A good idea has just struck me. You remember Mrs Sparrow at St Hilda. Well Mrs Williams the boss is very ill, dead I expect, & has chucked it. Now I suggest you get Mrs Sparrow as a servant. She won’t want much, & I’m sure the work you’ve got for her to do is less than she had there, & she’d be a great help & a nice old thing too. She’d love to come where Susan is as she’s so fond of her & you & she would hit it off quite well! Ben I have told about it. If Mrs S is not at St Hilda, Mrs Kelly of 5 Wharncliffe Mansions, Bath, would know where she’s gone. Mind you get her now if poss, as she’ll work like blaizes & be no trouble.

I wrote to Ted today, he and I correspond occasionally, but he seems hard worked with his office.

June is very well & is here with me now, quite at home in the new house.

Best love to all

your loving son

Richard.

Richard’s high-handed insouciance about Mrs Sparrow and Mrs Williams in these rapidly written letters is breathtaking. 

General Stopford was the friend that Gertrude wrote to when she was asking for help with Jim’s commission – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Stopford

Madge was another family friend. Here Paul and Ted are flirting with her in 1910.

Paul Madge and Ted in 1910

April 19/16

Dear Mother

I’m afraid this week’s mail must have been lost in the Sussex, as none of us who have just come back have got any letters. All letters addressed direct here arrived all right, but all of us who had had our letters addressed c/o India office got nothing, so evidently the India office bag was lost. Is’nt it a shame; the papers said the mail was a very small one last week, as so many bags had been lost in the Sussex, but one sort of hoped that one’s own letters would roll up all right.

We are still very busy here; I have a little less office work thank goodness, but I have lots & lots of parade work, which I like far better & it’s out of doors anyhow which is a blessing. It’s awfully hot up here nowadays for some reason, & we’ve had no rain for months so the place is as dry as a bone. Today however we had a big sandstorm & now it is struggling to rain a bit; it’s gorgeous smelling the wet earth again. I wonder what it’s like at home now & whether you have done with snow at last.

There is no news to tell you. Things seem to be going very quietly up here & everyone working at top pressure. I wonder what they are going to do with us eventually & if they are going to keep us here now.

I have’nt heard from Dick lately, I wonder if he will be able to get an exchange with something he likes better. He seemed rather fed up last time he wrote.

Has old Nell been able to get up to Guildford to stay yet? Last time she wrote she said you had asked her but she could’nt go. I imagine you’ll have some difficulty in digging her out; she’d come like a shot but Pa & Ma I fancy will be rather silly about it. I do hope she manages it soon; she’s such an awful dear, & I want you to get to know her frightfully well. She was going strong when she last wrote; I’ve got a ripping enlarged photograph of her on my table. Any more news of Paul & Topher? I do hope the latter is having an easier time now. Must end up; this is a rotten letter; so sorry

Love to all yr loving son

Ted

C/o Cox & Co

Karachi.

April 14^th.

Dear Mother.

Very many thanks for your letter (March 15). I see you have no letter when you wrote & I daresay you got none the next time. I am wondering if you will be answering my letter from Bombay this mail or not. I’m afraid I’ll have to wait till next mail. I’m so glad you’ve been to see Jane & Chubbie & that Chubbie’s brother is pleased with his dog.

I got all the papers thanks very much, also that Tatler copy of funny pictures, I am quite popular from lending it round. Still very hot here & will get more so. I am moving into a bungalow soon I think with 3 others. At present I am in a hotel near the hospital. The bungalow is furthest away, but as I have this mo-bike it won’t matter so much.

We had the races on Monday & yesterday. It’s difficult to get a mount here as too many “pro” jockeys come up, & I am not well enough known. However I’ve had a couple, & rode a winner yesterday. It was’nt my fault I got a bad start, the starter shouted, & frightened my horse, who was very restive, & he turned clean round before I could stop him. Luckily I got him away at once & caught the others up very soon. I did’nt hurt myself when I fell off the first day, my fault for not seeing the saddle was properly put on. It was near the finish, but I could not have won or got even second anyhow, so it did’nt matter much. I’m sure Ben would have loved to have been there! I heard from Ted in Lansdowne, he’s very hard worked. Thank Ben for her letter if I don’t have time to write.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard.

Tell Topher I think I’m quite a good hurdle racer. I’ve not done much before.

Richard Berryman – (probably pre-war)

April 14th/16

Dear Mother   Very many thanks for your letter of March the 15^th. We got an English mail very unexpectedly last Sunday; they still seem very erratic. I believe there is another mail in in a day or so, probably the “Sussex” mails, or what is left of them so I don’t suppose we can expect very much.

Yes rather thanks, the weekly times rolls up regularly now up to time, and the Pink papers too are always very punctual. We do indeed seem to be losing our Kits rather frequently. I heard from the India office & they say the whole question of compensation for Kit lost in the Persia is “under consideration”, so I suppose we shall get something out of them eventually.

Never mind about the camera; keep it till I get home again; meanwhile I’ve got one to go on with, & all those films you sent me too, so I’ve got lots of stuff to use up. By the way, please let me know how much these films cost, & the attaché case, also the notebook Ben sent & I’ll send the price along. Tell Ben the notebook rolled up all right & is much admired & envied.

So glad Topher is so optimistic about the war; he ought to be in contact with current rumour certainly; anyhow it shows the right spirit is abroad in the army. What terrible fighting there is going on around Verdun. It’s ghastly to think of all those literal heaps of dead men; of course from the allies’ point of view nothing could be more favourable but it all seems such a useless waste of life somehow. On the other hand I think the German must be exterminated. He’s proved himself so utterly unworthy to be numbered among civilised races, & the things he has done should be so severely punished that nobody will ever dare do them again.

I think everything points to a fairly speedy finish now; I think they will collapse, and various influences will tend to make the war fizzle out sooner than is expected. Did you read about that terrible outbreak of typhus in a British prisoners’ camp in Germany & how all the German doctors fled & they pushed food through to these prisoners through the barbed wire for 8 months. Just imagine the cruelty & cowardice of it all, & the utter inhumanity displayed. They simply must be exterminated, or so crushed as never able to hold their heads up again.

Yes I got cheery letters from Jinny; she seems very pleased with her job. Nell too writes very happily, Mr Fielding has been very seedy lately, a weak heart, but he seems quite to have recovered now. I sent old Nell a lot of that Kashmir work, you know, table cloths & cushion covers, yesterday. A very poor selection as the man who came round selling them had nothing very nice on view.

Lovely up here now, but the place & the whole country in fact is badly in need of water. I am writing this before breakfast, as I find I can get so much more done then; 6 o’clock I get up, & I’m always quite ready to, as it’s no effort to get up on such lovely mornings. I sleep out in the verandah & it’s always lovely & fresh. We are still very busy and I generally have had quite enough by the end of the day, so that’s partly why I like to start the day as early as possible.

So glad to hear Ruth is getting her job at Guy’s; and I expect she’ll be glad to get away from Broadstairs & see planes & things. Where’s she going to live in London? I heard from Dick a day or two ago; he seems rather bored, but his motor bike should keep him occupied.

Must get up now

Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

I’m very fit & well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sussex

This is the news report Ted is probably referring to about German POW camps – http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58458

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_prisoners_of_war_in_Germany#Hygiene_and_illnesses