Monthly Archives: May 2016

May 26/16

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for 2 letters from you, one on Tuesday & one on Thursday. As usual two mails turned up next door to each other, a favourite trick these days, & then we go for about a fortnight without a mail at all. Your letters were dated April 26^th & May 3^rd, so one of them took best part of a month on the journey.

So glad dear old Nell had such good times at Delaford & that you all liked her so. I hear from you all & you all say such ripping things about her, that I don’t know how to thank you enough. She is rather a dear is’nt she. So she managed to get over to Godalming to have her photograph taken! She tells me they are quite good; I should think Adrian would make a very pretty picture of her. She told me all about her new clothes before she went; from all accounts they are very smart & becoming. Did Ruth go & stay with her I wonder? When’s she beginning at Guy’s by the way? I expect she’s started by now, but the holiday & rest at home must have done her a lot of good.

Poor old Topher, it is bad luck on him about his leave; it surely is time they gave everyone a whack of leave by now.

How’s specs these day? And how does he like conscription! I suppose he has been roped in with the rest of them. Few good things have been done by the government since the war began & this is certainly one of the best of them, though they’ve taken long enough this time about it. Yes, Kut was bad luck was’nt it & such bad management. However it’s no good criticising an effete and despicable system; I fancy the British public will not stand much more of this, & then the politicians will stew in their own juice.

Still very hot up here, though we get cool nights. Famine is rampant in Garhwal & Government is giving as much relief as possible, but I’m afraid the poor inhabitants are suffering terribly. I don’t know how the rest of India is faring but there has certainly been very little rain everywhere this year.

Fearful hurry to catch the mail, will write longer next time

Best love to all

from yr loving son

Ted

Tell Ben the bearer had a regatta in my room this morning. Just like old times, the whole place turned upside down!

I’ve not been able to find information about a famine in Garhwal in 1916. This suggests that famine is frequently under-recorded.

Karachi   May 25.

Dear Mother.   Many thanks for 2 letters one about April 27, & one May 3. I can’t think why you had never got the watch, those people should have arrived by the time you wrote. I wonder if Jim has got to the front yet, anyhow it’s nice to know he’s a useful officer & can’t be spared.

So you have at last got the garden opposite. Are you going to keep the bees. Has Susan’s nose turned pink then, it was quite black. What a shame it is Topher getting no leave yet, I do hope he gets some soon. Was’nt that Irish business rotten, & now I hear (as a matter of fact from Ramsay, tell the girls he’s been invalided from the Gulf but quite fit) that we ought to have been in Kut if it had not been for some foolish mistake. But you never know.

I am so sorry the dove is dead, I shall miss it when I get home again. I never sent the photograph as it was so rotten.

I played cricket for the military the other day & quite distinguished myself, 12 not out & caught a catch, a good one. A Capt Tate who knows James well made 94 for us. We declared on 220, & all but got the Civilians out for 125, the last man was in & the last over was being bowled, when the very last ball we all appealed confidently for l.b.w. If only the umpire had said out, we’d have won.

I enclose some snaps for my book.

Best love to all. Send me my photographs of Nan, Cicely, Bunchie & Sybil.

Yr loving son

Richard.

[written on envelope]

Many thanks for Bystander but the papers I like best are those weekly D. Sketches & Mirrors all bound in one. I do love the Serials so.

Karachi.

19^th May.

Dear Mother.

The mails seem just as groggy here as at home. I’ve not had your last mail letters yet. The mail does’nt get in till Monday 22, & those are the letters that left England April 28^th.

Nothing doing very exciting. We’ve had some of the people who were wounded & shut up in Kut. Very thin & delapidated poor things.

It gets hotter nowadays & if it were’nt for the breeze it would be as bad as Assam.

I wonder if poor Topher ever got any leave after all. I shall hope to hear how the Easter party went off in your next letter.

Best love to all. Too hot to write anymore.

Your loving son     Richard.

I am playing cricket tomorrow Military v Civil, I’m playing for the military of course.

Accounts of the Siege of Kut

• http://en.paperblog.com/book-review-the-siege-1969-russell-braddon-953422/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kut
• http://www.winkleighheroes.co.uk/level3/kutdeathmarch.htm

Disturbing photographs of starving prisoners from the Siege of Kut

• http://levantineheritage.com/prisoners.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kut#/media/File:Indian_army_soldier_after_siege_of_Kut.jpg

May 18/16

Dear Mother

No mail in since I last wrote; one is due on Monday I believe, & this is only Thursday so we have some time to wait yet. Still very hot & muggy up here, the little rain we had last week does’nt seem to have done much good. I see the monsoon is expected at Colombo shortly so we ought to be getting it in about a month from now.

I am longing to get the next mail as it should tell me about Nell & her stay at Delaford. She was hugely delighted at the prospect when she last wrote, and was evidently going to enjoy herself thoroughly. I do think it’s bad luck on old Topher not being able to get away on leave; every letter you write seems to say he was on the point of starting but was stopped at the last minute. He certainly ought to come home for a bit now.

I think I’ve got all letters and parcels you’ve sent out, except the Sussex ones, which I’m afraid we must put down as irretrievably lost now. The submarine campaign seems frightfully spasmodic; I suppose they launch a whole lot of new ones periodically which do a lot of damage for a bit, and eventually get rounded up. It must be difficult to get views of them I should think, as I should imagine the chances of coming through on a German submarine are very small.

I believe there is a tennis tournament on here, and various other so called festivities, but I am not moving in society much myself as I have very little time to do so, & not, I must say, much inclination.

There is absolutely nothing of interest to tell you I’m afraid, so this must be just a very dull letter this week. I’m very fit & well but I feel this weather is vy relaxing; Lansdowne never really suits me, & it seems worse this year. Everyone is the same, we all feel slack & unenergetic.

Love to all

from your loving son

Ted

Nell met all of Ted’s sisters on her visit to Delaford, presumably the first of many such visits.

Rosamund, Ben, Dreda, Nell, Spring 1916

Nell, Ruth, Dreda, Ben, Susan the dog,
Spring 1916

C/o Cox & Co

Karachi.

May 12.

My dear Mother

Many thanks for your letter. (April 19). I expect to hear next mail the gold watch has arrived. I expect that wretched book is in my despatch box which is locked & I have the key!

It is bad luck on Topher his leave was stopped. I hope the girls and all got home for that wkend.

I got the Cordwalles Chronicle alright. Most interesting & I also got a letter from Paul. Thank him when you write.

Jane also wrote saying she had seen Evelyn.

We are getting wounded in now & expect some from Kut soon.

Best love to all, sorry it’s so short a letter but I’ve left it so late

Yr loving son

Richard.

Siege of Kut al Amara

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