May 23/17
Dear Mother
Very many thanks for your letter dated April 11th which I got today. Also the Pink Papers & the Sat: R which I have’nt had time to read yet. No news from here. We are still sitting here & have had no further word about our going on. It’s not unpleasant, hottish at midday, but we keep to our tents & so manage to keep coolish, but I should think the troops who have been fighting in all this heat of late with no shade & very little water must have had a very hard time & it makes their performance all the more wonderful.
Yes, bad luck old Nell could’nt manage to get up to Guildford for Easter; she was awful disappointed herself, but I hope she’ll manage to get up later. She writes this week to say that she’s free from measles.
Yes, I’m afraid I don’t profit much by the accelerated promotion in the I.A., as I don’t get 15 years in till August 1919! So unless the war goes on till then I can’t score by it, as it only lasts for the duration of the war; and I sincerely trust the war will be over long before then.
Dick & Topher seem to have had a hardish time lately, & I’m glad they are back in rest for a bit. I had a line from Jim at Singapore yesterday; he did’nt say much, but seemed quite pleased with the place. I think he always hankered after the East a bit.
The land krewst you say has come to nothing; I’m very sorry, as I’m sure it would do Dreda all the good in the world to get out of that old bank.
I dined with our new general last night. He has just come down from commanding his regiment in all their recent fighting, & has been promoted General to command our brigade. He was very pleasant & put one quite at ease in conversation, a thing some generals have’nt got the knack of at all.
Some of us – all officers from various regiments here – are getting up a pierrot troupe to give concerts to the various hospitals & depots here. We have been busily rehearsing today & hope to open on Monday this being Wednesday. We have rather fun, & some of the troupe are really 1st Class, especially the pianist who can play any blessed thing under the sun. They have made me stage manager, as I’m the senior in the troupe; you can imagine our difficulties, as we have very little music & each has to sort of dip into the past & rake up some songs he knew years ago, hum the tune over to the pianist, & then sing it!
We are going to be black & white pierrots; another difficulty there, as the arab tailors in the bazaar here are hardly up to making pierrot costumes unless one of us sits over them & watches every stitch! However I expect it will be all right on the night. If you could send me one or two George Robey albums, or those 1/- albums of the latest songs occasionally it might be useful, though heaven knows where we shall be when they come out, & by that time the troupe will be much scattered I expect, but we may have another one going.
Must catch the mail. I’m sure I’ve got some more letters to come, but our Brigade post office has only just arrived up here from Basrah so I expect things are a bit higgledy-piggledy at the present.
Love to all
yr loving son
Ted
Krewst was family slang for a jaunt or adventure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Robey
