30th. Same address
Dear Mother
Many thanks for your letter written 12th. Those fools at Marseilles never gave me several letters which you had written ages before. They only sent them on the other day. That lamp arrived & it is a Godsend. Just in the nick of time as I had actually that moment run out of candles. Thanks awfully for it. The glass was smashed but that does’nt matter & such elegant furniture would be rather out of place in a dug out.
I’ve left the billets now and am up with a party just behind the lines digging roads etc. How the girls will be amused to think that at last I am at the front. However it’s not very dangerous here, only an occasional shell goes over. Our guns all round make a lot of noise, & it’s a nuisance at night to have your candle put out by an extra big bang. One put the lamp out last night.
It’s absolutely rotten weather & the mud is awful. I shan’t be sorry when I go back again. I’d like some candles & a writing block about this size & some envelopes
Please thank Ben for her letter. I must try & get the Rouen one. Lots of letters arrived from Karachi forwarded. Best love to all.
Yr loving son
Richard
