Author Archives: Ted Berryman

June 28/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks indeed for your two letters of May 10^th & 16^th which I got yesterday. Very nice of Mrs Bingley I’m sure to write to you about me; she’s awful nice, & was particularly kind to me in Delhi. I expect a letter from an independent source must mean a lot to you.

We’ve had a week of gales & dust since I last wrote. I think I must have told you that there is a special wind out here, which is supposed to blow for 40 days, commencing June or July. It serves to keep the air moving & affords considerable relief to the heat. It is known as the “Shamál” & blows from the N.W. This is generally acknowledged to be the Shamal which we have been getting lately. At times it reached almost the heights of a gale & blows with concentrated fury.

On these occasions it is accompanied by clouds of dust, which is so thick at times it is difficult to see 10 or 20 yards, but the dust is not perpetual of course, though there is always some in the air. It only gets as thick as that when it blows particularly hard, & other days the Shamal drops to a gentle breeze, and at times – today for instance – it does’nt blow at all, & up goes the temperature in consequence. Our thermometer has been showing 106° [41° Celsius] or thereabouts in our tent all this last week, dropping to 85° to 90º [29°-32° Celsius] or so at 6 p.m., & down to 79º [26° Celsius] at 5 a.m.

The temperature rises as soon as the sun gets up, & stays up till sunset. Today will be hotter I suppose as there is no breeze. I hate the dusty days, as everything gets covered in a thick layer of it, & it’s impossible to keep it out of one’s tent. Flies are not bad, nothing like as bad as they were in Basrah, thanks to good sanitation and I think it’s really too hot for them to be really lively. It’s 106º [41° Celsius] now at 11.30 a.m. & the hottest time is 2 in the afternoon, so I expect we are in for 112º or 113º [c 45° Celsius] today!

We are busy training still; work from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., then no parades are allowed – too hot – by order till 5 p.m. So we have lectures etc in huts, & the men bathe or sleep or mend their clothes (economy, “mend everything”, make everything last twice as long as you do generally, is our watch word out here) till it’s time to parade again. They are all as keen as mustard, & it has been a tremendous pride & pleasure to me to have been in command of the Battalion now for 2 months, short as the time is. I feel I have a slight say in the matter of its training, & I am prepared to stand or fall by its behaviour in action. I may say I have absolute confidence in it; but then that is only natural. I do hope I get a chance to command it in action – it would be a great opportunity, and if only the fates are kind I think I stand a good chance of doing so.

So glad you got my letters written on board & just after we had landed. I’m afraid the latter were full of ‘first impressions’, but they are the most lasting after all & generally most accurate.  I have’nt seen Desmond Gabb yet, but I suppose we shall all foregather at Baghdad sometime or other; I believe his regiment is on its way up now, & I expect we shall be going up very shortly. Meanwhile our stay here has been most fortunate, for the weather has been none too bad, we have a nice camp, & have been more or less on our own & have had no one to worry us.

Dent tells me his mother remembers you well; he evidently wrote home about it the same mail as I did. So glad to hear Dick & Topher are flourishing. The latter must be rather tired of roughing it, & he must feel the poor old 16th being cut up very much, he must have lost so many pals.

We don’t do much else besides work here; the Gunners next door gave some sports last week, which were quite good fun. We generally have a dip in the Tigris in the cool of the evening, & I go in to Amara about once a week to have a look round. Boats of all shapes & sorts & sizes are continually passing by up stream carrying stores & reinforcements up, & if forethought & organisation can beat the Turk, well we ought to have him cold. We are taking no chance this time I fancy.

Putting up the tennis net! Shocking, war time an’ no potatoes!! I expected every mail to hear that had gone the way of all spare land and had been dug up for agricultural purposes. I must say the papers make much more fuss about it than individuals, judging from your letters & what I hear from other fellows; but it’s serious enough I should imagine chiefly because it seems almost impossible to bring the very seriousness of the situation home to people with their high wages an’ all.

However the land news is good, & I fancy we have the Hun fairly ‘coopered’ on the west now. We have been making a series of small attacks everywhere to gain high ground & important points, preparatory, presumably, to making a great big push on a very wide front sooner or later. Russia appears to be going to see us through after all, & I’m right glad to see Tino out of it & I think Greece will bow to the inevitable now & give us no more trouble.

If only we could get America’s army into the field. Well they’ll come soon enough I’ve no doubt, & it’s men men men we want, & the allies have far greater & untouched reserves to draw on than Germany, who must be wasting all her reserve strength in furious & fruitless counter attacks.

That’s what we want – to kill Bosches day & night till none are left; it’s going to finish the war quicker than anything else. Our casualty lists are sadly long as you say, but however great the price it’s worth it besides it’s the duty of this generation to posterity & the world at large. Think what future generations would say of us if we failed now. It would only mean a far greater tragedy in years to come for them.

Best love to all. Ever yr loving son    Ted

I’m very fit & well, by the way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamal_%28wind%29

Boats of all shapes and sizes:

Uncaptioned boat and jetty – with the Garhwal Rifles in Mesopotamia (Iraq) early 1917

Uncaptioned Boatman, probably 1916 or 1917

Uncaptioned, from an album taken with the Garhwal Rifles in Mespot (Iraq) in 1917

June 13/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks indeed for your letter dated May 2^nd which I got yesterday. My dear, how we have all been laughing at the idea of Genl Maude getting a parcel with a pair of socks marked for me in them! A gorgeous idea I think; & my pals have all been ragging me, & all the troops will parade while I step forward & he hands them to me! As a matter of fact I don’t think any harm will be done & between you & me it’s just as well; you never know, even little things like that always help, & it may mean something to him if he ever hears my name again. No harm in being on sock-receiving terms with the G.O.C! tho’ I expect his A.D.C. will have most to do with it.

I’m so awfully sorry to hear about your bag & purse being stolen; rotten luck, & I know how you hate anything like that, especially as you say you lost one or two litte treasures in it. I lost my ring for 3 days the other day. I was bathing in the river & had taken my ring off & put it on the bank, under a tuft of grass; I forgot it when I came out but remembered it about 20 mins: later & went to get it but it had gone. One or two Arabs & people had been known to go by, & a thorough search revealed nothing, so I thought they must have spotted it & bagged it.

Next day I & some of the men had a thorough search, but with no results, & next morning while I was dressing my orderly brings it in to me! It appears, as Capon would say, one of our regimental police walking along there saw it quite by chance, & picked it up, thinking, he said, it was brass! & so kept it. He happened to show it to some pals, & one of them had heard about my losing my ring, so he came along & gave it to my orderly at once. Was’nt it lucky. Very silly of me of course to put it there, but it’s always a bit loose when my fingers are wet. I was most awfully distressed at the time & it quite worried me, & I was most frightfully pleased to get it back again.

Poor Capon sounds very ill, I do hope the baths will do him good. I should like to subscribe towards his treatment, if you’ll let me know about it, as he has always done me pretty well when I’ve been at home.

Hottish now, every day, & yesterday & today a high hot wind. But we must expect hot weather now, middle of June an’ all, though I believe July & August are the hottest months, but everyone seems to have different opinions on the subject.

Thank you for the cutting from the paper about the Indian Army; most interesting, & though it all seems so long ago now, still it’s nice to know one’s little bit has not been forgotten. I suppose things were rather bad just then.

Yes, I’ve promised to be godfather to Dolly Dawson’s son, but I’m afraid they won’t get my letter anything like in time, but Ben tells me they are taking it for granted I shall agree.

Very little news here. They have made me a Major now, from April 8^th. It’s acting rank only, but with pay as a major. It’s because I am – or was then – 2nd in command, and on field service they give you the acting rank of major when 2nd in command (if you are not one already) & full pay as such, very nice. But when the war stops, or if I leave the rgt: for any reason, sick wounded or go to a job, then I drop the rank & revert to captain; & my successor in the job gets the rank & pay, after waiting 15 days from the date of the vacancy. That’s why I had to wait till April 8^th, 15 days after sailing from India. Previous to that I had been 2nd-in-command since last september, but as we were not on F.S. no promotion was admissible, see?

Things are going well in the west, but Russian affairs seem very shaky don’t they. And I’m afraid you’re not having very cheery times as regards food in England now, but I think the nation is playing up on the whole, & it won’t last very long now, & we’ll soon all be back on full rations again.

Best love to all

ever yr loving son

Ted

More of Ted’s photos. After adding these to this letter I checked the original albums and saw some of the photos were captioned and appear to have been taken in Egypt in 1916 instead of Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1917. I’ve left them with this letter and updated the captions accordingly.

Un-captioned 
but probably a camp at Ain Musa with the Gulf of Suez in the background – the Garhwal Rifles in Egypt in 1916

“Camp at Ain Musa: Gulf of Suez in Background” – with the Garhwal Rifles in 1916

Ted took a couple of photographs of the mule lines – one can see why

“Mule Lines” – Mesopotamia (Iraq) 1917

June 6/17

Dear Mother

No mail in yet, & I hear too they are starting a bi-weekly mail from India, though I think bi-weekly means twice a week, does’nt it? I really forget! Anyhow I mean the mail is going to leave India for home only twice a month in future, every other week in fact, so heaven alone knows when our letters will reach you.

I last wrote on 31^st. Nothing much has happened since then. We gave 3 concerts last week, calling ourselves the Pipsqueaks. They all went off very well, but I find that I have’nt got time to worry about these things so I’ve chucked it. You see we are in camp 2 miles up stream, and it means a long journey in to the Club for rehearsals, in the heat of the day too, or else a long journey down after dinner & a hopelessly late bed-going, & these days of getting up at 4.30 it’s not good enough. It’s the getting back is so hard, upstream against the current in a bellum is almost impossible, besides bellums won’t run at night, so one is done in.

Fortunately last week I managed to cadge a car one night, as I couldn’t get across the river, all bellums being in bed & the bridge of boats being open to allow river traffic to pass. You see our camp is on the other side as well as being 2 miles away. So I got this old car, & went a huge long way round over another bridge much lower down & home that way, 5 or 6 miles, which I should have had to have walked otherwise. Next night I managed to cadge a launch home, but one can’t go on doing that. Besides I’m really much too busy to take on the job: so you need’nt worry about sending any songs. It was quite good fun while it lasted, & I got to know a good few people through it.

Hellish hot here nowadays, it’s been up to 113° [45° Celsius] in our tents, but the last 2 days have been much cooler, & last night was positively cold the thermometer dropping right down to 74 [23° Celsius] at 5 this morning. I generally have a dip in the Tigris in the morning, & we all bathe again in the evening. The current is fearfully strong & carries you right down, however much you try & swim against it, but it’s great fun & very refreshing. We have managed to bag a bit of board & are putting up a diving-board today.

There are some lovely walks along the river here, through most gorgeous date groves, with willows all growing alongside the river. And pomegranate trees with the fruit just ripening now & their lovely scarlet flowers. Funny little Arab children play around the villages, & the gardens are deliciously untidy, but lovely & cool & green. Melons and a sort of pumpkin-like vegetable grow here, and all sorts of weeds & creepers; & yesterday we were walking along & found real live English Blackberries, which of course took us straight home to England.

They water their melons & dates by curious old wells, & Persian wheels, where tins are attached to a wheel which revolves in the water, worked by a very rickety old horse who walks around a very Heath-Robinson contrivance, consisting of home-made cog wheels and creaking axles. But it seems to work all right, & I must really try & photograph it one day for you.

We are very comfy in our camp, & dinner on the river front is a perpetual delight, especially nowadays when there is a moon. You would hardly think you were in a much-abused Mesopotamia if you were suddenly dumped down in the mess at dinner, with the gramaphone playing, iced drinks, & a fresh breeze blowing, and the old Tigris flowing by looking ripping in the moonlight. But I expect our strenuous days are to come; meanwhile we are living really very comfortably, except on days when sand and dust are about, which, I may add, is nearly always. Our last 2 days here have been ghastly in that respect.

Hope you’re all right at home, food an’ all. I don’t like these air raids, & I think the invasion scare is no bogey but a very possible reality

Best love to all   yr loving son

Ted

Ted was always fond of children, and I attached this photograph to this post assuming they were connected. It was only after I went back to the album that I saw the caption and realised I should have posted it in one of his 1916 letters from Egypt. The caption is heart-breaking.

Captioned ‘Armenian Refugees Port Said’ – Egypt 1916

Paintings of bellams in book of 1920

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18031/18031-h/18031-h.htm#OLD_WORLD

Persian wheel

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

31st May 17.

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter which I got yesterday dated 18th April. I hear it has been officially given out in India that from the 1st June the homeward mail will only leave once a fortnight, so I’m afraid that’ll affect letters from me too. However I expect it won’t be for long, & they will soon go back to the weekly mail.

Two days ago we moved camp, 2 miles further up the river, as they thought our other site was too crowded. You should have seen the dust on the day we moved! A strongish wind was blowing right through camp, & there was a good deal of traffic moving about, especially our transport, & it was just like a thick choking fog. There are no real roads round here of course, only desert tracks which everyone – animals, pedestrians, & transport – follows, & in consequence they are pounded into fine powdery dust, 8 or 9 inches deep, & even a man walking wll raise simply clouds of it.

Our new camp is in a palm grove, & runs down to the river bank, rather nice. We have made a sort of terrace place on the bank, with a mud wall & a hard floor, & there we sit in the cool of the evening & have dinner. Just now it is lovely, as there is a moon, & it’s ripping to sit there after dinner after the heat of the day, & watch the Tigris roll past. All day long paddle boats and all the usual vessels pass by, quite close, as the river here is only 200 yards wide. The opposite bank is lovely & green, with reeds & willows growing all along it, & it makes such a pleasant contrast to the desert this side beyond our camp. I had a bathe yesterday; very pleasant in a way, but the current is very strong, & the bottom frightfully muddy, you sink up to your knees in places which I simply hate!

We are running high temperatures now, 110° [43° Celsius] at 2 in the afternoon, & 103 [39° Celsius] or so at 6 in the evening, & then the gorgeous drop into the 80’s [26°+ Celsius] at night & early morning, a priceless blessing. We are lucky in having had a breeze, or rather a wind, since we’ve been here, which does not lower the temperature much, but at least keeps the air moving.

Did I thank you for the parcel you sent? It arrived quite safely, at least it was all smashed, & came in a huge sack all by itself; I thought I had got a special mail bag all to myself! However no damage had been done, & some gorgeous things came out – acid drops, cocoa tablets, water sterilizing tablets, quinine & aspirin, and some solidified eau-de-cologne, which was rather tired when it arrived, though it retained a semblance of solidity; during the last 2 days however it has entirely given up the struggle and has reverted to its liquid state! I’m afraid those solidified things are no go in these temperatures. Anyhow the parcel was most welcome & thanks most awfully for it.

Yes the news has been odd lately, & I expect we shall hear of some more advances in the near future. Certainly the military critics in all the papers are very sanguine & I’ve never read such optimistic comments for many days. They are generally so cautious & unwilling to commit themselves, but in last week’s paper they fairly let themselves go & talked of “crushing defeats” & retreating Germans and all sorts of refreshing happenings.

Our concert went off all right on Monday; personally I think a little more “working up” was required, as a pierrot show wants a lot of that, as you well know. But all the members of the “Pip-squeaks” as we called ourselves were very lack-a-daisical & took things & rehearsals very easily, on the “it’ll be all right on the night” principle; however, the sick & wounded Tommies & Nurses at the hospital certainly laughed & cheered, & the bosses were most embarrassingly grateful at the end, so I suppose it went off all right. We are “showing” again tomorrow night at another hospital, & on Saturday at the Y.M.C.A.

I am writing at 6 a.m. nice & cool, though directly the sun gets up over the horizon he’s red hot, & stays so till he sets! I see you have started summer time again. But what a winter! Snow right up to April! The longest I hear since 1066! I am delighted to hear of Babs’ engagement, & I will certainly write. I know Jack Houghton of course well & I always thought he was such a good chap. Is’nt he in one of the Battns: of the Leicesters & was’nt he wounded in 1915? I seem to remember something about it.

Yes I saw that ghastly description of the Germans melting down their dead, & it makes the most ghastly reading I think; how uncouth & ghoulish it all sounds, it seems hopeless to consider such people as rulers of this fair earth; however they won’t be so it does’nt matter much. I wonder what their next outrage against humanity will be; cannibalism or something equally repulsive, for really one can believe anything after reading their latest horrors.

So sorry to hear about Mrs Fox. But you told me last week I think that she was very ill.

No more for the present

Best love to all-

yr loving son      Ted.

British propaganda on Germans melting bodies

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

I added these images to this letter because I thought they might be the camp by the palm grove. When I checked the original album, I noticed that they are captioned, though not in Ted’s writing, and were probably taken in Egypt early in 1916 not in Mespot in 1917. I am annoyed with myself and have now updated the captions. I should go back and add the pictures to the relevant letters from 1916. 

“Bedouin dwellings, used as a mess, Ain Musa” – 1916

“Moses’ Well” – 1916

May 23/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter dated April 11^th 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

May 9th/17         Wednesday         Amara.

Dear Mother

I wrote you a hurried scrawl on Saturday – in bed I think- hoping to catch the mail in time to tell you of our move up here, but whether the special messenger I despatched arrived in time or not I cannot say. Anyhow we were ordered to move up here at very short notice, 24 hours, and some of us have already arrived as you see, & the rest of the regiment is arriving in bits later on.

We embarked on a river steamer at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning & the trip upstream was most awfully pleasant. We went about 40 miles upstream to a place called KURNAH where the Tigris & Euphrates join. All the way up on either side were date palms with occasional glimpses of desert & marsh through the gaps in the various palm groves. It was beautifully cool and there was a nice breeze all the time.

We reached Kurnah at 2 o’clock where we got off the boat and waited till 9 o’clock when we came on here by train. Kurnah of course is the traditional site of the Garden of Eden, and I fancy all the authorities of any importance have come to the conclusion that it was there or thereabouts that Adam & Eve were domiciled. Certainly to the weary traveller from the desert Kurnah must indeed seem a garden, for there are numerous palm groves there, & pomegranate trees, & a kind of willow growing along the river bank, and the whole place all round is green with marsh and reed-beds which makes things very restful for the eyes after the glare of the sun in the desert.

The Euphrates is a nice clean blue-water river, while the Tigris comes down in a very strong current of horribly muddy water, completely overwhelming the poor little Euphrates and discolouring the rest of the river on its way to the sea. The whole scene was most awfully pretty in the evening light as I saw it and a worthy setting for the Biblical romance.

As you may imagine, Eve’s tree is still shown to the traveller, or at anyrate a tree that satisfies his curiosity sufficiently to say he has seen the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. That it is not an apple, nor anything like it, matters not; it is enough to have seen it, & to imagine that the translators of the bible could get no nearer than “apple” to the particular fruit mentioned in Genesis. In any case, I picked some leaves off it, (I am told this is quite the thing to do!) & am sending them along herewith; they are at least interesting, even if they cannot claim to be genuine. You can at anyrate shew them to your more credulous friends as the real thing, & leave the sceptics to draw their own conclusions. All I can guarantee is that they do come from the tree that rightly or wrongly is known as Eve’s.

We strolled around Kurnah, meeting various people, & then I went & had dinner with a railway man who runs the railway there. After dinner we all climbed into open trucks & started off for this spot at about 9 p.m. It was awfully cold in the train, open trucks an’ all, & at 4 a.m. next morning when we got up I had to put on your Shetland woolly to keep warm! Fancy Mespot on the 6^th of May, & Shetland woollies! Not the usual kit you acquaint with this country at this time of year; it’s a fact all the same, & you see your little gift has already come in useful. However it was hot enough in the daytime, it’s just the nights & early mornings that can be so cold here.

We had some breakfast by the side of the line, there are no stations of course yet, as the line has only just been finished, & marched out to camp here. We have quite a nice camp on the banks of the Tigris, & this is a very pretty place & such a pleasant change after Basrah. I have no notion how long we shall be here, perhaps a month, perhaps two or more, or we may be here for only a week or so; I am rather inclined to think it will be longer, more like a month or so. Anyhow it’s a step in the right direction.

This place is very much like Basrah, & I fancy is typical of all towns in the country. Very pretty surroundings, it couldn’t be otherwise with a great broad river & palm-lined banks, but the town is rather dirty & squalid, with the usual narrow bazaars, which are fascinating in their own peculiar way. The river-scene is just as busy a one as at Basrah & innumerable boats & craft of every kind are constantly moving up & down, from monitors flying the white ensign & fresh from the fighting up Baghdad way down to a frail cockleshell of a canoe which some picturesque arab laboriously paddles across the stream, dodging motor boats & steam launches & battling doggedly against the swift current.

Amongst other things, Amarah is noted for a special kind of silver work, on which they engrave pictures of the river front, boats & scenes from Arab life. They make coffee pots with fascinating long spouts, napkin rings, buttons & all sorts of jewellery and I must try & get you some as it’s most awfully nice work, though I believe the men who make it are few while the demand is enormous.

I have met several pals here, & in particular one Lloyd whom I knew in India some years ago. He was a schoolmaster in Allahabad & joined up for the war, & now is doing A.D.C. to the General commanding the Tigris defences, with whom (thanks to Lloyd) I have been lunching today. It is hot here in the day & just “tops the century” in our tents at midday; but this is only to be expected & is nothing to worry about; we shall have it much worse than that later on. For the present we have no complaints however.

There is a club here, & of course a pretty big permanent garrison, being one of the big places on the lines of communcation. Hospitals & store depôts of all kinds abound, & so in some respects it resembles a station in peace time. Hence they have tennis & golf here, & I expect boating parties & picnics, to which the river particularly lends itself.

I am very fit & well; the C.O. is still away & is I hear going to India, but I think I told you this last week. The mail goes out tomorrow, but I am writing this today to ensure catching it. I don’t know when the next mail reaches us here, but I expect in a day or so. I am seriously thinking of studying Arabic while out here; one feels so handicapped not being able to speak to the inhabitants, even to swear at them, though possibly this can be done equally effectively in English. Tea time so will close down.

Best love to all

ever your loving son

Ted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qurnah

http://metro.co.uk/2009/03/17/iraqs-garden-of-eden-springing-to-life-546739/

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

Silverware towards bottom of page

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201205/little.thimble.big.journey.htm

May 6/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks indeed for 3 letters and various papers- including the Saturday review – which I got from you yesterday. I am arranging with Cox to send you £5 to pay for all the various papers you are constantly sending; as you have sent me the weekly times & the pink papers all along so I must owe you a good deal. I find the Saturday Review most refreshing, & it seems a nice straight forward sensible paper.

Your letters were dated March 28^th & April 4^th, the latter being addressed direct here, c/o India office. I think I have told you since then have’nt I that M.E.F. is sufficient, at least it’s best to put it in full, otherwise it might get mixed up with the Mediterranean E.F.

Many thanks for the Easter Card, and the accounts of the Tyndareus. They behaved magnificently those men did’nt they and you must be proud to have a son in the regiment; all such new soldiers too I suppose, & I think their discipline was wonderful. Fancy Jim going to Singapore after all; praps he’ll wander into India from there, in fact I think it counts as part of India for Garrison duties.

Yes poor old Nell writes to say that Gladys got measles which effectively prevented her from going to you at Easter, but I hope she’s managed to fit in a visit since. Really everyone seems to have measles nowadays and everyone writes & comments on it.

I see in the papers they mention the great scare there was when all those officers were recalled suddenly, & rumours of raids and invasions were rife. It seems that the people in the know are fully alive to the possibilities of an attempt at invasion; not that it would come to anything if they do land, as they would soon be cut off from all supplies, though they might do a certain amount of damage for a short while. But I think you can trust the navy & the East coast defences to see us through all right.

I have’nt much news to tell you; we are still in camp here, and are quite comfy, though it is beginning to warm up a bit now. This year they are taking no risks and they are building lots of huts for troops to live in during the hot weather, and have given us all big tents like we had in Delhi last cold weather, which of course is much more comfortable & healthy, as they are much cooler.

The air is rife with rumours of our marching on to Baghdad soon, but I don’t know how much truth there is in it. I don’t think I’m giving away military information in saying this, as after all we had got Baghdad & there’s precious little elsewhere to go is there! I should like to march up very much, as we should go all over the ground made famous by Townsend & his defence of Kut, and where all the fighting in the attempted relief of Kut last year took place, & where the successful advance by Genl Maude’s army was made quite recently, & it would be most awfully interesting to see all the places one has read so much about.

Many thanks for sending off the parcel you say you have despatched: It has’nt turned up yet but I’m sure it will be most welcome when it does, but I believe parcels always take a long time reaching us out here. The cable I sent you was sent from KIAMARI which is really Karachi, it’s the name by which the docks are known. I sent it just before we sailed on the 23^rd, so it took its time about reaching you; what a funny way to send it by post from Gib, but I believe all the cable lines are frightfully blocked nowadays.

Another noticeable thing in all home news nowadays is the severity of the winter. Falls of snow and hard frosts seem to be the order of the day, and Nell writes of some glorious bright winter days down in her part of the world which made me feel very envious. Dot Massy was most amused when I told her you remembered her skirts, & said she remembered them too; she’s very dressy nowadays, a trifle outrée at times I thought, but quite smart.

There seems to be a lot of fighting going on in France nowadays, & especially in the air. Germany is evidently very anxious about the Western Front, & seems to be doing her utmost to keep us from breaking through. The slaughter must be appalling, but we simply must kill them off & so end the war quicker.

I see Prince Albert [the future George VI] has been appointed to the Malaya, so she’s evidently a star turn in the fleet.

Much love to all

Yr loving son

Ted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_VI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vere_Ferrers_Townshend
Unveiling war memorial in 1920 – http://www.britishpathe.com/video/major-general-sir-c-v-f-townshend-of-kut-fame-unve

JG Cliff-McCulloch with Prince Albert (L)(supposedly on HMS Malaya)

George VI on HMS Malaya, 1942. © IWM (A 18624)

May 5/17

Dear Mother

Just a line to tell you we have got preliminary orders – which will probably hold good – to move up river, starting tomorrow. We move up in 3 parties, as far as Amarah for a start, where we shall stop for a bit I expect & I’ll be able to drop you a line from there I hope, but I’m trying to catch the mail with this letter, a pal of mine is sending it to the Base P.O. by special orderly, as the mail went from here 2 days ago. Whether it will succeed or not of course I can’t say, but it’s worth trying. But I thought I’d try & let you know as if we are on the move it may be difficult to catch mails.

I expect they will pack us into the ‘city of the Caliphs’ from Amarah as soon as they can; at anyrate it is a welcome change & we are all very pleased at the idea of moving. So don’t be surprised if you don’t hear next mail, you’ll know I’m moving or can’t catch the mail for some reason; this is just to let you know of our leaving here.

Lovely day yesterday, cool though a wee bit dusty, but the evening & night might have been spring in England; & this morning – I am writing in bed at 6 a.m. – is simply gorgeous.

Must get up now as we have a busy day.

Love to all

yr loving son

Ted

The City of the Caliphs (Cairo) book of 1897

https://archive.org/details/citycaliphsapop00reyngoog

Amarah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarah

May 3^rd

A mail did come in yesterday evening just after I had finished writing to you, & I got a letter from you dated March 21^st, in which you had just got my letter saying we were coming out here. Very many thanks for your letter, I think somehow there must be one missing, as you mention Jim having lost only his fountain pen, & that you are sending me an account of it all. I suppose you mean the Tyndareus business, but you refer to it as if you had mentioned it to me in a previous letter, & that’s what made me think there must be another somewhere.

Many thanks for promising to send along a few papers, etc, they will be most welcome, but they are so expensive at home now; so please don’t worry about it too much; one wants really a weekly budget of news & some criticisms on things generally by people who know things, for which purposes the Times & the Saturday Review are excellent. Pictures of “Society” walking down Picadilly with broad & ugly grins, or of the latest revues may be amusing, but they are certainly not necessary, & possibly these hard days such papers as Tatlers & Sketches are an extravagance.

However – Yes, Desmond Gabb is just up the line here, A.D.C (I’m told) to our general. His regt is in the same brigade as we are, so we are bound to meet sooner or later. I’m almost sure I wrote & thanked Bee Dudman for “at the Front” but I will send her another letter to make sure. I think it wd be a good thing   if Miss Meade when writing to her brother happened to mention that I am out here with the 39^th; I don’t want anything in particular, but he might remember the name if he saw it again so to speak.

Yes I wonder if the “back to the Land”            of those three will come off; jolly good thing for them if it does, especially Dryden who must be so heartily sick of the bank; I trust she did’nt “contract” measles. Nell writes & says her sister Gladys has it, so I do hope she did’nt get them too; everyone seems to be getting it.

The concert last night was quite good & I quite enjoyed it. The wind has dropped this morning thank goodness & it is nice & cool; it’s a mercy to get away from that impossible dust for a bit. I heard from the C.O yesterday & he tells me he is being invalided to India, which means he will be away 2 or 3 months I suppose at least, so I shall be in command for some time with any luck, unless, as I say they put anyone else in.

Best love to all

ever yr loving son

Ted

A search for Measles 1917 produces more results from the medical literature than from social history or contemporary accounts. It seems there was an epidemic in the US Army Recruitment camps, but the Berryman letters indicate that it had spread to the Royal Navy (see Paul’s letters of April 1917) and British civilians (Nell’s sister, Gladys). 

Measles is often now seen as an innocent, even comic, childhood illness (look! spots!) but it is dangerous to the immuno-compromised (children too young to be vaccinated, cancer patients, recipients of donated tissue, people with immune-system disorders) because it compromises their ability to fend off other infections like pneumonia which may then be fatal. Reading of Paul’s friends and Nell’s family remiinds us that community-immunity prevents the spread of infectious diseases and protects the vulnerable. 

May 2/17

Dear Mother

Mail’s late this week so I have’nt had a line from you yet, but it ought to be in tomorrow or next day but I’m afraid it will be too late to answer it by this mail. Not much news this week. Still here! & likely to remain here I’m told till mid-June, not a very pleasing prospect, as we are in a very dusty camp & there’s nothing doing here. In any case we shan’t see any of the scrapping this spring, as the hot weather is coming on now & they don’t & can’t do much while that is on.

I hope you have’nt been wondering too much if I’ve been round about all this fighting they’ve had lately up north of Baghdad; well, anyhow you know by now that I’ve been no where near it, but have been sitting quietly at the base all the time. However I suppose we shall go up sometime and shall probably be in time for some of the fun next autumn – if the war is’nt over by then!

The weather has been truly varied in the week since I last wrote. We have had one or two piping hot days, but the last two days have been the worst, a howling gale with a perpetual sandstorm day & night. Really it’s been most trying & one’s eyes get so sore & the air is full of flying sand & you simply can’t get away from it, tents are no good as sand easily defeats them & the whole of one’s tent gets smothered in it too. The temperature dropped into the 80’s, thanks to the wind, but I would much rather have the higher temperature & no wind. It has made a valiant struggle to rain tonight, but it ended in a miserable failure, though it made a great exhibition & we had lots of thunder & lightning.

The Colonel has gone to hospital with a touch of dysentry; he was’nt at all well when he went, & I had a line from him yesterday saying he felt very weak & could’nt eat anything, & how thankful he was he had got away from the hot & dusty camp into a nice cool & clean hospital. So he evidently was’nt feeling up to much. I don’t know how long he will be away, but these things always take some time to get right, especially in countries & climates like this. Meanwhile I am commanding the regiment while he is away, & unless they think I’m too junior I suppose they will leave me in command till he comes back, & also if he is invalided to India for any length of time which I imagine is quite possible.

I have been out to dinner once or twice with various pals, & I have also been to one or two concerts given by amateur troups here, exactly the same sort of thing as you see photographs of in ‘the Sketch’ etc occasionally, performing in France or elsewhere. I must say they are awfully good, much the same as amateur pierrot shows always are, they seem to enjoy it as much as the audience, who are always most enthusiastic, & are obviously all out to enjoy themselves. I am going to one tonight at a hospital near here; I have got to know some of the doctors & nurses through various pals whom I’ve met & one of the nurses asked me to go tonight; since when I hear she has gone on a month’s leave to India!, but I’m going to the concert all the same.

Capt Fox has just come in to my tent & said the mail may be in this evening so p’raps I may get a letter from you today after all; but all these things are always very “p’rapsy”.

It’s turned out a lovely evening, after the awful squalls of the last 2 days & the wind has dropped a lot thank goodness. Fox & I went into the town yesterday, to do some shopping; we went down by the river, & as there was this strong wind blowing, we sailed down in a very crazy craft, & I’m sure we nearly upset heaps of times, though the boatmen said it was all right : at least I imagine they said that, though I did’nt understand a single word really! Anyhow it felt very unsafe as the river was really quite rough & choppy in the wind. But we fairly whizzed along, so different to the usual method of progression by being punted & paddled, which is deadly slow. I’m having an early dinner with my friend in the wireless mess to get to the concert in time, so I must wind up.

Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Samarrah offensive north of Baghdad, April 1917

http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/samarrah.htm