Author Archives: Ted Berryman

March 1st/1917

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for 2 letters from you yesterday, dated 24^th Jan & 1^st Feb, they both arrived by the same mail curiously enough. I see by my diary I only wrote to you on Sunday and this is Thursday. I have been out to dinner & tennis etc & have also been fairly busy in office. I believe we shall be leaving here on the 24^th of this month & be at Basrah about the beginning of April I suppose, but I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you. I have been out to lunch today with a Mrs Kaye, & we went on to a polo tournament which is going on now & saw some quite good polo. I have come back now to catch the mail, & also I am dining out & going on to a dance. The Viceroy’s staff have a big dinner on tonight at the club, & I am going to that; I have several friends among them so shall not be quite lost!

Such lovely weather now, & gorgeous cool & clear mornings. It’s clouding up again this evening & is a bit warmer & muggy again but I expect a shower of rain will clear the air a bit. I can’t remember if I gave you an address for Mespot or not. Anyway, stick to Cox till you hear from me to the contrary, & then either of these will do

CAPT E.R.P.B
2/39 GARHWAL RIFLES
MESOPOTAMIA EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
C/O INDIA OFFICE

of course India Office will always get me;  but it means posting a day earlier, so if you want to catch the mail at the last minute then

CAPT E R P B
2/39 GARHWAL RIFLES
MESOPOTAMIA EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
C/O PRESIDENCY POST-MASTER
BOMBAY

dont put in any Brigade or Divisions even, just put a regiment. When in any doubt about me, ask the India Office, as they will have the latest news.

Yes I hear from all sources of Dick & Topher’s great Krewst, & they seem to have fixed it up splendidly. I thought poor old Dick would feel the cold rather, but there won’t be much more of it now I hope. I know he always revels in this country’s heat, which I always hate so much!

Yes that was a terrible explosion was’nt it, & as you say I don’t suppose we have heard the whole truth, but what we have heard is bad enough. I wonder if Dick & Paul managed to get leave together, but I expect they found it rather difficult.

I wonder what this retirement on the west means, & whether it’s going to be anything big or not. The papers are very quiet about it and they don’t seem at all ready to even guess at its true import. The news from Mesopot continues good, & I hear they have made big captures there in guns & men & material. Yes I love Fragments from France, thanks awfully for them, & the Daily Sketch is much appreciated in the mess. But I see the price of all these papers is going up a lot now & all the ½ penny ones are becoming 1d. No, I never have to pay extra postage, you always put on enough.

I can’t remember Cookson at the R.M.C but thanks for the note about Mrs Dot-massey-John-Mackenzie’s skirts! I’ll remind her about them when I see her this evening. She wears weird clothes nowadays, always very smart, but she’s so frightfully thin & requires very careful dressing I should imagine. We have’nt had the Tank films here yet, & no news of them. I should like to see them before we go. But I have no doubt they have cinemas in Mespot nowadays; certain to have ’em at Basrah & the Base.

So glad Ben has a job to suit her; yes I really think you’d be rather well advised to move up to London, if you could find a house. I know you have always wanted to do so, have’nt you

Must change for dinner now. Don’t worry to send me anything to Mesopot, I expect we’ll get all we want out there, & things are so expensive at home from all accounts.

Lots of love to all

yr loving son                Ted

Ted’s letters throughout the Mesopotamia campaign are full of place names familiar today: Basra, Ramadi, Mosul and Baghdad. This is a reminder that foreign policy decisions (such as those made at the Peace of Versailles and in the Sykes-Picot agreement) have consequences that play out over centuries.

Continued from the previous day

Feb 25.

A gorgeous morning and the muggy heat of last week has gone thank goodness. It’s lovely now, cool & clear, but I’m afraid the Indian spring is a short-lived one, though while it lasts it is perfect; and by the middle of March it will have begun to get unpleasant. All the little seedlings we planted last November are now in full flower, so our “carriage-drive” is looking really quite smart.

The dinner last night was quite a success; the Chief is a genial old bird, & quite human; he has an aggressive chin which means business I think. There is another mail in tomorrow, & it was only last night that I got the tail end of last mail, a shower of ‘Sketches’ & John Bulls, and also Fragments from France Part 3, which has kept the mess in roars of laughter as the saying is! Thanks awfully for them; but I’m not sure that Bairnsfather is’nt a wee bit put to it now to find a funny subject, & I think he’ll have to take care not to overdo it & fall flat in consequence. He really is good when he is good, & wonderfully true to life, & I think it would be a pity to spoil him.

I am so awfully glad to hear good news of Ben. She wrote me a long letter last mail & I’m afraid I’ve been very remiss in writing letters lately; but truth to tell this mobilisation has kept me fairly busy, & one has a certain amount of friends, old & new, after a rather trying 8 or 9 months in Lansdowne, & I’m sure it’s done me good. Dryden seems very hard worked at the Bank; I wish she could see her way to chucking it.

Lloyd George I see has been making another speech, the tone of which does not seem to be in keeping with the general air of optimism that is about now at home. P’raps he thought that it is not a good thing to get too optimistic & so exaggerated the position with a definite object. What about ploughing up all England & sowing spring wheat & barley? It seems to me an excellent thing to do; for heaven’s sake let’s go all out to win the war, & then resume the daily round again.

So glad Dick & Topher have joined up, but I cannot quite grasp what Topher’s position is in a native cavalry regiment. I suppose you say you have three sons in the Indian Army now!

I am being innoculated against cholera today, I hear it’s a good thing to have done to one; but they say there is no reaction, which is comforting, as you know what I’m like after innoculation don’t you! No further news of our move, but I suppose we shall be sailing about the middle of March. I think the best address is Capt B.

2/39 Garhwal Rifles
Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force
c/o India Office,

but meantime stick to Cox till I tell you different – as we have’nt gone yet!

Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Fancy old Hall joining up! Yes, of course I know him well; he must be 150 at least!

The Bystander’s Fragments from France (compiled)

https://archive.org/stream/bystandersfragme00bair#page/n5/mode/2up

Lloyd George’s speech on restriction of imports

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1917/feb/23/restriction-of-imports

Report on it in Sydney Morning Herald

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/15732639

Feb 24/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for a much belated mail, which arrived on Wednesday 21^st and we had had none for 16 days, & then 2 arrived together. And tonight a whole lot of papers etc have just come in; gorgeous, & thanks awfully for them.

I am still a busy man all day, but I manage to get out of an evening generally. I dined with the Bingleys last Monday, Mrs Moss was there, and wanted to be remembered to you as also did Mrs Bingley. They had an amusing book there called the Hospital A.B.C, published by John Lane. I expect you’ve seen it long ago; really the pictures are most awfully well done; get one & send it to old Nell if you can, it will amuse her. Some of the V.A.D. people drawn in it are, we came to the conclusion, exactly like Maggie Davids, as of course Mrs Bingley & Mrs Moss know them too.

Otherwise I had a quietish week. I played tennis with Barbara Bingley on Tuesday, but it was frightfully hot, & we have had a shower of rain since, which has improved matters considerably & it is quite nice & cool now. But the Indian spring is a short one & soon it will be getting unpleasantly hot.

The commander in chief is coming to dine in the mess tonight, so we shall all be on our best behaviour. My bath an’ all is just ready now, so I shall have to finish this later, but I can spare a minute or two yet. I went for a very cheery drive with the Ricketts last Sunday, all along by the canal here, nice & cool & Englishy. They have been most awfully good to me I must say. There are some Red X delegates in Delhi now, Swiss people, who are touring all the allied countries looking at prisoners’ camps. One of our fellows, Patrick by name, is looking after them & trotting them round Delhi, & he brought them to dine the other night. They talk English & I did’nt air my French on them, though some of us tried! Also the Russian Consul in India, one Tomanoffski, also came to dinner. He was all through the big Russian retreat at the beginning of the war, in Poland, & was very interesting to talk to; he speaks English fluently.

I see two ‘daily Sketches’ have arrived today; thanks awfully. I should like the “Saturday Review” sent each week in Mespot – could you fix this up for me, & let me know what a year’s sub: is & I’ll send it along. I really must change now. Good night, & I hope the chief will enjoy his dinner here!

Ted continued the letter the next day

Our Hospital ABC

• http://www.abebooks.co.uk/Hospital-B-CORDON-Hampden-TINDALL-M/10246323274/bd

Review from the BJN jpg in this folder. Edith Cavell mentioned

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell

Review in Burlington Magazine (bottom right)

• https://archive.org/stream/burlingtonmagazi30londuoft#page/n49/mode/2up

Sir Charles Munro, 1^st Bt, C-in-C in India

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Charles_Monro,_1st_Baronet

Feb 10/17

Dear Mother

Thanks to many rumours about mails not leaving till much later than usual this week, I have at last been caught with about 5 spare minutes to catch the mail in! So sorry, but it can’t be helped. I have had really quite a frivolous week, though I spend a whole heap of my time in office somehow, & have the afternoons off from about 4 onward. I have had some tennis & dinner parties, & have dropped in to one or two lunches with friends, which is always so much nicer than any of these horribly formal shows.

I have been very busy all day and being very bored in office about 4.30 this afternoon I rang up a lady friend on the ‘phone to have a talk with her. She is a Mrs Kaye, wife of the Chief Censor out here, rather a nut in his way. She’s a cheery soul, & reminds me awfully of Bunchie, both in her face & cheeriness & general manner all round; quite a tonic on a dull day! Anyhow we have now arranged to go to “the Scamps” (sort of dud follies) on at the theatre tonight, so I have asked myself to dinner at the Kayes and the evening should be a cheery one. I fancy most of Delhi will be there, so it ought to be rather fun.

We’ve had a fair amount of rain lately, but there are distinct signs that the cold weather is over, though it is by no means yet. Still the early morning air seems to have lost its freshness & bite, & before we leave here it will be really rottenly hot I expect, & in tents too it will be ghastly. We have had preliminary orders to be ready to move, I don’t know where to, but we shall be going off somewhere before the end of March. However stick to Cox & Co as they will always find me.

I think there is still more reason to be optimistic now about the war, & I sincerely believe that the crash will come this year. Internally she must be in a bad way, & externally she is hemmed in. Her submarine campaign is a real danger while it lasts, but I think we can trust the navy to cope with that all right. But I think everything points to a collapse, or at anyrate a jolly good chance of one.

I must fly. So sorry for this scribble love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Mary Margaret “Mollie” Kaye, Sir Cecil Kaye’s daughter, and author of The Far Pavilions

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1453069/M-M-Kaye.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._M._Kaye

Jan 26/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks indeed for a belated mail last week. It appears the mail boat had to be put back to Marseilles, having been mined or torpedoed just outside; at least that’s the yarn, but I don’t know if there’s any truth in it. Also I got a gorgeous calendar from you -”when the boys come home” which looks ripping on the mantlepiece, & thanks most awfully for it, & the Daily Sketch all bound. There is another mail in tomorrow, it was in here today, but my letters going to Cox always roll up a day late.

Not much news here. They still continue to fill us up with officers, & 5 have joined in the last 2 days! They seem a nice lot of fellows, & 2 or 3 of them have had war experience in France, which is a good thing, & preferable to those beardless babes from Sandhurst. We have now got 16 British officers, & our complement is only 12! So I wonder what they’re playing at. 1 Colonel, 2 Captains, & 13 Subalterns!

I have been fairly gay this week, & have dined out once or twice. I have also been to watch the Delhi tennis tournament, which is very good indeed & we have seen some fine games. I lunched last Sunday with the Ricketts and had a very pleasant day. I also had some ‘flapper’ tennis with Barbara Bingley & a small friend staying with her. I think they had a day out & seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Nell will be getting jealous! but I don’t think she need worry her pretty head much.

What a terrible explosion that was in town last week, & somehow one feels they have not published the whole of the story. It sounds dangerously near Woolwich, & I expect we shall begin to hear all sorts of rumours before long. It makes one quite ill to read about it, so ghastly to think of a thing like that happening somehow and all those poor munition workers being killed. Still I think it’s wonderful a thing like that has’nt happened before considering the enormous number of factories there must be in England now. Otherwise the news in general seems good I think, but I can’t quite fathom this concentration on the Swiss frontier, except that it proves Germany must be in desperate straits I think. The Roumanian news is decidedly more cheering, & we seem to have caught their torpedo boats nicely when they tried to escape from Zeebrugge. But how bitterly cold it sounds does’nt it.

There have been 2 gorgeous concerts this week, a Russian pianist & violinist who both played divinely. I don’t quite know why they are’nt in the army! But I’m glad they are’nt because it really was a treat to listen to them. They were only there two nights, and I went each time & thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though I know so little about music. Old Montague of Beaulieu is here, you remember I expect he was on the Persia; he is giving a lecture on ‘Aviation’ tonight; I really don’t remember him on board, & I don’t think I should recognise him if I saw him. Metcalfe is dining with me tonight, & I am dining with Miles one day next week; Cordwalles F.F’s I foresee!

From your letter I gather Jim is now definitely going to Hong Kong & is presumably well on his way there now. I wonder if he’s pleased or not or if he’d rather go to France. He enlisted so early in the war, that it seems curious he should go so far away from it when he does go anywhere. I’m most awfully sorry to hear about poor old Rosamond’s thumb; you told me a letter or two ago she had crushed it badly & it sounds very nasty, & I do hope the dear person is much better now.

The writing room for soldiers in Delaford is indeed a success, but you must have your hands pretty full what with getting them tea an’ all. I expect they thoroughly enjoyed their Christmas dinner; tomorrow’s letters ought to be the ones you wrote about Christmas time. You might mention to Mrs Hunt when you write about me & Metcalfe & Sir Charles Miles all being here together. Miles was wounded in Mesopotamia (he is with the 1^st 4^th Somersets) & Metcalfe is Asst Private Sec: to the Viceroy. I expect I told you all this before! Very sad about Mr Goughlin’s 2 sons. Yes rather Mr Britling arrived safe, but I have’nt had a minute to read him yet!

Best love to all   Yr loving son

Ted.

When the boys come home – song by Oley Speaks

http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/6236/

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

Swiss tensions prior to the February Revolution in Russia

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Douglas-Scott-Montagu,_2nd_Baron_Montagu_of_Beaulieu

Delhi                             Jan 13/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter last week, date 13 Dec. I have had a certain amount to do here this week- Last Sunday I went out with the Ricketts on a regular trippers’ trip, round some old tombs and forts and things, much the same as the trip we went on in Christmas week. I must say these old places are most awfully interesting even to one so un-archeological as I, but they are so redolent of the past & the magnificence of all these old oriental things, & they are now all ruins & fallen to decay. I must say it makes you think a bit when you look round and see nothing but ruins all round for miles & miles & you wonder if London & all the splendour of Modern Europe will one day be like this. I don’t see why it should’nt. I have no doubt these old Kings of 1300 and thereabouts never imagined for one moment that even in such a short time as 600 years all their palaces and cities would be ruined & deserted, a mere object in life for sightseers.

It’s awful nice meeting old friends like Rickett, & they are most awfully kind to me, & I have been round to several “pot luck” meals with them whenever I get rather bored with the mess, which is pretty often!

I dined out on Saturday with the Reids, some friends who live just down the road also very charming. He is on AHQ Staff & used to live in our mess when we first came down here, as his wife had’nt come down from Simla. Then I have played a certain amount of tennis & on Thursday played with Mrs Bingley & had lunch & tea there. She is awfully nice, and told me to remember her to you, if you should by any chance remember her at the hospital. Barbara Bingley the kid, age 14, is quite a nice kid & very pretty; she is learning to play tennis & Mrs B. thinks it’s awful nice of us to descend to her level, though I don’t think I’m much better myself. Anyhow old Bingley is a general & a coming man so there’s no harm in getting to know them as well as possible –

What about the news from Greece? Are’nt they trying, & I really think it is only sentiment for Greece’s antiquities that prevents us blowing the place out of the water with our fleet which we could no doubt do easily. Germany’s peace efforts don’t yet seem to be quite over, but the allies’ reply was splendidly definite & to the point was’nt it. I really do wonder if Austria is in such a bad way as they make out; I hope so, as if that is the case & she cannot hold out much longer she would let Germany down badly.

There was a concert here last week, in aid of officers’ widows & orphans etc, Lady Lansdowne’s fund I think. It was quite good, and one lady played the violin really beautifully, a thing I have’nt heard done for years. Also there was a girl who danced, amateur of course but really wonderful.

It’s been very warm & muggy these last few days, there is some rain about I think. The Viceroy comes back today, but his entry is private so there are to be no guards of honour etc, thank goodness. I am going out to lunch today with some people called Cruickshank, I knew her very well in Lansdowne as a Miss Ormsby, daughter of the C.O. of the 3^rd Gurkhas; I have’nt seen her since I left Lansdowne in 1914. And tonight I am dining out and going to a dance; not very keen, but I accept these invitations so as to get to know a few people.

I have seen no notice in the papers about the arrival of this week’s mail, but I expect it will be in a day or two now.

I am sorry about Rosamond having pinched her thumb, she seems to have done it pretty badly. I must write to her. Certainly the soldiers seem to appreciate the reading & writing rooms you have given them, & I trust the 20 who turned up on Christmas day were duly grateful. I have’nt tackled the plum pudding yet, but must do so soon; we are just about the right size in the mess for it I fancy.

Yes rather Mr Britling has arrived but I have’nt really had time to read it yet. I’ve got ‘the first of Divisions’ ‘the great push’ (from old Fielding, both) ‘At the War’ by Northcliffe (from the Dudmans) & ‘Mr Britling’ on hand, & I have’nt looked inside one of them for a fortnight!

I do hope Wiggy’s things have been settled amicably by now, it seems strange that it can’t be done somehow & poor Ben must feel it frightfully. I’m much relieved to hear you say she is so much better, & she certainly writes in a cheerier strain herself.

Fancy old Walcott being with Britannia, lucky he got off. Yes of course I remember him awful well. Very many thanks for offering to send me a cardigan but I’m afraid by the time I got it, it would be past cardigan time! But on reading your letter again I see you are sending along one & not waiting to hear from me. Very many thanks, & on second thoughts in these days one might go to a cold climate any day, & in any case it will come in vastly useful in the future.

No news out here: we hear & read strange tales of travelling being difficult at home, but I fancy they are exaggerated as you have not specially referred to it in any of your letters. I suppose the food question is being scientifically organised in order to prevent waste, not so much because there is any lack. Submarines seem very active again, & ships & freightage must be hard to get.

Must have breakfast now, an early bird are’nt I, but my day’s work always begins early.

Lots of love

ever your loving son

Ted

New Delhi – Ancient Ruins:

• https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g304551-Activities-c47-t2-New_Delhi_National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhi.html

Brigadier-General V.A.Ormsby 

• Page 24 – Wykehamists-who-Died-in-the-War-1914-1918-Volume-I
• http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=134176&p=1292089

The First Seven Divisions: being a detailed account of the fighting from Mons to Ypres by Lord Ernest Hamilton

• https://archive.org/details/firstseven00hamiuoft

The Great Push, an episode of The Great War by Patrick MacGill

• https://archive.org/details/greatpushepisode00macg

At The War by Lord Alfred Northcliffe

• https://archive.org/details/atthewar00nort