Easter Day
Dear Mother
Many thanks for the handkerchief. I am using it today. It arrived just right. The porridge, chocolate & cake all arrived safe. The chocolate just what I like & in the small pieces too. Much easier to carry one or two in your pocket. Send me some porridge once a week I will send you the money as I charge the mess.
Happy Easter to all
Yr loving son
Richard
Such a nice card.
5.4.17.
Dear Mother
Many thanks for your letter & the daily Mirror. The porridge & chocolate have not arrived yet, but I expect they will soon. We still have some of the last lot of porridge. Jim’s regiment do seem to have been heroes. I am so anxious to read what the papers say. Is’nt this weather beastly. Snow & rain & cold & mud, however at present we are fairly comfortable & can make fires in old tins.
We are both very fit, someone I met tother day said I was getting fatter. Can you send me a little Lux. I am sending a watch home to be mended. Get it done as soon as you can & have a protector thing for it. Topher uses it and always smashes it, & it’s a good watch.
Best love to all
Yr loving son
Richard
H.M.S. MALAYA.
c/o G.P.O.
Wednesday. 4th
Dearest Mother. Very many thanks for your letter. So glad you have heard from Ted, I expect he is having quite an exciting time out in Mesopotamia.
I wonder what these Yankees are going to do now they have joined in! I expect we shall get a certain amount of financial support to start with – & they say there are at least 8 million Germans in U.S.A. – whatever will happen to them.
I saw all about the Tyndareus – & heaps of pictures – especially in the Sunday Papers – of her being towed into the Port. I think the Middlesex were really splendid the way they behaved – & so lucky they were mined so close to the shore.
Did’nt realize there was so much snow in the heavens-! awful the amount that has been coming down lately – even to-day it is lovely & fine & no wind – it was down that steady sort of stuff at intervals.
I thought perhaps you might cull some information from the Davids – but I suppose it must be super secret- I wrote to Gordon the other day & congratulated him.
Another quiet week end for you. I’m glad to hear Mr McCulloch is all right again. I must drop him a line. Nance is fearfully pleased with that bead butterfly – gorgeous she says it is. She still seems to have that cold of hers hanging about her – must be such a nuisance – olly hard to get rid of in this sort of weather though.
I do hope Ben & Jane will be able to get down to you for Easter – a pity if no one allowed to travel.
Nance sent me the prints of the family groups the other day – I’ve mounted them & pass partouted them all together- they look awfully nice. Slightly dispersed again now are’nt we?-
Awfully little news – I am ever so fit and well.
This will be an Easter letter – so I wish all at home a very Happy Easter Mother, and let us hope nd pray the next one may be happier still for all of us.
With much love to you all –
from ever your loving son
Paul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passe-Partout_%28framing%29
April 4/17
Dear Mother
I believe a mail of sorts goes out tomorrow so I must try and drop you a line in time to catch it. Not much news from here, we are still in camp down here at the base, & have orders to move anywhere. It’s beastly, this sitting down waiting, we did exactly the same in France in ’14. They always seem to hurry one out so, & then we hang about doing nothing. However we shall be moving sooner or later, I suppose.
We are being equipped with a few things specially required for campaigning in this country, coloured glasses, spine-pads & helmet-flaps & a few odds & ends like that. All our men are wearing pith helmets, as it is so hot later on they find the slouch hat is really not enough protection, even for a native. Of course Gurkhas & ourselves are the only regiments that wear the slouch hat, all other regiments wear turbans which are quite enough protection. We are filling up our time doing parades etc, & are ready to move whenever they tell us to.
Still lovely & cool at night here, but the days are warm, today particularly so as we did’nt get the breeze that usually blows.
Yesterday I met Bampton, a friend of Dick & Ben’s, also mine, as I met him on board the Muttra when we were coming back from Egypt last year and also in Lansdowne. He is here now building huge electric works to supply the whole base with fans & electric light, & is also fixing up plant to make ice, & is building a huge cold storage to hold 250 tons of ice. So you see everything possible is being done now to make the life of troops here more comfortable, and to improve conditions generally, & I must say there is a great air of permanency about everything that is being done here & we have evidently come to stay.
Of course Mesopotamia is an extraordinarily rich country and only requires scientific irrigation to make it one of the richest in the world. The water is here all right, tons of it from the Tigris & Euphrates, but they require to be induced to flow in the right directions & water the country properly. The current saying out here is that the British are going to make Mesopotamia pay for the entire war! And certainly it ought to repay any money spent on it ten thousand fold.
I saw all about the ‘Tyndareus’ in Reuters wires a day or two ago, the first I had heard of or seen about it. When I say ‘all’ I mean just the brief wire saying what had happened & that she had got safely into Simonstown. It was an awful shock when I read the first few lines, but a tremendous relief as I read on & saw that everything was all right. I do hope old Jim is all right & none the worse; what a terrible experience & how magnificently they all behaved, well worthy, as I see the King said, of the ‘Birkenhead’ tradition.
Curious is’nt it that one of the Emperors of Germany (was it the man’s father?) when the Birkenhead sank, had the story of the gallant behaviour of the soldiers on board read out to the German troops on parade as a magnificent example of courage & discipline. You know the picture of course, & I rather think this little story is printed under the title in most reproductions, at least that is I know where I read it. I wonder what will happen to them now.
I am anxiously waiting fuller accounts which will I suppose appear eventually in the papers & you will get the full story from Jim sometime I expect. No letters from you yet; I had some from Nell yesterday, dated 11th Feb! But none from you or any of the family. I have’nt the foggiest idea when we move from here, so I can’t possibly say whether I’ll be able to write again before next mail. But please don’t worry if you don’t hear, it will only mean I’m on a river journey & away from posts & things. Oh I say, a gorgeous Shetland woolly rolled up today, light & handy & ripping to have in one’s kit, especially as further north the cold weather is by no means over, & next cold weather anyhow it will be lovely. Thanks awfully for it.
Must change for dinner now. We are getting splendid rations here, frozen Argentine meat, sterilized milk, tinned fruits, green vegetables an’ all – Wish they’d send us up country all the same –
Best love to all
Yr loving son
Ted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_%281845%29
Ashburton Guardian article, 30/3 mentioning King William of Prussia having story read to troops
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AG19170330.2.25.20&dliv=&e=——-10–1—-0–
Sunday April 1st.
Dear Mother
So sorry I have’nt written for such ages, but it’s been impos. We’ve been fairly on the move every day a different place, sometimes sleeping in the open other times lucky to get a stable. Cold as blazes too. Always sort of under the impression we’d be in action in 24 hrs, but nothing ever happened and for the present things seem quiet.
Topher & I are both very fit in spite of it all.
You might send me one or two pairs of loofa socks. Size 7 If you have sent chocolate you need’nt send any more as I can get it now. Many thanks for the porridge, it’s awfully good & we now have time to eat it.
Wonder if you got my will! See I’ve at last been Gazetted. I’ll write again soon.
Best love to all
Yr loving son
Richard
(unable to find Gazette entry).
March 30th
Just a line to say all’s well. We get to Basrah tomorrow I believe, but whether we land or not I don’t know. I expect they will keep us at Basrah a day or two, for various reasons, & then I expect they’ll send us up to relieve the troops that have done all the fighting lately, so expect we shall go pretty well straight up to Baghdad. But of course I can’t tell, & shan’t be able to tell you. Anyhow I’ll tell you if we do go to Baghdad, by saying we have been sent to the place I expected.
I’m going to give this letter to the Captain to post when the ship goes back to Karachi; it may catch an earlier mail than if I posted it ashore. So I’ll have to put a stamp on it, but fortunately I have some by me.
No more now, I’ll write as often as I can, but be prepared for erratic mails!
Best love to all
Yr loving son
Ted.
H.M.S. MALAYA.
c/o G.P.O.
Wednesday. 28th
My dear Mother.
Very many thanks for your letter – they seem to arrive much quicker these days – only two days in the post.
Nance has arrived home allright – I heard yesterday- but says she’s till got her cold hanging about. I don’t think London suited her very much & the sooner she can get that farm job the better, I say – Must take some arranging I should imagine
Dick & Topher have’nt got much time these days to write at all I should’nt think – the papers say the cavalry are incessantly on the move- how pleased they all must be to get on their horses again.
Nothing much in the way of news up here. I’ve started off the rehearsals for our new show – so most of my spare time is taken up with that now.
Measles again seems fairly rife – fashionable one might say-! I hear Jane’s pal – Ned McCulloch has got it now – sickening for him – what with one leg & measles.
Vile weather we are having at present- much colder than I’ve known it before up here. You seem to have had quite a week end last time-
Will you tell Oldfield to send me ½ dozen pairs of those ribbed socks – like the pair Ruth gave me for Xmas – she knows the kind – blue or black – I don’t mind which- also some more of those cotton gloves from Timothy Whites. I enclose 2s/6d – I think they are 4d or 6d a pair – the short ones- not gauntlets-
My best love to you all – from ever your loving son
Paul
P.T.O.
Just remembered – have you found out how Gordon Campbell got his V.C. D.S.O. & promotion etc. I asked you last time. I happened to say I knew him quite well & our Captain said “oh well you can easily find out – I want to know”-
March 27/17 ? at Sea
Dear Mother
I scribbled you a line in the train coming down to Karachi, but I’m afraid I have’nt written since then, & I’m sure I don’t know when this will reach you as I shan’t be able to post it till we land, and I have’nt an idea when that will be.
When we got to Karachi we were held up two days for some unknown reason, but I was really very glad. I know one Stanley in the D.M.S. was there, so I rang him up & demanded meals etc. I knew him well of course in Lansdowne as we were there many years together, and he & Dick shared a bungalow in Karachi all last hot weather, so I thought I had some claim on his hospitality. Mrs Stanley is with him now, & of course I knew her well too. We had nothing to do in Karachi except wait, so I spent most of my time there, I had dinner with them each night I was there. I also saw ‘June’ who was flourishing, but seemed absurdly small, only about ½ Susan’s size. She is a great favourite with the people whom she is with & I don’t think they would part with her for worlds. I met them too, but only for a minute or two, as they had to dash off & play tennis.
I met a whole lot of Dick’s friends. They were all frightfully sorry he had gone & said some very nice things about him, & he was evidently the buzz in Karachi. I have written & told him all about it.
There is an officer who has joined us from the 3rd Gurkhas, one Dent by name. His mother was a Miss Boisragon, who seems to have known you in the Hartley Wintney days. Dent tells me he came up to see the family at Camberley when he was at the R.M.C 10 years ago, & you were out, but he met two of the sisters. His people live at Brockenhurst now, his father is a Major I think. He mentioned this to me, & I thought you’d be interested to hear of it, though I don’t remember ever hearing you mention either name, Boisragon or Dent. There is also a Capt Gore on board who was at the R.M.C with me & says he remembers us all. He is a great friend of the Rayners apparently, & spent most of his last leave with them.
½ the Bn: is on another ship, & the other ½ on this one with me. There is another regiment on board also, & quite a nice lot of officers. They were up Assam way when Dick & Ben were there, & remember them both well. Would you say I was meeting many of Dick’s friends lately!
Quite an ordinary voyage so far; roughish outside Karachi but nice & calm ever since. It’s not hot either, yet, though I expect we shall get all we want of that before we’re done. Lovely cool breeze all day & night so far. The other regiment has a band on board which serves to while away an hour or so every afternoon. It’s a funny little ship; in ordinary times used for carrying Mohamedan pilgrims to Mecca & elsewhere.
We left Delhi the day before the mail was due, having been a fortnight without one. That was a week ago, so that makes 3 weeks now without an English mail, & heaven knows when we shall get it now! We shipped a lot of mails on this old tub at Karachi, & it’s just possible ours may be among that lot, but I doubt it. All my letters will be censored now of course, so I shan’t be able to tell you much. In any case I trust you are prepared for a thoroughly erratic mail from me from now onwards, for besides the probable difficulties of writing often, the posts must of necessity be erratic, for they of course take 2nd place to everything else – out there now.
I cabled you from Karachi; I wonder if you ever got it? I should like ½ doz: rolls of films for my camera sometime, if you can get them, a vest pocket Kodak. I simply could’nt get any in India when we left. Get the freshest you can, ones that have’nt got to be developed for months yet.
We shall be anxious to get some news when we land, as we have’nt had any of course since we left, and we have no wireless on this boat; and I expect some big things will have happened while we have been on the voyage, though it’s only a matter of 6 or 7 days. No more for the present, I’ll finish this off before we land.
Major Henry Wilkinson Dent (died 1918)
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=115309096
Mabel Maxwell Boisragon Dent
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=115309030
Guy Herbert de Boisragon Dent, their son – author of SF novel ‘The Emperor of If’
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dent_guy
24.3.17
Field
Dear Mother
Just a line. Many thanks for yours. I am so glad Jim is safe. Topher & I are quite alright.
Send me some chocolate plain Fortnum & Mason or Cadbury Vanila (not milk) little plain chunks too lots & often.
Love to all
Dick
Jim was on the Tyndareus which had struck a mine off Cape Agulhas, South Africa, on the 6th of February.
H.M.S. MALAYA.
c/o G.P.O.
21st Wednesday.
My dear Mother- Very many thanks for your letter. Yes. I heard about Jim & his ship being mined from Nance – How awful; really one would have thought they are safe enough out there. Oh but I am glad he is safe, and all his belongings too. A good thing to hear he was safe first – before hearing anything about the outrage – saves so much anxiety does’nt it.
Nance says she does’nt know what to say about how kind & sweet you have been to her last week end – she seems to have had a rotten cold – and a throat much the same as mine and Dreda’s. She seems much better now – and thank you so awfully Mother for looking after & taking care of her. She more than loves being at Delaford-
So I hear Ben is’nt going farming to start with the others – Nance seemed to have some doubt too about going – because she thought she would’nt be able to come & see me – if there was a chance the same as when I first met her – but she says now she is definitely determined to go – for which I am ever so pleased.
The world’s coldest day to-day -plenty of sun really- but consistent snow blizzards- & tons of wind.
I should imagine Ted is vastly pleased about going to Mesopotamia – I feel so sorry for them & their mails – when they have a huge change like that. Dick & Topher I expect are having a run for their money too on their horses at last. Should you say an exciting week’s news! Marvellous is’n it!
I hear Jane has been asked up to stay in Scotland with a great friend of mine to whom I introduced her when I was on leave – one McCulloch by name – his brother is in this ship and I know all the family. Priceless people they are & they are cousins of that fellow Stewart- you may remember his name – he was in the Gloucester with me & then he went down in the Hampshire. Dreda knows about him. I know his people too – so I am well in with the whole lot of them really. So if Jane asks you anything about going – I can absolutely vouch for her. Ned McCulloch – my pal wrote to me & asked if he could have her up there to stay – when he went home- He’s getting a new leg at present – poor fellow.
That Horlicks is lovely –
Must end now – My bestest love to you all-
Your ever loving son
Paul
Jim was on the Tyndareus which had struck a mine off Cape Agulhas, South Africa, on the 6th of February.
