Transcription

8th Queens
B. E. F.
26. 1. 1916.

My dear Father,

Very many thanks for your letter written on Sunday last & received last night.  Also still more thanks for the promise of the binoculars.  I think it would be a mistake to have them at the moment, as I very rarely need them now & I have the pair which Mother gave me which are quite powerful, though I think the Ross glasses are probably bigger.

I have sent a cheque to the Antonio Company & told them to send the Certificate for 100 new shares to you. Would you mind keeping it, as also the enclosed receipt for my insurance premium.

I think Wardills charge for 4 months is quite moderate as the pram has not been idle.  A good deal of that charge is mine, viz garage & juice for the period I was at home & I send my cheque herewith.

A very quiet day here with a little artillery strafing.  I heard a most curious noise this morning & thought it was a new engine invented by the Hun but eventually discovered it came from a flock of geese travelling N. E. overhead.  They fly in a wedge shaped formation & seem well disciplined.  I was round the trenches this afternoon & ran across the G. O. C. with a bevy of minor lights in the shape of mining & sapper officers & smaller fry galore, so I joined in the train & the procession moved on.  I am going round again late to-night with the O. C. of the Battalion who relieves us to-morrow when we go back for a few days then back here again.  These constant reliefs are an awful nuisance, but we find that the men cannot stand too much, as they have little or no shelter & many of them very little sleep. Those actually in the front line are better off than those in the support lines, as the latter have to find all the fatigues & it is no joke lugging up rations over broken ground & muddy trenches in the dark.

We have to bring all our water up & engineer stoves, so you can imagine that there is a lot to carry.

I was very glad Miss Waldie called, as I rather imagine that she has few friends in this country & I thought that you might be able to help her. Her family are in the lumber business I think & I imagine are blessed with more than their share of this worlds goods.

To-morrow is said to be the Kaiser’s birthday & we shall be on the look out for squalls, but he is said to have a birthday almost once a month, so I don’t really suppose there is anything in it.

We had a tremendous spy scare last night & everyone was warned to look out for him.

He was supposed to be dressed like a British officer & we eventually captured him, when he turned out to be an officer belonging to the next Battalion who had lost his way.

Love to all

From Jack