Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Letters from Olive Oakley née Waterhouse, 2 June 1915-1 January 1916
MLMSS 2792 (K 21692 / Item 15)
[Transcriber's note:
These are letters to her parents written on board SS Malwa, 9 Dec. 1915- 23 Dec 1915, describing writing letters for soldiers in the 21st General Hospital and events while at the Y.W.C.A. in Alexandria. It includes a letter from E. Bry and N. Jechoux of Pernois, near Canaples, Somme written to Olive (in French), 25 Nov. 1916.]
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"Tarrawingie,"
Katoomba St
Katoomba.
P.S. So far it has not been at all cold here quite as mild as in Sydney. O.L.O.
My very dear Father & Mother,
We have arrived quite safely as you will see and it looks as if we shall be quite comfortable. The house is about 10 minutes from Station, just past Waratah Street, if you remember that. There are only about half a dozen ladies here besides ar ourselves & Mrs McMahon the proprietress seems a clean capable little woman. The house is very convenient in its appointments, no more inconvenient than if it were in the city, there are nice wide verandahs, a fireplace in the room and I really think we shall be well suited.
Olive makes a splendid companion, very thoughtful and quite bright & cheery.
I am having a rest in a deck chair in the sun while writing this and a note to Rid.
I do hope your cold is better Father dear, was so sorry to hear how bad it was.
Much love to you all- Ollie
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Lettercard headed Commonwealth of Australia stamped with a 1d. stamp and addressed to
Mrs J Waterhouse,
"Cavinleath."
Archer St.,
Chatswood.
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A 7.6.15 plus initials.
"Tarrawingie".
Katoomba St.,
Katoomba.
4.6.15.
My dear Father and Mother,
There is not a great deal of news, but you will be glad of a few lines. Right up till now the weather has been just perfect and quite mild, though certainly it looks a little like rain this evening and feels almost warm which may be a bad sign.
Yesterday we walked to the top of Leura and enjoyed it all very much. Sat for a while in the sun and sewed. To-day we went to the top of Katoomba and did likewise there. It has been lovely in the sun.
We are quite comfortable here as you would say if you could see us, and so far have not missed the convenience of home. Did I tell you that there is a nice bathroom in the house that contains a bath heater?
While we were out this afternoon Auntie Janie called; it was a pity but I am sure she would understand that we would like to
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2. be out in the sun; we must have only missed her by a few minutes too. Auntie did say something when she was out at the parsonage about my going up to Woodford for a week a little later on, but kind & nice as she is I really couldn't stand it there. I feel as if I never know what she expects of one and it would all get on my nerves, specially as she would be sure to have some of the Taylor girls living there whom I don't love. I know one of them is staying there now. However I am going to write & tell her how sorry I am about missing her and thank her for her kindness: though there was nothing in any way definite about a Woodford visit I wouldn't like to hurt her feelings at all; I don't think it will though for we told her I thought of going to Katoomba.
I have been writing to Rid & I find my time has gone & it is mail time. Olive said to-day that I was getting quite a colour, I hope it lasts for you to see!
Much love to you both & all,
Your loving daughter
Ollie.
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R 14.7.15 Ansd 15.7.15
The Train. 12 PM Tuesday
My dear Father,
Just a few lines to post in Melbourne to let you know of our safe arrival & also to ask you how you are. We felt very anxious all yesterday & last night about you, specially after seeing Uncle Gus, for I knew then that you were worse than you had allowed us to know, & to have Mother so unwell & An with a bad cold makes it so very hard for you all. What I specially wanted to ask you is to get An to drop me a few lines to tell me how you are, it would be such a relief to know per I feel it very much travelling away & away from you when you are so unwell & poor little Mother not herself either. The address is c/o C. Oakley, Hopetown Parade, Box Hill.
It has been a very comfortable trip over, we had a nice little compartment all to ourselves & as it was a sleeping compartment we were able to go to bed & have a good rest. Rid's arm is still bad but he himself is better. We had the most awful rush round on Monday right up till the last moment because Rid was kept three hours at the Barracks instead of the one we had allowed.
It has not been very cold though colder than Sydney. We are going right into rain now. There are two other chaplains on board, Father Tighe (one from N. Sydney) is very decent. Colonel Prescott & over 30 others were down at the train to see Rid off. Much love to you & all
Ollie.
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Lettercard postmarked Melbourne and dated 13 July addressed to
J. Waterhouse Esq M.A.,
"Cairnleith,"
Archer St.,
Chatswood
Sydney.
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Box Hill 15.7.15
R 16.7.15
P.S. Tell Wal when you see him please that I got a nice little spoon & fork set with my initials on it. (Initials)
My dear Father & Mother,
I have not yet had to say good-by to my dear husband & we have still to-day. We have found quite a lot of shopping & things to fix up in Melbourne & it is indeed a good thing that the boat was postponed. We are going to have a few hours together in the gardens this afternoon & let everything else go. I had a few lines from Emily this morning & she told me that you had rung up, Father, & were a bit better. I was so very glad to hear it. It is bitterly cold on the hands & feet here, one could almost cry out with the pain of it, & that is why my writing is so laboured.
Rid has to be on board about noon to-morrow but when the boat sails we do not know. I can't make up my mind yet how soon I will return, I am anxious to do so & yet dread it.
Love to the boys & An & to your dear selves.
Ollie.
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Lettercard postmarked Victoria and addressed to
J. Waterhouse Esq. M.A.,
"Cairnleith"
Archer St.,
Chatswood
Sydney. N.S.W.
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Box Hill. Melbourne
Friday 16.7.15
R & A 19.7.15
P.S. I meant to say that the boat left at 20 to 4, not such a long wait as I had feared. Initials. Yes, thank you Father the manuscript arrived safely yesterday. Initials.
My dear Father & Mother,
I was very glad to get the home news when I came in this afternoon from seeing the "Demosthenes" off. Father's letter was here waiting for me. I hope Le will get on well & all the colds & "unwellness" in the house disappear, and that very soon.
Rid went on board a little before 12 just before the troops went on- about 2000 there were, they said. We were all kept behind barriers at the entrance to the Pier, about 5 minutes walk from where the boat lay- a big crowd of people there were & it was only just when the ropes were thrown off & the boat was about to leave that the barricades were unlatched & there was a mad scramble along the wharf to try to reach the boat before she got quite away, to wave the final good-byes. Doris & I ran our hardest & just succeeded in getting a good look at Rid & a shouted message from him & the boat had gone! But I had a lot of waves from him after, as she passed quickly out, for we had arranged a special sort of wave. Everybody has been very kind indeed here & I will try & be content to stay a little while, though I feel terribly restless & want to get home. Still I am going to try & remember that "A lowly heart that leans on Thee is happy anywhere."
Forgive brevity, but I find it hard to write at length.
Much love
Ollie.
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Lettercard postmarked Victoria addressed to
J. Waterhouse Esq, M.A.
Cairnleith
Archer St.,
Chatswood
Sydney N.S.W.
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S. S. "Malwa"
5.12.15
My very dear Father & Mother,
This is Sunday evening and we are said to be not far from Cape Leewin, so you see the Australian part of the voyage is nearly over and are you not proud of your olive-branch, she hasn't even felt ill once? Or rather can you guess how very grateful I am to have been well all the way so far? I am so thankful.
We have had very much the same sort of weather from Adelaide on as we did before, altogether a splendid trip across the Bight.
Monday. Was interrupted & now we are just about half an hour away from Freemantle and it is still lovely bright warm weather.
The first day out the doctor was rather a disgrace, he was so awfully sick & it was
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2. quite two days before he picked up. Gwendoline Bateman is absolutely charming. She is so bright & girlish & yet so clever & entertaining & has such a sweet face that it only took me about five minutes to completely fall in love with her and I am sure that before we leave the ship everyone else will have done so too. John is very nice but he is miles eclipsed by this wife of his. I wish I had half her gifts they would be so useful to Rid.
I am hoping to send a telegram to Adelaide to you, Father, & long ere this gets to you you ought to have had it. I couldn't remember the name of Mr Scott's house.
I had such a lovely big budget of letters at Adelaide, they were waiting for me on the Malwa. Among them was yours Mother dear, for which thank you so much, and those of Rid's that you kindly posted on: also the Xmas cards & several other odd letters. I think already I have had to write about 18 or 19 on board, it seems endless, really.
Am probably going to Perth with the Batemans
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3. for a little while this morning, am not quite sure yet.
Oh I should have said that Rid had not had my reply cable when he wrote, he had only just sent his, & so did not like to commit himself too much but he wrote very hopefully of my coming & almost excitedly; he had some plans in prospect for a boarding place for me & was very cheerful about it all. It was all quite encouraging to me.
My little table steward is as attentive as ever & do you know I am disgraceful enough to have had two ices every meal, I mean every night. Last night I tried the experiment of asking him for "only one to-night please steward." But alas, he could not have understood for it
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4. arrived just the same, so now I am doomed to a double share always.
I did miss you awfully the first few days daddy dear, it was just awful to trot about alone after having had you & though I still miss you & would love you to be here I think I have schooled myself to it more. Every time it came to a meal time I felt inclined to cry "I wa'me daddy" not me dinner or anything else, & I still do, though have settled down a little more.
John & Gwen are sitting next to me at table and later on we will be having quite jolly times. We have added to our little company that young man who is going home to enlist, you remember the one with the brown eyes one of which is badly affected. He is very gentlemanly & altogether nice- not that New Zealander, but one whom you had a long chat with: his name is Leckie and he is an engineer surveyor thing. Well you dear people mine, we are at Freemantle now & must close.
Very much love to you all,
Your very loving daughter
X Olive X
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S. S. "Malwa".
Dec. 9th 1915.
My darling Home-folks,
There is not a great deal to write about but I don't want to leave it till we are right at port like last time, everything is too rushed then.
I can't tell you quite how much I am enjoying the trip now. When you were with me Father dear I was sort of restrainedly happy because I wasn't sure whether I might feel the sea-sickness any time and I was having to go carefully. But if only I could transport you here now you'd find all care & restraint had vanished, and I'd be ready to join you in anything. I'm never going to be afraid of sea-sickness any more.
You know I set out on this voyage feeling more trustful than ever before that God was going to send me just what was best for me, and I feel more & more like that, & though I cannot
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2. expect things to go so beautifully smoothly all the time, still you know I'll be taken care of when I get there & anyhow have the Best that I have been talking of. And you won't worry one scrap about me will you, you remember I said I was going to be two things that couldn't leave me in trouble- trustful & careful, & I do so mean to be too.
Now about the sort of weather we have had from Freemantle on! It became rougher than we had previously had it just as we left there & the last couple of days it has been rather gloriously rough, the only trouble being that all the ports downstairs had to be kept closed & the cabins were getting rather unventilated. But the waves were just lovely & the deep blues in them nearly went to one's head. To-day it is smoother & more glarey. When we came down to breakfast this morning the stewards &c presented such a refreshing sight all in white, you will remember what a pleasant surprise it is Father.
And oh Father, please describe our little table steward to the others at home. John was speaking
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3. of him as "Small pox" & I begged him to find another name in case he might overhear some time and it hurt his feelings, so John suggested "Violet" as he is so shy & modest, and Violet it has been ever since: it is so unspeakably appropriate! Do you know Violet always brings my two ice-creams on the one plate now: last night they were strawberry ices & my two were a really deep pink not only a blush pink like most of the others, and the others declared that Violet had meant them as a special honour, though I think possibly they happened to be the scrapings off the bottom where the colouring was not properly mixed through.
Gwen Bateman is an absolute darling & the memory she has for poetry & entertaining anecdotes, or more solid matter, is wonderful & she keeps us entertained by the hour. I wish I had either her knowledge of literature or her memory, it would be invaluable, but I'm not going to despair I'm going to cultivate.
Strange to say Father, with you, departed any liking for novel-reading on board, & I haven't even opened that book I got out of the library while you were here.
Have read a good bit of that Guide Book & "The Physiology of Faith & Fear," & have been knitting a bit.
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4. Gwen is educating me up to Rudyard Kipling, she often reads it aloud to our little party. I told you I think that we had added to our party a Mr Leckie. We all do French together too, take it in turns to read a paragraph & then translate it. Gwen's accent is good & she corrects us & does the general over-seeing. So you see what a profitable time we are having.
Oh I haven't said anything about Freemantle or Perth, but there isn't anything much to say because I was distinctly disappointed in them & we only had a short time in which to look round. Also it was a broiling day, which under ordinary circumstances would have been tolerable but coming from the cold of the boat trip & arrayed in warm clothes it was rather roasty. It felt just like coming home to get back on the "Malwa" & I feel as if I wanted to smile at every one of the stewards & just yell at the top of my voice only I preserved my dignity & didn't do either. Instead I went straight to my cabin to get into something cool & was so delighted to find a wire there from "me daddy." I wonder did you get mine, I hope so.
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5. 12.12.15.
This is dear little Nancy Jobber's birthday & I have been thinking of her quite a lot. We are having a really steaming day here I wonder if it is so with you too. Last night it was nearly too stewy to sleep but not quite and really I am quite grateful to be able to say that I sort of enjoy it all. For the three days after we left Freemantle it was rough and we had to have those little fences all over the tables, not very rough you know but just rough, what you might call gloriously rough when you are quite sure you are not going to be sea-sick, but since then the old ocean has just been behaving like a rather troubled harbour, scarcely any swell on at all.
Do you know Father I have tried several times to get that "Book of Ceylon," our little party wants to go through it all together, but so far I have
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6. failed. However the librarian was very nice this morning & promised to keep it for me.
Yesterday afternoon Gwen invited Mr Leckie, another girl passenger & myself to a French tea & we had wedding cake & sweets & a novel game & altogether quite a jolly little time. Then at night we were present at a dance though needless to say I did not dance. Gwen & the doctor did though & Mr Leckie & I enjoyed watching them quite sufficiently. This Mr Leckie is such a well-read young fellow and always so gentlemanly that we all think such a lot of him.
There are a fair number of children on board & though some of them are unbearably spoiled, some are just little dears & make a pleasant change. One little child takes fits of haunting my cabin and is by turns an angel & again a rather tiresome little body. My knitting is going ahead, & though I hardly ever seem to have it out of my hands, it doesn't get done quite so quickly as I had bargained. Still I love doing it & it forms a splendid outlet for superfluous energy. The gentlemen have had cricket a couple of times but we ladies have had no exercise of that sort.
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7. 15.12.15. Here we are almost at Colombo, on a beautifully roasty day and fairly choked with information as to what to see from the "Book of Ceylon" which Mr Leckie managed somehow or other to procure only this morning. So far we have only just seen coastline & are excited even at that.
Am hoping to send a little later news from Colombo to-morrow as we stay here to-night. We are due in about 2 to-day at the latest & do not leave till 6.p.m to-morrow night. I am so glad it is fine even though it is hot to roasting.
Now just while I think of it Father dear when you are fixing my debts to you don't forget all those items in Adelaide such as 2/- train fare and a couple of such like things will you.
My money is still lasting out but I expect a fair bit to go to-day specially as I want to get a Ceylon panama hat. Gwen is getting one too!
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8. I think I had better close this now & go & lock up all I can lay my hands on after your experience of losing your library book Father!
Very much love to you each you dear darlings
X very lovingly yours X
Olive.
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Shipping letterhead of P & O S.N.Co.
S.S. "Malwa"
Sunday 19.12.15.
My very dear Father & Mother,
After all the Company decided to call at Bombay and as I write we are just a few hours from there: it is in connection with the mails I believe from all we can hear, for it seems that there is rather a shortage of boats since so many have been commandeered.
We do not know yet whether we shall be allowed to land or not, but expect to as we have passports. The trip from Colombo here has been almost as smooth as possible, and if it had not been for the incessant jolting by the propellor one might imagine it some big ferry trip across some harbour.
It is rumoured that all our stewards are changed here & we are so sorry for we have become so accustomed to them & they to us & our ways. John took a photo of "Violet" this morning, what do you think of that!
I had letters from Rid at Colombo: just short
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2. with not a great deal of news, but of course was delighted to get them. At any rate so far there is no talk of his being moved & I don't feel that there is much chance of it now. He said that he had written home to you so that you will know any bits of news there is.
We had a grand time in Colombo & perhaps it is a mercy for me, Father, that you have been there & know it all & can describe it to Mother a thousand times better than I could do, for I should certainly be having to rack my brains for adjectives and suitable expressions. Dr & Mrs Bateman went off on a little honey-moon trip to Kandy, for I think I told you that we had in port from 2 o'clock on Wednesday till 11.p.m on Thursday- practically a day and a half. So Miss & I accompanied by Mr Leckie did things together. First of all on Wednesday we followed those directions of yours, Father, and walked up to the Post Office and Lighthouse, saw the Gordon Gardens, Queen's House &c, naturally all the while being pestered nearly to death by rick-shaw men. Finally we each chose one & Mr Leckie tipped them to keep together & off we went. I had a sort of idea that it would be quaint & novel but uncomfortable and a relief to get out though the
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P and O letterhead as before
experience was necessary to say one had been in such things. Instead of that, as you know, it was delightfully comfortable and quite a charming way of travelling and we did so enjoy ourselves. We went out to the Cinnamon gardens, saw the Buddhist temple, the Museum, to say nothing of the native quarters through which we passed & then on to Galle Face, where we had afternoon tea at the lovely Hotel there. As we sat there we had a glorious view of the sea & the coast fringed with those knobby palms & being a glorious bright day it was really a charming view. Afterwards we rickshawed back to the wharf along that sea-coast & it was fine.
The second day we did a little shopping and looking about & then took tram rides (in the front of them of course) out to different parts & it was all a revelation. Of course there was a great deal of the begging business but one soon became accustomed to that & even looked for it. I did love the pretty little children with their beaming smiles & my heart softened distinctly when a little touch on my
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arm revealed a little appealing dark face with an assumed hungry look & a very softly uttered "Lady!" The little wretches they are!
Here we are close up to Bombay, and so much sooner than I had expected, so must be closing.
I don't need to say that I shall be thinking of you all at Xmas though that will all be past before this reaches you. I have not written to anyone else from here I had such a sickening of it to post at Colombo, so I should be glad if you see Mill or any of my pals if you would tell them that we called at Bombay & present my compliments.
Well my own dear home-folks good-bye for a little longer till the next port & anyhow I may be home lot sooner than you think. With a great deal of love,
Yours very lovingly
Olive
How is that Scamp getting on? OHO initials.
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S.S."Malwa"
23rd Dec. 1915.
My very dear Father & Mother,
As I write we are in sight of the Arabian coast and in another twelve hours or so expect to reach Aden. Christmas Day we should spend in the Red Sea. To-morrow here I shall be picturing you all and wondering just what you are doing with your Xmas Day, it will have to be to-morrow you see because you are more than eight hours ahead of us.
Before I go any further let me apologise for my writing in case it becomes awful for the old Malwa is jerking furiously. I think she must have extra steam up or something for the jigging is absolutely cruel.
I posted to you from Bombay, I wonder were you surprised to find that we called there, we were ourselves. It was about 12 o'clock by the time we got ashore, Sunday it was.
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2. All day I had to keep reminding myself that it was Sunday for it all seemed so queer. Bombay is very different to Colombo, far more wealth seems to have accumulated there and is manifest in the great stately buildings: all the fine architecture impressed me greatly, and even from the boat as she lay in the harbour it quite struck one. On our left lay the thickly populated city and to the right great high barren hills, and it made such a pleasing contrast. This coastline of Arabia is very hilly also, indeed it seems to be so everywhere but in sunny Australia. But I was telling you about Bombay. Gwen had a friend whom she thought was staying at the Y.W.C.A there and we drove straight away there the four of us John & Gwen & Mr Leckie & myself: we went in a ghari otherwise a sort of big cab. We found that the lady we were seeking was not there but some miles out in one of the suburbs, but the Y.M.C.A secretary was very nice & showed us over the building which by the way was almost magnificent and certainly beautifully
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3. cool and clean looking, tiled floors, high rooms &c. We had tiffin as they call it, there and afterwards set out in a motor car to find this young lady. The Y.W. Secretary came with us as a guide & on our way stopped us at the other two branches of the Y.W.C.A and showed us through them: they also were very fine and representative of a great work being done there. At last, after about an hour's drive, which by the way, showed us a very good deal of the city, we arrived at the Missionary Settlement for University women where we found the desired lady. After a little time spent there we proceeded in our car to the top of the hill- Malabar Hill it is called- where we obtained a charming view of the city & harbour. It really was a beautiful view, with its orientalisms.
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4. Do you know I did not have an idea before that Bombay is really an island, though it is joined to the mainland by a bridge, and that it is only about 7 X 3 miles & has a population of nearly 1 million! My geography progresses!
Then after our view we were driven back to the first after Y.W.C.A where we had afternoon tea & then went on to the boat again at 5 o'clock. Of course we paid for all the motoring about, lunch &c but my share only came out to 7/6 and it was worth it every bit. The natives in Bombay were not nearly so attractive as in Colombo but the same begging was not apparent.
John procured some stuff- forget what you call it- and inoculated Gwen & me for typhoid on the Sunday night at bed time. We were rather off colour all day Monday & Gwen has not been right since, though with me it was only troublesome the one day. I am thankful to have it done or partly done, for we have to have another injection next Monday.
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5. We do not seem to have lost much, if any, time over our call at Bombay & will probably still reach Port Said on 28th as Rid expected when he last wrote me. I am going to Cairo with John & Gwen & from there to Alexandria, that is the best way but will send Rid a wire as soon as we get to Port Said. It will all depend on what time of day we get in whether I can go right there the same day. Rid has sent me a list of trains.
I am amazed to find myself almost here the time has not been too long and I shall be so pleased when I can send you a cable from my final destination.
You will know I am all right & safe won't you, whatever you may hear from papers &c.
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6. I suppose I must close this. I wonder has Wallie gone yet & if I shall see him. I do hope so & I wonder often if I shall be seeing Le again soon too!
Much love to you all, you dear people
Most lovingly yours
Olive
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Y.W.C.A. R. 8.2.16
Alexandria.
30.12.15.
P.S. Am only here for 2 or 3 days. Am to choose my own Pension, one or two good ones having been recommended to us. OLO.
My very dear Father & Mother,
Here I am really in Alexandria safe and sound but I want this to be only a short note that I can run out almost at once to post in case of catching an Australian mail. I will write fully when I come in from finding the post-office &c. It is all very strange yet of course but I shall soon find my way about.
After all Rid met me at Port Said so I had quite a delightful train journey with no cares or worries about the final destination. Everything was very easy plain sailing. I must tell you about the last part of the journey when I come back but I am so anxious to get something posted for it seems impossible to find out when mails go, and
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2. I know how disappointed you would be if I missed a mail.
The Y.W. here is rather nice though somewhat bare, and everybody seems very busy in her own way so that I have not had much opportunity of finding out anything yet. Rid had to leave me just a few minutes after we got here last night about 9.30 and I shall not see him again till to-morrow when I am to tram up to the Hospital: he is very busy. You see he is about 25 minutes tram ride away from here & after having the two days leave necessary to get himself to Port Said & me back he has to stick closely to work for a day or two.
I am very well & though a little fogged, just a little, am quite happy. More later, much love dears
Your loving daughter
Olive
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New York Pension R. 8.2.16
The Square
Alexandria.
1.1.16
My own dear Home Folks,
Your Arabic daughter finds herself settled comfortably in her new home but is nearly starving for her dinner. So far that meal has always been served in this heathen country at 8 o'clock & I had been watching for that hour here also, but alas, it is twenty past eight now & I suppose the designed hour must be 8.30 for assuredly I haven't missed it as the cook was very busy in the kitchen just now when I sauntered past & also the tables in the dejeuner room are all ready set. Don't be alarmed I shall not starve for I had afternoon tea at the Y.W.C.A. it is of necessity a regular meal here. When I come home I shall be expecting dinner when you are thinking of going to bed, or else if you insist on my dining at your respectable hour I shall be waking up in the night & coming down to cook fish & a joint & some vegetables at the very least.
I think I told you that the proprietress here is a little French lady who only seems to know about 6 English words. I have a skimpy sort of dictionary- French-English but Rid & I were out looking for a better one this afternoon only most of the shops were shut being New Year's Day. The one I have is one that was prepared for the soldiers & is mostly a military affair but will help.
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2. I think I know the names of most of the things I shall want & I don't care how pigeon-French my language is.
Later At that point came dinner & after all it is usually at 8 only everbody had been kept late at concerts &c as it was new Year's Eve Night and dinner was made later: so I shall not die of hunger every night after all.
Yesterday morning I took tram up to 21st G. Hospital by previous arrangement and Rid showed me his little apartment in the funny long wooden hut & any treasures he had accumulated and then took me across to the wards where I was introduced to the matron, a very nice little English lady, and then wrote one or two letters for the soldiers who were either sightless or armless. By then it was almost lunch time & I had to catch a tram back to the Y.W.C.A for my repast. Went up again in the afternoon & did a couple more letters & Rid showed me through some more of the wards. It was not too easy writing the letters, I find it rather difficult to understand the Scotch, but I loved doing it for them & hope to improve.
Rid gave me a great surprise at night: he arrived just as we had finished dinner at the Y.W. saying that he had an hour to spare as it was New Year's Eve, and we went for a walk. The streets were rather full of soldiers & all sorts and it was very noisy, but we had really nowhere quiet to go & anyhow it was something quite extra to be together at all.
This morning I did not go out but did some ironing of little necessaries with my spirit iron and then my packing up ready to leave the Y.W. in the afternoon. Rid had to come into town for funerals & I was to go with him.
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3. He found that after all there were none for him so we had that extra time & after he had seen me and my luggage here to the York Pension we had a couple of hours together here & such a lovely little time. Then he had to be off to get back to mess- they have it at 7.30 now - and I unpacked and watched for my dinner hour. I forgot to mention that before Rid went to see about his funerals he took me to the Red X Depot to see about getting me attached to the Hospital but nothing could be actually done till he had the definite permission of the Matron and O.C., which he says he almost has now & will have no difficulty in getting on Monday.
I feel so glad to have my things properly unpacked- the first time for almost five weeks, and a couple of photos about make my room more home-like, I wish with all my heart, now, that I had brought more. Still it is not worth while asking you to send more in case they take it into their heads to pack off all of us women out of Egypt. It is not probable but quite possible that they may do, in which case you have promised not to worry about me for I shall be well cared for somehow or other for an absolute certainty.
There are several English people in this Pension and amongst them a very nice doctor from 21 & his wife- Capt. & Mrs Miller, a new wife she is. I shall like them I know as Rid does though there are a couple of other officers not quite my style, still one needn't have anything to say to them & they may be nicer than I can judge from first appearances.
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4. 2nd January 1916. My dear Home Folk let me tell you what my first Sunday in these funny old lands has been like. First of all I had "le petit dejeuner" at about 7 o'clock, which consisted of lots of bread & a large pat of butter, and tea nicely served. By the way I have been struck constantly by the nice china that is used for every purpose over here. I was not sure what time breakfast ordinary was served so made quite a meal of my 7 o'clock & so found myself rather unhungry at 8.30 breakfast. Rid had arranged for me to go up to the Convalescent Home (where he used to have his room) at a quarter to ten and I found myself there too early as usual. Another chaplain and he were taking the service together & my excuse for being there was that I was playing the piano. Then I went across to 21 Hospital with Rid & played the little organ for Captain Chaplain Grieves at his service while Rid did some ward visiting. Mr Grieves is Rid's next door room mate and apart from that they are special friends. He is a big fellow & has nick named my special belonging Tom Thumb: however that is the worst case I can bring against him for he seems to be an awfully nice gentlemanly man & Rid is very fond of him: he is a Church of England man but not the mad High Church sort. I have met another exceedingly nice chaplain- Mr Stirling- a Methodist he is, but I shall be mentioning him at the end of the day's doings. After the second service & a short chat to Mr Grieves I had to depart homewards in the tram to be in time for lunch. In the afternoon I did a little bit of Bible Study & then had a read of the "Billy Sunday Life Evangelistic Message." Then wrote up my diary & one or two odd things & found it was time to get ready for church. There was to be a Methodist service in town at 6 o'clock conducted by Captain Stirling whom I mentioned above. He is a comparatively young man from England he comes. This is the first service of the sort that has
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5. been held and it was a great success. I don't know who is loaning them the church, but it is rather beautiful inside & there is quite a fine pipe-organ in it and it was really a treat to have some decent Sunday music again. Of course the service was started really for soldiers and I suppose there were not more than a dozen civilians present, and about a hundred & fifty soldiers. It made quite a fine congregation & the whole service had a nice tone about it, Mr Stirling is a beautiful spirited man & I thought the same of Mr Grieves in the morning too. Just loved all three services that I was at to-day, though to-night's seemed the most homey perhaps. I was just trying to settle down for the evening without hating my own presence too much when a delightful surprise arrived in the shape of my sweetheart; he had gone without mess so as to come & I could have yelled with joy at sight of him. I managed to get some dinner for him for it was not quite our dinner hour when he arrived, so all was well & we had a lovely little time together. The last tram to Ras-el-tin leaves at 9.30 so he left in time to catch that.
Even if I had to go back to Australia to-morrow it would have been worth the money & the trip to have seen this much of him. You may have me come wandering back soon after all. There is a good deal of talk of sending back officers' wives but whether it will come to the point we do not know yet. I shall come back cheerfully if that is the verdict. We just heard the news to-day of the sinking of the Persia: so terrible it all is though we get very few details. The papers are very meagre.
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6. And as for finding out when mails go to Australia, I might almost as well try & find out where the "Australia" is!
By the way I had a note yesterday from Gwen Bateman to say that they are off the Khartum on Monday to supply for someone for six months there, so that is another packing up for them. I am sorry for personal reasons for it was nice to think that they were just down in Cairo to fall back on if I needed them. However it must be meant to be so.
Well dear Father & Mother I had better close this letter perhaps & be off to bed. I have slept splendidly each night till last night when it was so fearfully rowdy as to perev prevent one till rather late & as I prophesied weeks back I fell to thinking of sweet little balcony corner & if only I could grab my special possession here & keep him I'd fly off back to-morrow. Still I'm sure to sleep through to-night I'm more accustomed to my new home, & when once I get into regular work I'll be healthily tired at night & nothing will keep me awake.
I do hope you are all well there. I have not written to dear old Wallie, feeling that he would almost certainly be gone, but if he isn't do give him great loads of love from me, won't you? My telephone no here is 13 please ring me up soon!
So very much love dear People, & most loving wishes for the New Year.
Your affectionate Egyptian daughter
Zeytoun.
P.S. Have written to Capt. Hammond, Paymaster at Cairo. Probably the Y.W.C.A. Victoria House, Alexandria may be my permanent postal address. It is only about 7 or 8 minutes walk from here and in case I should move from here it will save delay. OLO.
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Cairo. Pension Wales. 21.2.16. Recd 4.4.16.
My very dear Father & Mother,
A fortnight to-day we have been in Cairo or at least I have, and the last few days we have been together & are just waiting for Rid to receive his instructions to join his unit. I am so thankful to have him well again though he is not perhaps quite his old self yet. To-day is Monday and he came out of Hospital last Wednesday afternoon so that we have had quite a nice long time together; it would have been much more satisfactory if we could have known something definite, for the way we have had to live daily & hourly in expectation of his summons to duty has rather taken the edge off things. On receipt of my letter to his new Commandant telling that he was ill & could not report at the given date, there came back a telegram saying that he was to await instructions. Still though it has been an unsettling time, it has been lovely to have the time together. Last Thursday, the day after he came out of Hospital, we went together to Zeytoun to look for Le & Wal for ourselves. We searched for Le and found that he was not there after all & then inquired for Wal & without any difficulty worth speaking of found him. It was most delightful to see him again & almost immediately he was able to get leave, & came into Cairo with us to lunch & to spend the rest of the day. We thought we were "just the boys"! Wal looks well & seems so but for a rather severe cold he has got, & I think he is happy as far as it is possible to be under such circumstances. His lieutenancy certainly affords him privileges worth having.
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2. It was fine to be the first to take him out to the Pyramids & though Rid & I had seen them before we all enjoyed them together. More than once we could not help remarking then, & Rid & I have done since, how glad you would be to know we had been together at any rate so much. It is an hour's tram ride out to the Pyramids from Cairo but it is through intensely interesting scenery & is not tiresome. We were a little late in starting out for them because we went to the Bank & one or two other places we wanted to give Wal directions to, and you will think it was rather late for afternoon tea when I tell you it was after 7 o'clock when we sat down. It did not spoil our dinner though so it was all right. It was such a pity we couldn't have had Le too. I had a very nice letter from him re-addressed from Alexandria & though it is not headed so, I gather he is down at Tel-el-Keber. He is going to come up to Alex. to see me early in March if we cannot arrange anything before, I am sure I shall hug him when I see him wherever it is.
We tried to arrange to go out with Wal the following day or Saturday but received a note next morning from him by his orderly to say that he would be close at it till Monday night & no chance of seeing him till Tuesday at the earliest, that is to-morrow.
On Friday I had a most exhilarating day, my letters that I had asked to be re-addressed here came, and there were 19. It was fine to have heard about you from Wal the day before, & then to have your letters the next day. Thank you both so much for the lovely long separate letters you wrote, I had two from you Mother, I do so love getting them but I don't want you to weary your dear selves you have so little time & so many letters to write.
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3. Every little bit of home news however small or detaily is most welcome when one is in a heathen place like this. What a tiny family you are again, I do hope you will be able to take things a bit more easily little Mother, you must have had such a fearful lot to do this summer, you have had the whole family of us home at one time or another haven't you?
While I think of it, we got a little birthday reminder for each of you the other day in Cairo & will be posting them together. They will be fearfully late I know but you can pretend they aren't, can't you?
I have been in Cairo two Sundays & each time have been to the two Sunday services at the Methodist Church, the first time by myself the second with Rid. The morning services are very small, about 120 or 30 soldiers & two or three civilians, but the evening ones are fine about 250 soldiers & just about a dozen others. Yesterday in the morning though such a small attendance we had a choice sermon & Rid was delighted over it but at night we had another chaplain & it was disappointingly poor. The former Sunday it had been the other way round & I had had quite a treat of a sermon at night. Services are at 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.
We have had a couple of nice little outings though have taken things fairly quietly, one morning it looked as if Rid's throat were going to be giving trouble again & I kept him in bed till lunch time. However with a gargle & tannin it seems to have been warded off, but shows that he is not properly right yet. We shall both be glad to have some finality about his going, in one sense, for he is rather afraid that they may think he is taking advantage of the leave & is getting rather restless, on the other hand when the summons does come it
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4. will be a sudden end to times together & will be hard to get used to & one does not know when it is all to end: there is a lot of talk here about our troops being moved to France soon & if that is so of course he will go with them. Still it is no use trying to look into the future.
22.2.16 Must close this darling People. No more news yet about Rid moving off to Tel-el-Keber, we are still hanging on from day to day, it seems too good to be true this lovely little time together, and this afternoon we have had Wal with us & have had a great time. He is still here with us for another hour or so; this afternoon we have been tramping round amongst the native streets, in the bazaars & such like places & it is all most intensely interesting though the squalor & muddle of their life disgusts me fearfully; then we had an immense afternoon tea together at a stylish cafe- six cakes each only I got stuck at the fifth & had to palm it off on to Wal the remaining one I mean. I should have told you we had ices together first before starting out on our hour, we get reckless when we all get together & start doing things in style.
So very much love to you, you dear patient-waiting-at-home People Your loving daughter
Olive.
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Pension Wales
Sharia el Manakh
Cairo. Sunday Feb 27th. 1916.
My very dear Father & Mother,
Yesterday afternoon Rid received word that he was to report at Tel-el-Keber and to-morrow morning he sets off there. It has been so delightful to be together again that it seems harder than ever to think of settling down alone again. In Alexandria I had got more or less used to living by myself and should not have felt it quite so much perhaps, as after being together again but still it has been so lovely to have this unexpected little time that one could not wish it different. Rid's throat seems quite strong again & he himself fit for duty I am thankful to say. I think the change of work will probably be good for him though of course it will be a much rougher life in many ways. The camp at Tel-el-Keber is better than the make-shifts at the Front but it is decidedly rougher than those close to Cairo, from what we hear, like Zeitoun where Wal is now.
This afternoon we went out to see Wal & had a couple of hours with him & Rid said his good-byes for the present: Wal himself may go to Tel-el-Keber later, & as I have mentioned Leo seems to be there now. Rid is going to hunt him up & chum up with him on every available occasion: it may not be as simple a matter as it sounds for it is a huge camp there & the artillery may be miles from Le's company. In case you are in any doubt
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2. as to Rid's address from the cable we intend to send to-morrow it is Divisional Artillery, 1st Australian Division, A.I.F. Egypt. My address is above, though just Pension Wales, Cairo would be sufficient. I did think perhaps I should go back to Alexandria, indeed feel almost sure of it when Rid's destination for the present was to be Serapeum & there was no certainty of Wal's or Le's whereabouts. But just latterly everything has seemed to point to my coming down to Cairo to stay. I shall be within much easier reach of Rid & Le at Tel-el-Keber, it is about three hours by train & it is possible Rid may be able to slip up about once a fortnight. Wal, I shall be able to see at least once a week I think if I am in Cairo, that is while he is at Zeitoun at any rate, and I should be cut off from all this if I were up in Alexandria, though certainly I leave behind a rather nicer home than we can find here and a number of pleasant acquaintances. It has been rather a difficult matter to settle just what to do for the best, but nearly everything seems to point to my coming to Cairo.
Monday 28th Feb. In the train. I have just seen Rid off & am trying to finish this in the train on my way up to Alexandria to get my clothes & other belongings. Intend to stay there until Wednesday & then come back here again. I will tell you about the Pension Wales when I get back there & settle down though I know pretty well what it will be like since I have stayed there a fortnight and am to have the same room on my return that we have been having together. You will see what a fine building it is in by the photo that I shall be enclosing.
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3. Since I last wrote to you Rid has been putting in most of the time with photography, taking the pictures in the later part of the morning & earlier part of afternoon, developing them & fixing in the evening. He has only taken off prints of a very few it used to take rather much time doing them one at a time. He wants very much if possible to get up a lecture with lantern slides at the end of the war on Ancient Egypt, he thinks that everybody will be talking about the war and modern Egypt and when everybody is tired of hearing & seeing about those perhaps his "Ancient Egypt" will be useful. Not immediately after the war of course, for I think for some time people will be interested in nothing much else because it has come so close home to most, but his idea is that if he can get it up properly his lecture would be good always, the ten years ahead or more.
He is not neglecting to take street scenes & typical people & things because of course he will want to have a talk on that too, but a great deal of time has gone this last week in taking photos of mummies & tombs & inscriptions & things in the Museum. We were doubtful whether it would be possible to get photos in the Museum, whether the light would be strong enough, but they have been a wonderful success. He just had to guess at the time exposures for the first film and was as happy as a school boy to find that they were just right. If only we had had any idea that we should be so long in Cairo there were several trips that we should have taken that would have given some splendid photos, but you see we were afraid to go anywhere fo more than half a day in case of peremptory orders coming any time. However it is possible
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4. there may be chance to get them later on.
Pension York I received quite an enthusiastic welcome back here and a little after arrival had a telegram from Rid at Tel-el-Keber just saying "Splendid. Love;" it was to relieve my mind about the conditions there for I know how horrid some of the officers were to him at first in the Hospital & how keen some O.Cs are to show the Chaplains they are not wanted. It seems to be all right though the telegram was quite a surprise.
I sent the cable to you to-day that we made up in Wal's tent yesterday.
Must close this now dear People. Very much love to you all, Your loving daughter
Olive.
P.S. Please Father will you take a note of the fact that Wal paid me back £5 last week; I don't want it but he wanted to get rid of it evidently. O.L.O.
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Pension Wales.
Sharia-el-Manakh
Cairo. Wednesday March 8th 1916.
My very dear Father & Mother,
There has been a long spell between the mails from you this time & I am watching every day now for letters. I was so glad when I got back to Alexandria on my expedition to get the rest of my clothes to find a letter from Mother waiting for me and one from Jobber in French. While I was in Alex I went to the Post Office & gave them the addresses to which letters had been coming for me and they gave me a form to fill in which ensures them all being re-directed straight from the Post office here. The local mails like that are often a shocking time in being delivered though, for instance last Monday week Rid wrote to me direct here and it did not reach me till the following Thursday and he only three hours or less away, by train. I am gradually settling down in Cairo now though have not taken up any special work yet on purpose because I have been seeing quite a lot of Wal at different times & also because we decided a little spell would do me good now as the summer is coming on. I think I shall not be able to get hospital work like I had in Alexandria because there is very little of it to do here now that our troops are inactive and we are now having casualties like those of the Dardanelles. But there is likely to be work in connection with the T.U. or Y.W.CA & those sort of institutions. The three of us have talked about my future and Wal & Rid both thought it would be a mistake to return to Australia yet, but that it would be better to just wait a little
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2. and see how things go. Of course it is no use denying the fact that Rid would not have cabled for me to come, nor would I have urged to come, if we had known that the Dardanelles business was to close so soon & there to be the slackening off of hospital work & all the changes that are evidently about to take place. Still I am not sorry I did come & neither is Rid & we have had some delightful times together & I have managed to get a little work in. So I have hinted there is talk of much change and if Wal should be moved away say to France or Salonika or any of these places like that there is talk of now and Rid should also be moved with his division out of Egypt, then if there is not much doing here you may possibly get a cable saying that I am coming home. So you can see it is all very uncertain & I only mention it so that you will understand how things are if I should so cable. By the way if I did send such word I wonder if you would mind letting Sister Alice know she has been very kind to me. On second thoughts it is not worth while though, because I should be writing before leaving and that would be quite notice enough, though you would tell Millie for me & Evelyn wouldn't you?
It is so queer to know so little about the future. Here we are all four at present in Egypt quite comfortable and within a few hours of each other, and yet any day one or all of the boys may be whisked away. I am so thankful for your sake that there has been this little time of inaction for our troops, for you will have known that the boys are quite safe and not in hardship for at least this much time.
Have just had an interruption in the shape of a flying visit from Jocelyn Carr who arrived yesterday from Australia. He has
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3. just given me the distracting news that there are to be no more mails home to Australia for six weeks, after to-morrow, so it is said & if it is a fact it is too horrible to think of you having to wait all that time for news of the boys. But you will be quite sure that no news is good news dear People won't you, & probably the boys will be here safe in Egypt all the time, for after all they cannot leave Egypt unguarded & some of them have to stay. We none of us have seen Le yet and his last note says that all leave is stopped now so we cannot just now. He was not at Zeitoun where the A.I.F. told me he was while Rid was sick & it was because I had addressed his letters there that he was not getting them. Rid had a note from him last week saying that he is at Serapeum, the latter word was censored out but I had also had one in which it was possible to read the word and that as I think I mentioned once before is down along the canal but not actually on it, it is more in the desert. He said that he is now to be addressed Driver & that we are to leave out the Reinforcements altogether when we write to him.
You will have had my last letter saying that Rid joined his unit at Tel-el-Keber on February 28th, he seems very happy there and keen on his work, but he told me that he had written to you giving you an idea of his new sphere. His address accurately is 2nd Brigade 1st Divisional Artillery. A.I.F. Egypt; this I add in case you have not got his letter. I had numerous letters from him during the week and then to my utter amazement yesterday morning, just over a week after his departure, he appeared here at the Pension.
He had only come for the day & had a lot of business to get through such as getting hymn- books, communion- set, and all sorts of places to go to & after all had not quite finished at the end of the day though he had been at it quite hard, and so stayed the night. We had a delightful quiet little evening together &
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4. it was all the more valuable because it might be the last for ever so long if he should suddenly get orders to go off somewhere, though on the hand if they stay there he may be up again before long.
I have been here in Cairo a week to-day in my settled home and have had Wallie in three times, isn't that grand? Two of the afternoons we went out for a walk just to give Wal the opportunity of taking snaps with his camera and then when the light was failing a bit went to our special shop for afternoon tea & loitered over it, talking, for ever so long. The other afternoon we did not go out but had a long yarn & tea here in the Pension. I think he is really looking well, & each time I see him it strikes me how fat in the face he is. It has been a great disappointment that we have not been able to add Le to our little meetings, but perhaps we shall later. Rid is going to write to him from Tel-el-Keber and ask him, if he cannot get leave long enough to come to Cairo as he says he is sure he cannot, if he will try to get leave to go to Tel-el-Keber which is so much nearer & then he will try & get Le's leave extended for him. It will be nice if they can see each other even if we cannot, Wal & I, see him.
While I think of it Rid received the photo of Wal, in splendid order, Father dear, last week & is going to give it to me only he forgot to bring it this time. The socks & face cloth from Auntie Janie that you posted early in January have not come to hand & I think must have gone to someone else. As long as it is someone needy I do not mind for Rid has really too many now. Wal & Le have all they can manage to keep anyhow just at present & I have given up knitting for the time being. At present am making a "tidy" of pockets for Rid like the one Evelyn made for Walter, it is a
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5. fine idea. I find it very hard sewing it by hand because it is of holland, specially as I have made extra work to it by putting flaps to cover each pocket to keep the sand out, but it is not too hard to do. I feel most grateful to Evelyn for the idea of the thing for it is very useful indeed.
Well my darling People I must close this. I sometimes get a little bit lonely away from you all, but I am quite comfortable and content because it seems that this [is] my right place just at present. This Pension is quite nice, though certainly the French cooking sometimes gets on my nerves, I don't like it a scrap, but anyhow it is much the best Pension in the town as far as position & handiness to everything are concerned. By the way the Methodist Church is just opposite on one corner did I tell you? I have two pairs of French windows and quite a fine outlook from the little balcony belonging to each. They make the balconies here very tiny, not long enough to walk up & down & so very narrow, only just wide enough for a chair to squeeze on.
Oh I must tell you that while Rid & I were out yesterday flying round on his business we came across five Newcastle soldier boys that we knew very well, all in different parts of the town. That is more than we have met in any one day before though I suppose it will seem to you that we ought to have met lots every day.
So very much love to you dear Home Folks, I do hope you are managing to keep from worrying too much & from being too lonely. Your very loving daughter
Olive
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Pension Wales. Recd 19.4.16 initials.
Cairo.
March 13th. 1916.
My own dear Home People,
There is a mail advertised to go on the 16th. but one dare not leave it till just the day before to write, so I must write what there is to say now. The rumour is round everywhere about all outward mails being stopped and the date now given is the 15th. March. Some say that it has been publicly given out in some battalions, someone from Ismailia & another person from Alexandria say that it has been published in those papers. One does not know what to believe. There is a great unrest here among the troops, every soldier that one speaks to is sure he is moving presently and nearly all of them have it that it is to France they go, though some say it may be Constantinople.
I have just had the idea dawn on me that it will affect me here too if Rid & Wal should be moved as they seem to feel certain. Rid at any rate will be, belonging as he does to the Artillery. I have great hopes of Wal being one of those whose duty it will be to stay in Egypt for certainly there must be some. We don't know whether to think Le will be moved or not for a time. It is all an uncertainty isn't it? And we can only leave these precious boys of ours in God's hand after all. There is great hope over here now of some end of the war being in view now, dear People; people who know something of the events are so much more cheerful lately and think a few months will finish it, and who knows but what you'll have all four of your children come trooping back before long turning "Cairnleath" into a proper babel.
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2. I had my Australian mail to-day and was so thankful for it for there has been such a long gap this time. I shall have to wait for your general letter Father till Rid gets it re-addressed to him down at Tel-el-Keber and then re-posts it to me here. So Mother you will see how glad I was to have quite a long one from you though I was glad of the little notes from my Daddy & can contain myself in patience now & wait for the general letter. Of course I quite understand that there could not be a copy for each of us.
Have not heard from Le since I last wrote but then that is only four or five days ago. I fairly often drop him notes, the dear child. I do wish it were possible to see him and would go myself to Serapeum for the purpose if ladies were allowed there but they are not. Still he may get leave yet & run up to Cairo.
Of course I have not seen my husband since I last wrote you and have only had one note from him since, letters take such an age to come from these military places. He is liking his work very much down there & finds his colonel very nice & brotherly & the officers of the mess very easy to get on with. One of the men from Tel-el-Keber whom we used to know out at Toronto called in for a few minutes to-day to see if there were anything he could take back to Rid for me, he was just up for the day, and he said that Rid had a splendid time last night at service. For some reason or other there had been no parade service in the morning & my little Padre was awfully disappointed, but the man said that to the evening service (though it was not a parade) every officer from the Colonel down turned up. I am waiting for Rid to tell me of it himself, but I know how glad he would be.
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3. Of Wal I have seen quite a delightful lot & we have only wished that you could know we were together. It was Wednesday of last week that I wrote to you last. Well on Thursday night just as I was going into dinner he appeared for a tiny few minutes just to make sure that I would be free to go out for the day on the following day. The next day Friday, he appeared about 10 o’clock and I was ready, with lunch, & we set out. He would insist on our having a cup of tea, I was going to say first, but now I remember it was after our return from viewing the parade in front of the Sultan’s palace. Quite a grand little affair it was, carried on though it is every day, and we quite enjoyed watching it. The Egyptian uniform is quite charming, that is their show uniform- navy with gold buttons, white legging things, & red fez caps. The ordinary troops wear khaki drill uniforms, on service I mean.
I expect Wal will have described to you our attempt to get a felucca to go up the Nile to a place called Barrage, where we intended to have lunch & then return late in the afternoon by train. We failed to get a boat on any reasonable terms at one bridge & then had a delightful walk of about a mile through some bright beautiful gardens to the next bridge, where we also failed, & finally about a quarter to two landed at the Railway station intending to take train, but found there was none till 4 o’clock. After all we had our lunch here in my room (I am so often thankful it is nice & large) and then went up to the Citadel, and proud I am to be able to take my big brother to these new, to him, places in this heathenish town that I have got to know so well.
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4. Wal was as charmed with the inside of the Mosque up at the Citadel as Rid & I had been & also with the grand view of the town, for it is on a steep little hill & commands the whole countryside. We loitered about there for a while & then came back to the Pension & I ordered ka in my room here & then Wal went back to his tent home.
On Saturday afternoon he was in again about half past two and we went out to the Zoological Gardens. It is a tram ride of about 40 minutes & quite an interesting one that takes one past mud villages occasionally & peeps of the Nile & plenty of camels & donkeys & those sort of typical things.
The garden part of the Zoo is really fine & some of the animals extraordinary. When Rid first took me there & showed me the giraffes I just pinched his arm hard lots of times to keep from squealing, they were so extraordinarily huge; now Wal could hardly do that to me so he simply went into roars of laughter & endless “By gums!" You should have seen him!
Sunday afternoon he was in again & we just yarned here in my room, & had tea here, till it was time for him to go. He usually catches a tram at 10 past 5 that just lands him home in time for mess. I should have mentioned that the afternoon before, after coming back from the Zoo we went to Groppi’s, the place of renowned cakes, for tea- a wonderful place Groppi’s! Hardly what either of us came out here for was it, this gadding about, but I know how thankful you will be to know that we have had such times, & the only pity is Le can’t be with us.
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5. I have started some work this week in connection with the Y.M.C.A., for the soldiers. To-day & to-morrow it is just franking (is that the way to spell it) letters & doleing out paper & envelopes & such like things in one of the buildings in the Esbekiah Gardens in the centre of the town here. These Gardens have been given over & devoted wholly to the soldiers & their welfare & are such a god-send. After to-morrow I shall be doing different work there, canteen work, but I don’t know any particulars yet.
There is a Sister Lucy Olu Owen staying in this Pension who is voluntarily doing secretarial work for the Y.M.C.A one floor above us & it is through her I am getting this work. She is a lady of about 38-40, rather to very nice. She was a voluntary Sister in the Manchester (Methodist) Mission for 10 years & has been ordered to Egypt for her health. She has been very nice to me though I do not see her a great deal as she is nearly always up in the Y.M. rooms. Still you will be glad to know that there is somebody English here to whom I can go if I want anything.
Well my very dear ones my time has gone. My love to Jobber & congratulations on the likelihood of promotion to 2nd year, the dear Child. I’ll hug her to snips when I get hold of her again.
Many thanks for looking after my ferns: the chooks are yours to keep or kill accordingly as they behave themselves.
Very very very much love from
Your loving daughter
Olive.
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P.S. Oh Father I tried my hand at printing photos, for the first time on Saturday morning & was doing them stylishly in salt solution first to give that blue tone & then directly I put them in the hypo they all went crackly & spoiled & they would have been such good prints- too. I was using glossy seltona paper & Wal said it was because I had used the solutions just after mixing & they were different temperatures. I was going to send you twelve too, doing things on a decent scale to start with don’t you know!
Again love. OSO.
[Page 60]
Pension Wales. R 4.5.16
Cairo.
March 21st. 1916.
My very dear Father & Mother,
We have heard no general order concerning the outward mails & so am going to continue writing & posting: it seems to be a military order as far as we can see. I hope you received my post-card last mail telling you that Wal Le & I were together, I was anxious for you to know as soon as possible & wrote it in a cafe while we were out.
It was about 3 o'clock on the Tuesday that Le marched in much to my surprise & delight, though really I hardly knew him at first, he was so dirty & had a moustache, and of course I had not been expecting him. He was up partly on duty to see about the removal of some of their black kit bags to another base (which looks like a move & his bag is among them.) We had a yarn for about half an hour & then he had to go to the Headquarters till about 6.30 & that just fitted in with my afternoon business & we arranged to meet after it. In the meantime I sent Wal a telegram telling him that we would come out in the evening, for I was afraid of missing him otherwise & it seemed the only chance that we might have of being together as Le expected to leave next morning. Then after we had had dinner together we set out to Wal's camp & found him without any trouble. Wal arranged for him to go back & sleep there with him & then they came back into Cairo with me & we had supper & ices & yarned hard all the time. It was then that I wrote the post-card to you.
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2. However Le did not have to leave till Friday evening, after all, though he had to report at various places ever so many times in between & did not actually know each day whether they might not go straight away after reporting. We said good-bye several times & had more than one "final blow out" as Le calls it, at the noted Groppi's.
On the Wednesday he was in for a little while & then left me to do some purchasing that he had undertaken for some of his Serapeum mates, & we were to meet at 1 o'clock. I took him to lunch and then out to the Zoological Gardens, where he had not been before. It was a very hot day & we got sleepy & did not stay very long but came back here to the Pension where I ordered tea to save the bother of going out again. I am quite used myself to the sort of tea they provide here but do not like offering it to anyone else unless I have something dainty to add. The tea itself is all right but they have no idea of daintiness, these Arab servants, & bring a few great thick junks of bread & a little pat of butter & sometimes some marmalade. When I come back I'll want the bread thin enough to be able to see through it quite easily. Lately they have taken to toasting these little junks, I am sure they are the pieces that were cut for lunch & left over, but they mean well. When you are paying £10 a month & extras you get ideas into your head as to what you ought & ought not to have.
However I was telling you about Le. We expected Wal in that Wednesday afternoon and he came just in time for tea & then we yarned a bit more & decided to finish up with
[Page 62]
3. the cinema; please don't credit me with the suggestion it wasn't mine! We went to the nearest on chance, as none of us had been here before and it turned out to be a very high-class picture show & we quite enjoyed it. Afterwards Wal tried to take a flashlight of us together but it was a failure, the wire was not much good. That night Le went out again to Camp to sleep with Wal. He came in next morning & I was able to take him up to the Citadel & show him round there. Then we had lunch & he had to report at 1 o'clock & was kept busy until the evening when he called in again for a little while & then went out to Wal.
Friday morning he was in again to after reporting & had about an hour to spare before he was wanted again so we had a final spree at Groppi's. However I had both him & Wal in in the afternoon & after some tea together here about half past 4 Leo went off finally. He looks well and is very eager to get away; his worst vice is smoking & that is nothing at all over here, there is scarcely a soldier but does not smoke & many of them are at it all day. Le is not a heavy one.
Have just had a rather upsetting interruption & shall have to finish in a hurry. Have had a telegram from Rid from Tel-el-Keber to say that they are leaving for Alexandria late to-night, that it is impossible for him to come to Cairo to say good-bye as we had felt quite sure he would be able to do; that means that they will embark from Alexandria to-morrow probably. He says that if it is possible for me to get up to Alex to-morrow in time to say farewell he will wire me to-morrow. I have been down to the station to find out all about trains as time-tables have been unobtainable here
for the last fortnight, & find that there are
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4. a fair number of trains & the only question is whether I will be able to get word in time to get there before they leave. I shall be fearfully disappointed if I cannot but I have to remember that this is war-time.
Father dear may I trouble you to do something for me. It is Rid's parents' silver-wedding anniversary in June & he wants Doris to get something for them as he never gives them anything on birthdays or things, so would you please when it is convenient send her a postal-note or something for £2 & draw it from my account, & please don't be out of pocket over it in any way, fares or anything else. Please disguise your writing to Doris so that her mother won't notice it, she might know yours & we want it to be a surprise if possible. Have written Doris yesterday.
Wal is very well & I am thankful to see him fairly often, he is not likely to go any further away than Tel-el-Keber for some time ahead as far as we can see. Have not heard yet from Le since his going back to Serapeum, but the post is so slow here that there is probably one on the way.
Sorry to cut this short dear People, but you will understand that there are things I must see about in case I have to leave early in the morning & it is getting late.
Very much love from
Your loving daughter
Olive.
P.S. Would you mind giving Millie & Evelyn the news as I have not written, intended to this mail, but Rid's departure has upset my plans. Of course I don't know where they are going though the common report is France. O.L.O.
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Pension Wales Recd 3.5.16.
Cairo.
Monday March 27th. 16.
My very dear Father and Mother,
I know I finished up your last letter in an awful hurry, and I forget just how much I told you in the haste. First though let me acknowledge the home letters that came on Friday (24th inst.). There was the long general one from Father dated 13th. Feb. and a personal one dated 21st., & one from Mother the last part of which was 20th. Feb. I was absolutely amazed to find comments on Rid being in Hospital at Heliopolis & though you both said that you had had word of it you did not happen to mention how, and I puzzled over it till Wal suggested that perhaps they had counted it a casualty & cabled you & would put it in the paper also. It had never suggested itself to any of our minds that they would do such a thing, not for a moment, or if it had I should certainly have sent you a cable to relieve your minds about it. It worried me badly to think how careless it must seem not to bother about letting you have a cable, while all the while I was congratulating myself that you were in ignorance of it and that the first you heard would be that though Rid was off colour & quite sick really, still it was nothing to really worry about, & I think he was quite on the mend too, when I wrote. However you will have heard all the little details about it long before this from my letters, but I am afraid you won't understand the seeming carelessness until you get this explanation. I never had a suspicion of the
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2. Military doing any such thing, though I suppose it ought to have occurred to me. You'll overlook it I know, for it is my first experience of the sort & even Wal said he would never have thought of it. It was very good to get the home letters dear Father & Mother, but it must take you both ages to write them. You seem to have been having a very gay garden since we left, and a very gay time with thieves too, the latter is awfully trying & too bad altogether!
While I think of it you asked one question that I may or may not have answered in the meantime in one of my letters, it was whether my attachment to 21st. Hospital was honorary. Yes it was quite, anything at all that I may find to do over here or anywhere else I may move, for that matter, will be quite voluntary work without payment. In this Pension it costs me £10 a month and washing 2/- a dozen extra; fares everywhere are high and it is a dirty place & very hard on one's clothes specially also with such a hot sun that fades things like magic, so that living altogether is very dear here. Still I have in Rid's & my joint account about £80, more than my fare home, that is calculating to the end of this month.
Now about the going off of Rid & Le. Did you get a cable that Wal sent on 23rd., saying "Rid, Leo, gone." We squabbled over who was to have the privilege of sending it specially as it was my idea first, but I am to have the honour of sending the next so we came to peace terms. We did not dare to try & put anything more definite than that, for fear they might not pass it at all, & only hope that much passed the Censor.
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3. It was on March 21st. that Leo left from Alexandria & the 22nd., the next day that Rid sailed from the same port; they just missed one another by a day, though may possibly meet in the "Somewhere" to which they have gone.
When I last wrote to you I think it was the evening of Tuesday 21st. and I had just had a wire from Rid telling of their leaving for Alex. late that night, but I did not know whether it would be possible to get there in time to see him next day or not. I got up early next morning & was ready to catch the 7.30 a.m train to Alex. if a wire came, but one came about 9 o'clock & I caught the 9.30 from here. Leo's letter I received just as I was leaving & I posted it on to you from Alexandria though was doubtful whether the Censor would pass it through. He did not know any more than anyone else where they were going but took for granted the general rumour of France, specially as he said that they had had gas helmets issued to them That, with the dates of leaving Serapeum & Alex. was the gist of the note, if you have not received it in the original.
Rid could not get any more leave than on to the wharf & we had from 1.30 to 3.30 there. If I were a soldier here I would say that I am just about "fed up" of these partings, and I wonder if you would understand. We were indeed grateful to have the opportunity of a farewell at all, but aren't they wretched heart-breaking squashing affairs. I believe I behaved quietly enough when I had to come away but my inside was like a rebellious mad screaming child. A brilliant sort of soldier's wife & sister n'est pas. Never mind the war's soon going to be over now & we are all coming home like a lot of rowdy spoiled children, you see!
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4. Leo & I have a little private code affair by which he will be able to let me know in the first letter he gets through where he is, but I shall be in honour bound to keep it to myself over here, though I may be able to write it to you because it will be so stale by the time it reaches you that it can do no harm, and in any case the Censor could cross it out if he liked. I know how anxious he you will be to know his whereabouts.
Rid & I have a different rather ingenuous little understanding too, but he is going to cable me as soon as he reaches France or wherever it is if there is the chance. A lady here whose husband went a week before Rid had a cable from him a little less than a week after, from Marseilles, so that if I do not hear from Rid in about a week I shall conclude they have gone somewhere else. It is all very dreadful this not knowing where they are isn’t it? We get very very little news here, not nearly as much as you do, & at the moment I am writing you may have a much better idea of where Rid & Le are than I have. Rid’s unit is 2nd. Brigade 1st. Divisional Artillery you know, don’t you. The 2nd. Brigade of course includes 4th, 5th & 6th Batteries & one the twenty something. Rid did not seem sure of himself, it is a new one just added, some new arrangement by which they have added an extra battery to each Brigade which formerly used to contain only three batteries in the artillery.
This is Monday and it was last Wednesday evening only that they went so that there has not been time to hear yet.
For the present now I shall just have to wait and see what happens, where they go & how long they are likely to be there wherever it is, before attempting any new move myself. I
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5. have several things to take into consideration before I move away from here. One is that if once I move from here I cannot land here again, as no more women are allowed here. Another is the submarine haunted Mediterranean, & a whole lot of “ifs" about where our boys might be sent if any of them should get sick. For the present then I can only just wait & see how things develop & in the meantime do what I can here. Wal is my last link here, though I rather dread the thought of England with its aeroplanes and the slimy submarines between here & there, unless there is some actual use in going there & then of course it would be different.
Ladies who have helped both in England and in France have shown me that it is of no use hoping to be able to help in hospital work or anything of that sort in either of these places, they say the places are over run with them & I can see that it would be only through Rid being in one himself & through his influence that I would be allowed anywhere near him. Evidently there are so many visitors & inquiries for friends and all that sort of thing that the general work of the hospitals is impeded.
Sister Lucie here whom I think I mentioned in connection with some secretarial work she does for the Y.M.C.A. on the floor above, said that even if my husband were sick in hospital in France I should have the greatest difficulty in getting in & out to see him, & unfortunately she knows. However there may be no need for all my conjectures, but I like you to know what I know, & it will all help to explain any cable that I might have to send, though I am not contemplating any just now.
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6. Rid has an Oakley uncle at this address in Southampton “Corbie Lynn," 82 Lumsden Avenue, Shirley Southampton, whom he is very anxious for me to go & stay with if the Artillery should go for training to Salisbury Plains as there is some rumour they may do. He had very nice letters from the wife & daughter inviting him there if ever he got to England, that was while he was in Alexandria; of course, man-like, he extends these invitations from himself to me though I feel quite differently about it myself & should not go there without something more than that. However perhaps you might keep the address, & in case you got a tele cable just saying giving Oakley Southampton as the address you would be able to supply the rest. I don’t think it is likely but one never knows these times. I think if I have to do any any travelling about by myself I will do it through Cooks & very probably get all my letters through them. All this is just in case, dears.
Wal expects to be on picket duty again this week & that means that most mornings he drops in for an hour or so, or else we journey out somewhere for that time, and often it includes an extravagant visit to Groppi’s for ices or tea & cookies, disgraceful of course in war time, but Wal’s mad generosity of course!
Horrors! how ever many “of courses" do I manage to bring into each letter I wonder, it begins to dawn on me- rather many! I never read my letters through when they are finished, I hate them so, & would be tearing them up instead of sending them if I did. On Friday last Wal & I walked down to the river, about half a mile from here, & Wal hired a boat for an hour & an Arab paddled us about. I read some of my home letters that had just come & Wal took snap-shots.
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7. It was a very pleasant little outing, something quite new, and the river banks are quite charming. I enjoyed it quite as much as possible under the circumstances; it seems as if everything, every enjoyment I mean, must be qualified till we are all together again.
I am only wanted three afternoons a week to help in the café work at the Esbekiah Gardens among the soldiers, but the times I am there are quite strenuous busy hours. Thursdays Saturdays & Sundays are my days from 3 o’clock till 7.30, or 8 sometimes. It is a big open air café run by the Y.M.C.A & ladies of leisure give their time to it: for sale there is are tea, coffee, cocoa, cakes, sandwiches & buns of all descriptions, & at a separate stall cold drinks. Everything is a half piaster each (about 1 ¼ d.) and it is so arranged just to pay for itself and make nothing and is merely for the convenience of the soldiers. They do appreciate it too and flock there by the hundreds. It is one mad rush the whole time and I can only compare it to one of Sargent’s restaurants in the lunch hour, for its “busy ness." One has not time to look properly at the men to see whom one is serving and there is not a pause the whole time. They could hardly have more workers, or not many more, for if they did they would be getting in each other’s way. I don’t know any of the other ladies except Mrs Dunn who is the head of the whole affair & directs things in a sort of store, & her I only know through having applied to her for work. She is quite nice as far as I can see, but most of the other ladies
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8. are rather haughty fashionable hi dames and not pleasant to work with, still it does not matter much for there is not much opportunity for knowing or being known, only sometimes they hurt one’s feelings a bit in their superior ways. They are mostly from the well-known fashionable Shepheard’s Hotel, so Sister Lucie says, but I can’t help thinking they must be really kind-hearted to bother to go & help there at all.
Sister Lucie does not improve on acquaintance she is spoiled by the notice the soldiers take of her, or that she says they take & I get sick of hearing little egotistic things, though of course in the main she is absolutely lady-like & must be good to spend all her time for the Y.M. as she does, it is only that she is getting a little bit old & silly- perhaps I mean too old to show such silliness, for she is quite young really, only about 38 or 40.
I wish I had more to do for the soldiers but am keeping a look out, it is no use worrying when there are such lots of nurses here idle, & other very important folk.
Must close & post this. My love to Jobber and your dear dear selves,
Very lovingly Your daughter
Olive.
[Page 72]
Pension Wales R. 5.5.16
Cairo.
April 4th 1916.
P.S. Would you please give Millie & Evelyn the news about Rid’s cable, I simply cannot write as often as I used to. O.L.O.
My very dear Father & Mother,
No Australian mail for nearly a fortnight now so that in a couple of days there ought to be the joy of getting one. Did you get a cable I sent on 29th. March, saying “Walter gone." As in the previous one concerning Rid & Leo, we decided that it was useless trying to be more explicit for fear they might not let the cable through at all. It should have got to you quickly for they will not allow me to send the cheaper week-end wires, it is only soldiers who are allowed to send them, and though they only pay half-price they are not sent so promptly.
It was the next morning after I had posted my last letter to you that Wal came in about 11 o’clock and announced that they were to go that evening to Alexandria & embark the next day. However much one is prepared for these “going offs" they always seem sudden and upsetting when it actually comes to the time, don’t they? I’m sure you feel like that about the cables. And while I am speaking of that, I do hope it is not unkind to send you these bald cables; just for a minute or two I thought it would be kinder not to, but when I put myself in your place & thought it out I decided that even if it were unsettling & upsetting at the time you would be glad of as close knowledge of the boy’ whereabouts as possible: Wal & I agreed on that point though whether we were both wrong you will have to tell us when we come home.
Well that morning that Wal came in with the news we talked for a little while, then went out to Groppi’s (and with all mention of this famous restaurant I believe I have never happened to tell you that it is only ½ minute from the Pension)
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2. where we indulged in strawberry ices, & then bought some lunch to take with us to the Ghezireh Gardens, a drive from here of about a quarter of an hour. Small gardens they are but very gay and beautiful and we sat down on the grass under one of the trees and had our lunch and a good yarn. Then Wal wrote you a brief note which I hope you received safely for you would be so glad of it. I took two photos of him, but either the films were bad or the shop people spoiled them in the developing for the prints I have just taken off for you are cracked & bad & I might try & get better ones before I send them home to you. All the rest of the roll of films are pretty good but just these special two that I was anxious about are crackly looking & very disappointing. I am enclosing a few prints of some Rid took at Tel-el-Keber & here that he wanted you to see, but I am afraid those two of Wal I shan't have time to do now before the mail closes, and anyhow I fear they are rather a failure. Well, about our last day together. We had a peaceful little time there in the Gardens, until about 2.30 when we had to start back to town & Wal to leave me to go on out to the Aerodrome. I had a note from him next evening from Alexandria saying that he had got away safely as far as that, & then another by the next mail saying that they were going to France, had General Birdwood & other high officials and 3000 troops on the "Transylvania." I have not heard anything more from him though there has not been time to hear yet, but they must have evaded all submarines by this time & have reached their destination. I wrote him a long letter the other day & will be constantly doing so now. From Leo there has been no word yet, though there has not been time yet for a letter to come through. Have written twice to him since he left & of course
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3. will be doing so regularly with him too, dear Boy! Just in case I haven't been clear about dates, let me repeat them. Le left on March 21st, Rid 22nd, and Wal 29th. I almost think you would get one of the wires on Harry's birthday, poor old Harry I wrote to him the other day & Lawry too. I have such a lot of writing to do now-a-days that my brain & thoughts go flat & stale, & though I have plenty of time for it, I can't seem to get any inspiration for it like a born correspondent would do. I have Rid's Melbourne folk to keep in touch with too, to say nothing of him himself, and it all gets rather bewildering at times in spite of the strict account I keep of dates, & I wouldn't like to have to read my own letters for a good deal.
I have put off telling you about Rid till last, but I have only one thing to tell you & it is that early on March 30th (our fourth anniversary wedding day that we were going to spend somehow together if it were at all possible to squeeze in) I had a cable from him from Marseilles saying "Splendid, love." It really was sent on 29th so that it seems to have taken them a week to get there, unless he found it difficult to get a cable through. In that case if it took a week then it will be a few days more before I can expect a letter, supposing that mails are fairly numerous & that letters are allowed, which it is possible they may not be. The week since Wal went has seemed at least a fortnight, & the fortnight since Rid & Le went quite a month or more, so I can dimly guess at what your poor feelings must be like over there, & my sympathies rush across to you.
I am helping four days a week now at the Esbekiah Gardens' Y.M.C.A. Cafe & it is good to be able to do even that much. As for any
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4. future plans, I shall just have to wait a while & see where the troops are going to settle down. Sometimes I feel so badly over it all that I think I must come home, & I have Rid's glad permission to do so exactly when I like. But I am not sure yet that that is what I ought to do, it may be more my duty to go on to England much as I dread the old submarines & aeroplanes. It is awfully worrying to have no one to decide one's future plans for one, but there is absolutely nothing to do yet but wait a little. And by the way in case I should go to England I want to correct a serious error I made in last week's letter in the address I gave you. I was not quite satisfied at the time but could not find the list of addresses W Oakley had given me till after I closed your letter, it had slipped in between a folded paper, & the letter from the folk in Southampton of course had no surname added.
It is Mrs Osman (W.O's sister) "Corbie Lyn" 82 Lumsden Av. Shirley Southampton. I told you "Oakley," though that is all wrong & the rest all right. There are two other Oakleys in Southampton & one in London: but in any case any more travelling I do I will do through Cook's & have all my letters addressed through them.
I met Olive Clark's brother here yesterday & he told me that she was married to John R. Nield B.A. L.L.B. on 18th March (they had had a cable from W.Nield he & his brother) I am very fond of her & I wish I had known earlier. I suppose he has his commission now.
Well dear Father & Mother I will close this just now. Don't worry more than you can help & so lose such a lot of hairs & become so bald we won't know you when we come rushing in. Many loving prayers for you in the anxiety of it all, & very much love also the dear little Jobber,
Very lovingly Your daughter
Olive.
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Cairo
Wednesday Ma April 5th. "16 R 5.5.16
My dear Home People,
I have just received the enclosed from Rid with a personal letter for myself. It was stupid of us not to have a clear understanding about it, but I am not sure whether he has posted a duplicate copy to Box Hill or not, we forgot to talk about it at all. Perhaps you can tell whether there has been a duplicate taken off and if there has he is almost certain to have posted it to Box Hill. If you think there has not, would you please mind sending it to them, telling them that I was uncertain whether they would have already had a copy. And please don't be too proud to keep an account of all this postage I cost you, it mounts up, and withdraw it from the Bank added to anything else you may be fixing up for me, like that Beard Watson's business.
The only thing that Rid has not mentioned in the general letter that I think may interest you is that for two days he was troubled with his throat again, one day only slightly the next with a sharp pain there. The doctor said it was not tonsilitis but pharingytis whatever that is. It troubles me rather all the trouble he has had with his throat & I only hope it does not become a serious drawback to him, he would be disappointed to have to throw up his work yet, though there is not the slightest hint of any such thing in all he says; he was quite right again when he wrote.
Again much love to you dear ones,
Your loving daughter
Olive.
[Page 77]
Pension Wales Recd 15.5.16
Cairo
April 7th. 1916.
You dear Father & Mother,
What a wicked wretched person I was in my last letter to make a fuss about the lot of letter-writing I find I have to do, I, with all the time I have at disposal for such things. I have just received two lovely letters from each of you, hence my illumination and this outburst! Father darling were you in Egypt or where when you headed one of them "5th May"? Anyhow I judged it to be meant for March, and the other one of 6th March bore out my judgment. Yours Mother darling were of the 5th & 6th of March also. It is a fortnight to the day when I received the last Australian mail and when you look at the date of my writing you will agree with me that they have come pretty quickly this time.
Dear me I was glad of them, I just soaked in them as long as they lasted and I still feel the glow caused by the soaking. There seemed to be quite a lot of news too in various ways. It must be very disappointing to Lawry this attack of rheumatic gout or rather the upsetting changes that it brings with it. I can understand that the cold climate would be bad for it though it seemed to suit Lawry's health wonderfully, I never saw him look so well as since he went there to live. As for not suiting Elsie's health, that seems funny for she has got quite stout since she went to live there, she put on a stone and a half I remember her saying. However perhaps plumpness isn't always a real sign of health. Lawry seems doomed to never get a chance to settle down. I am wondering if he will try again his chances of enlistment.
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2. Pour changer le sijet! Mother dear your question about Emily's bringing back the machine will be rather late in getting its answer, I fear. There really isn't any answer I can give that will be of any use, because it will be the middle of May before this reaches you and Emily will have had her holiday & the be back again. I am sure it will be all right though. Do tell me the "washer-lady's" new mixture, I shall be interested, besides I do some of my own washing here, some of the small things, and it might be useful. So sorry that you you had all that trouble over the sock through the type-writer! Oh dear how the mention of Father's cake makes one want a taste of home-made things again (One of the Arab servants has just sailed through the little sitting room where I am writing while my room is being attended to, and oh the "arabique" abominable odour left behind! it is funny, they are quite clean but oh they have such a vile distinctive aroma; excuse me for breaking in with this, but I shall do something desperate if I can't express my feelings to somebody sometimes.)
To return to my precious letters. Oh for a sight of that charming cheeky Scamp lifting Father's hat off as he was gathering apples; don't imagine that I would rather see the little villain than you, because the very fact of seeing her would involve seeing you.
Horror of horrors, forgive me for interrupting myself again but the use of the word "scrapeiness" for my special benefit recalls to me an appalling misdoing of mine the other day, & I must confess to my U.S. father. I was requested by the managing lady at the Gardens to go & help with sandwiches for half an hour & on reaching the sandwich place, & on arrival not finding myself welcomed, remarked that "Mrs Dunn said to come & help here for a time!" I felt a flush rise as I realised what I had said, but at the same time
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3. an intense desire to giggle. It's no use it's deep-rooted in us & I caught Walter in the act also one day before he left! Even having a U.S. father doesn't seem to erase it!
Now just a few words about that cable (the birthday one.) You will at least know by now, from my last letter, that when I sent it I hadn't dreamed of you hearing anything about Rid's sickness, but how funny you must have thought it that I didn't say he was well or better or something. Oh no though! Now I come to think of it you thought it was sent by Rid & that very fact proved he was well again. I am so glad that it reached you before the birthdays, even though it was not all quite clear to you, I was very anxious for it to get there in time. I hope you have not since been disappointed to find that at that time we had not all seen each other as the cable implied. As a matter of fact I had got Walter's permission to include his name and had written to Leo telling him I was going to include his, so that we really were all in touch over it. It was so nice to hear of how you spent Father's birthday, it sounded all very sweet & restful and I hope Mother's was spent as nicely, we ought to hear about it next mail. The fortnight between mails seems a long while to wait does it not?
So far I am afraid I have no news to give you of Wal and Le, and the diary part of Rid's letter I sent on to you two days back & there has been nothing since. However I shall not close this yet for some days & there may be something more by then. I rather fear that they may be holding back military letters & if so I suppose we shall have to believe it is for some wise purpose and be glad of the precautions they are taking, though letters do mean so much don't they. I expect I should not have had the one I did from Rid only that he gave it to the Purser on the "Bohemian" to post when they got back to Alexandria. A happy thought wasn't it?
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4. Just while I think of this dear ones, you musn't ever be afraid of wires I mean cables, that come to you for fear they should contain some awful news, for if anything were to happen to one of our soldier-boys the news would not be cabled direct to you but to someone else to tell to you: I want to tell you too that just in case anything did happen, an acquaintance here, a Sergeant who is on the staff at Headquarters has arranged for me to get a cable also, without it interfering in any way with your claim as next of kin. It is rather gruesome to talk like this, but of course I know you will recognise that it is only a precaution, and be glad to hear of it as such: I thought you ought to know of the arrangement. I spoke of it to Walter and he said that he had meant to see about it himself for me but then they were moved off suddenly. I was very clear on this point of it being quite separate from any news sent to you, & it would in no way trespass upon or interfere with that. The Sergeant I have mentioned, and his wife, Mr and Mrs Lyndsay are a nice young couple and have been out for some months. He was invalided to Alexandria from Gallipoli & cabled for her & they have been here together since November. They have been married for nearly three years though they look to be only a boy & girl: though I scarcely ever see them to speak to they have the room next to mine and hearing their talk & laughter is often company to me. One evening I asked them in here & another they asked me in there though it will not go much beyond that because we have not a great deal in common. He is an exceedingly nice gentlemanly boy much the nicer of the two: in looks she is remarkably like Doris Oakley & though nice enough on the surface, even in the little I have seen of her, often lets forth a rather repellant arrogant selfish little manner totally unlike Doris. Still it is pleasant to be on speaking terms, & the removal of their presence with all their happiness, next door to me would be quite a loss. It is all very distinct
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5. the laughing and chattering & clattering in the next room because there is a wooden door between our two rooms, hung over only by curtains on their side.
I had a note from Gwen Bateman last week, short, for they are busy of course. Their time is more than half gone now at Omdurman, and they expect to return to Cairo at the end of June. She is a perfect darling, almost the nicest I have ever met & it would have been delightful if they had been here now. The photo she sent me I am enclosing but it scarcely gives any idea of what she is like, she is really charming. Mr Leckie on the left hardly appears. I heard from him about six weeks ago & he was then in the Royal Horse Artillery in Camp in England; have not heard since.
Later I have just heard through the Sergeant's wife of someone who is going to Australia on the Osterley to-morrow, she has been delayed, and so after all I shall be able to get this through to you, it is far more than I had hoped, for the "someone" is going to take the letter for me. Since I wrote all the first part I have had your cable dear people. It was so good of you to send it & came as a great surprise. I wish I knew what to do and could answer you right away one way or the other, but I think I shall just have to wait a little while yet. You will not misunderstand I know, and I for my part have not any doubt of the welcome waiting for me if I do come home. It is so difficult to know just it is one's duty to do, if only I knew what I were meant to do, it would be such a relief. Somehow I cannot feel that I ought to turn homewards yet though I rather dread the thought of England. However I feel sure it will all come clear for me soon & in the meantime I must just scrape up a bit of patience.
So very much love to you dear Father & Mother & Jobber too, whose dear little letter has just come as well as Father's earlier general letter up to March 1st. Tell Jobber I will write to her next mail.
Again much love from
Your very loving daughter
Olive.
P.S. So sorry, haven't got Wal's photo fixed, though I have printed them. Next time! O.L.O.
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Pension Wales.
Cairo.
April 13th. 1916. R.15.5.16
My very dear Father and Mother,
I have not a great deal to tell you of since I last wrote but a good deal to talk about. My two bits of news are about Wal and Leo for I have been so delighted that I have had word from each of them. It was only last night, about half past ten that my news of Wal came, in the shape of a cable. It is headed London Sub and says "Splendid." Of course my first wish was to pass the news on to you also by cable but I felt sure that Wal would have done so himself, I shall be very disappointed if I learn later that it was not so, it is possible they may not let his cable through to Australia, though in that case they wouldn't let mine either I suppose. I was beginning to feel terribly disappointed at having heard nothing of him for just over a fortnight though I knew perfectly well that it was not his fault but probably that the military mail was being kept back. But I never dreamed of his going to England, and have puzzled my brains for all they are worth to try & think why they have gone there, if it is for training it seems funny that they didn't stay here or in France, it is a great mystery to me. You may have some explanation that is reasonable, but for the life of me I can't think of one. Anyhow we shall be agreeing that it is good to have him in comparative safety & away from the actual Front for a little longer, the thought of it sent me so happily to sleep last night.
Now from Le I had a tiny note & a post-card by the same mail last Saturday (8th) night. The former just told of their having had a good trip across and of his having seen cousin Ray, whom I
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2. gather was on the same boat. Leo said that though he had changed a good bit he knew him at once. He said too that he would try & drop Wal a note & keep in touch with him & home.
Then a post-script at the end asked me to inform you of his whereabouts because all outward Australian mails are were blocked. He added that from La Valentine Camp, about 10 miles out of Marseilles. They called at Toulon en route just as Rid did. That was not dated, but the post-card from La Valentine was dated April 1st. He says "Am keeping in splendid health, this climate is just lovely after Egypt. Saw Rid at Marseilles for about 5 minutes; he was looking well, but I couldn't stay long. Have sent Father- but very uncertain whether he will ever get it. Am feeling tip-top, hope you are &c" He had unintentionally omitted to say what he had sent, whether it was a letter or a cable, but I should think the latter; I hope indeed you did get it Father dear! He certainly seems to be enjoying himself & I am so glad. I'm glad too that he saw Rid, you know it was their first meeting since last July in Sydney. That I think is really all the news I have for you and I shall be only too glad if it is all stale to you because of having heard from the boys themselves.
It is a couple of days over the week since I heard from Rid, that letter written before their arrival & just telling of the voyage, so that that means the latest news I have had of him is really more than a fortnight old. It is not his fault for he writes very frequently, almost every day, and I can only think that the military are holding back the mails- for some good purpose no doubt. How Leo's came through I cannot think, he must have smuggled them through somehow: they were stamped & had been posted in a post-office, not sent On Service. The day before-
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3. let me interrupt myself, for since I wrote that word the servant came & handed me a letter that absolutely amazed me & I'll tell you about it. It was in Leo's writing & was re-addressed here from Alexandria. When I opened it I found that it was from Ma'adi and dated 11th. January, 11th January if you please & this is 13th April, doesn't it make one mad, and yet it is just like them over here. In it he acknowledged my first note & the socks I posted on arrival & mentioned his whereabouts &c. Also he gave his new address "Driver" & without Reinforcements &c, so that explains all the difficulty I had in getting letters & telegrams to him when we came to Cairo and tried to find him. I have looked carefully at it & it was addressed correctly c/o of Rid and posted or stamped on 14th. Jan, so that all the delay has been in the post. That is a sample of the sublime postal arrangements over here & I have heard of one or two others from acquaintances that are nearly parallel. What I was going to tell you when I was interrupted so "interestingly" was, that the day before yesterday an English mail came in & one or two people here had letters so that I immediately began to watch hard for one from Rid for that is the mail that would bring their letters from Marseilles. There was also an unusual Australian mail delivered & there wasn't a thing for me by that either & I knew there was a week before the next English mail & ten days for the Australian so I retired, a saddened , chastened woman, do you think I'll survive it?
Now I want to talk to you again about that cable you sent me and about my future movements. I badly wanted to send you a return one right away but then remembered that I might only have to send another to countermand it if I did anything too hastily & I have hoped as the days have been going by without
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4. my being able to decide anything that you would understand that it is not an easy thing to settle and takes time. I have been so grateful to you for it and have longed to cable you so but have wished to have something else to tell you too at the same time. I have made up my mind to come home but it is qualified by several "ifs." One is if no word comes from Rid saying that he wants me to stay on or go on to England. Another is if there anything unexpected should happen that would make it evident that that was not the wisest or best thing to do after all. I think those are the main qualifications dear people. But now about any dates. I have been to Cook's and found out dates of sailing so as to be ready, but my chief difficulty & the one that wi may cause a great deal of delay is getting letters in return to a cable of mine from Rid. You see he asked me to give him a fortnight's notice, at least, by cable so that he could write me any instructions about leaving money or any other things of the sort. Now though I might cable him now, if, as it seems, his letters here are blocked I should be stupid & perhaps he might be worried about it. So you see I must just wait until I know that letters are coming through all right. The Khyber leaves on 27th. April but that will be too soon now that I am not hearing from Rid. The next is the "Medina" leaving on May 11th. and that is supposed to leave sail about that date from Port Said though They are not always to date. I shall aim for that one, though can hardly cable you until I have cabled to Rid & had his answer. Now my own dear People, though I have said all this much about it & am beginning to feel that really I shall be doing right & what I am meant to do by coming home,
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5. still I dare not actually count on it & would not have you do so until things are more definite. There are so many things that might happen to upset it after all that I am not going to let myself get excited about seeing you again till I am really on the boat, that is not more than I can help.
And now I find I must close this to be quite sure of the mail. Very much love as always,
Your loving daughter
Olive.
P.S. The photos of Wal are the best I could print off am sorry I did not manage to take better ones. I have enclosed them in Jobber's letter because there is more room. O.L.O.
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Pension Wales
Cairo.
April 13th. 1916.
Mother dearie,
I just wanted to add something to the letter I posted home this morning and thought this time I would address it to you. It is so good of you to write to me so often Mother dear, and I hope that you do not mind my not writing separate letters to you and Father, but seeing that you are "one" you are not likely to want more than one letter between you. I wanted to say that after all I sent you a cable this morning. I tramped up & down my room trying to decide what word to use & after I had started off to the cable office once, came back again to think it over again, it was so difficult to know how to express what I meant in a few words. I tried "hesitating," "undecided" & all sorts; of course the "grateful" I meant for your welcome, though I hadn't doubted that for a minute. I hope you understood the "considering," I think you would mostly.
I meant to tell you in this morning's letter about a talk I had with an elderly gentleman here, but the time flew and in my hurried finishing I forgot it. But I will take more time now & just hope that this too will catch the same mail.
Let me tell you first though what a shockingly disagreeable day this is. Yesterday afternoon one of those characteristic desert winds- a something "phoon"- swept down on us, and the whole time since then the air has been thick with dust, we must be swallowing "tons" of it, it really is disagreeable work breathing.
They say that sometimes it keeps up like this three, sometimes eight days, surely people's rooms must turn into gardens then!
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2. Well about this interview I was going to tell you of. There is a Y.M.C.A. secretary here, a gentleman of about sixty or sixty five, who came over from Melbourne a few months ago to help voluntarily in the Y.M. work- his name is Peacock and Rid knew him slightly. He is a much travelled man, & though I sit at a little table of my own, I often overhear his conversation and have thought him to have a very broad-minded clear judgment on most matters. Well after your cable came & I had thought about it a lot & tried to decide what I ought to do & wished a great many times that I had someone with whom I could talk it over I decided to ask Mr Peacock what he thought of it. Now I had talked of it anxiously to Rid & Wal before they had left but had not arrived at anything very clear. Rid had said that he would quite understand if I thought it best to go home & be quite satisfied, though he spoke of England in just the same way & I could not find out any preference on his part, it was ghastly uncertain! Wal seemed to favour my going on to England most decidedly & thought it would be a mistake to return now, though would not venture any definite advice.
On Sunday night after dinner I had a chat with this Mr Peacock that I have told you of. He said that there was the educational point of view to be considered in the proposal of going to England, and the value it might be to me all my life, but apart from that he could see no good reason why I should go to England now. Now that is just the very thing that matters least of all to me in these times, I don't feel one atom that I care a straw about travel, in peace times I shouldn't be so devoid of ambition but just now what heart has one to go travelling & especially alone!
Now I was never any good at reasoning (Father will remember the sorrow I used to be in over my geometrical theorems) and maybe
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3. I have missed the point in this too, sometimes, but I should like to give you an idea of the workings of Mr. Peacock's & my minds on this subject. I told him that as things are now my personal wish is to go home to Australia, but that I was anxious to be sure I was doing right and there were two facts that might lead me to go to England. One was the possibility of seeing my husband there occasionally, the other that if one of the boys should get ill or wounded & be sent there, I should be handy. With regard to the first he commenced by saying that he had a wife and daughter of his own, and, great delight as it would be to him to have them here with him, he would not dream of having them here now; that this war is a man's job and the woman's place is at home, and he doubts if it is wise for wives to try & follow their husbands up, & attract them from their duty- not exactly that but that is the idea of it. Mind he was quite nice & apologised for anything that sounded personal as he meant nothing of that. He admitted that I might possibly see Rid occasionally, but implied the question as to what right had I to expect such "great delight" in these times & more than anyone else. I admit he rather gave me something new to think of. Then about the second thing. He has had a good deal of experience in his work here in finding out details of whereabouts of wounded relatives &c., and he assured me that if anything did happen to the boys it would be far more difficult than I imagined to find out their exact whereabouts, the delay is horrible & he cited some instances, and then he went on to say that I should know wherever they were that they had the best of skill & attention and with the very limited visiting hours & periods it would be very little that I could do. He concluded by repeating that he thought just now the woman's place is
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4. at home and that thither it was my duty to go, as far as he could judge. There are two more points that perhaps I ought to include though I did not talk of them to him. One is the fact of there being no work for me to do in England, and the other drawn from that. What sort of effect would it have on one to be alone in England in these times with nothing to do. I have tasted properly of "alone" in Egypt with very little to do and it tastes more bitter than I had guessed though I am thankful to be so well, but months of it in England, coddled as I have been so lovingly all my life, might taste so bitter as to make me sick. I think I have told you before that I have inquired most carefully about my chances of helping in any way in work in England, and they are hopeless, specially without knowing anyone there. The cafe work here is greatly diminished on account of the hosts of soldiers that have left Egypt, I am down to two days this week & much less rushed ones too!
Now Mother dear you may see lots of flaws in these arguments that I do not but at present I feel most satisfied to plan coming home. Of course as I said this morning many things may happen to make me revise my decision. I do not think I am exactly homesick though I should live to be home again, but still you will understand that that would mean leaving my Other-Half all those weeks of distance away & that if it comes to my going to England after all, for some reason or other, I will try & forget all the strange lonely parts of it, in thankfulness of still being near him.
The thought of home brings with it a great longing; & hundreds of happy memories connected with it, & you all, naturally make me feel that it will be no effort to be happy in the nest if I come back to it. I have so much to be grateful for, you dears!
Must close, very very much love
Lovingly your daughter,
Olive.
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Pension Wales. R 30.5.16.
Cairo.
April 18th. 1916.
My very dear Father and Mother,
I cannot find out any mail that is going for more than a week but I like to post every week just in case you know. On Sunday morning (April 16th.) I was delighted to see an Australian mail and there was yours of 12th March, Mother, and several others from friends, not quite as recent. Perhaps you didn’t write a general letter this time Father, or perhaps you posted it to Rid for a change, and while I was thankful to bits for yours Mother dear you know how greedy one gets & I sighed over the absence of Father’s, both then & the next delivery or two. Still as I said I was happy in getting Mother’s and had quite a lot of news in it. So you actually went to the Conference meetings or rather one, I am so glad, it was quite an unusual way to spend your birthday Mother. The Home Missionary Meeting always used to be packed and I was wondering until you enlightened me, whether it would be this year with so many of the young men gone.
Since I last wrote I have had no further word from Wal, there has been no opportunity for it is too soon for a letter yet, but I thought I had better mention it. Nor have I heard from Le, though I cannot expect him to write often like I have the opportunity to do. Still one can never tell whether they may not have written and there be a big delay on account of censoring &c. I hope your parcel gets to him safely, it should just get there in right time. I made a little parcel for him yesterday morning & posted, & am hopeful for it too.
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2. My silence in news from Rid was broken sooner than I feared it might be. I had a letter and sort of general description dated 3rd March, on Saturday last (15th.) & the general one I posted on straight to Melbourne after I had taken a copy. It probably would not catch last mail & will only go by the same one as this and when they have read it at Box Hill they will post it on to you. He had had a most wonderful enchanting journey across France and could not speak too highly of the scenery and the welcome of the French people. They were 54 hours in the train but enjoyed it all most thoroughly. A piece of the letter had been hacked out by the Censor I suppose he mentioned their destination; however I knew by other means that it was Havre.
Then with gratitude I received a short letter letter this morning dated 5th inst. and from the same place. He could not give much news but they had packed up ready for another move bound whither they could not take much and he thought that it was the final move for some time. That is almost a fortnight ago and I wonder where they are now. Of course everyone assures me that he is not in the danger zone at the Front and that I need not be afraid of anything happening to him, but you know what an anxious heart is at any time & it will suggest things unasked, and of your own anxious wait I get a glimpse when I think of voyaging back for a month without any news, and possibly another fortnight after that. Still it is a case of hanging onto the no news as good news I suppose. It is so good to know of Walter being in England, & I think Leo still at Marseilles because I heard this morning
at Headquarters that there is a big base there.
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3. I had to go to Headquarters this morning to send the cable I wanted to, to Rid about going home. From his letters I gathered that he was leaving me to do as I thought best as to the future there was nothing very much at all about it except once where he said that much as he would love to have me somewhere nearer he did not know if it were wise because there was some submarine danger and in any case he might be miles from where he could ever get to me, and it is so. In the letter that came this morning he said there was great excitement in the town because a submarine (German) had been netted, crew & everything, and he said he knew that that was only one of many such occasions.
I had a great deal of difficulty in getting them to send the cable they would not send it from Headquarters, & the cable office could not take it without a definite address; however in the end one of the sergeants from H’qrts came up to the Cable Office with me & saw the censor man there & he said that the only thing was to send it to Havre & risk it being sent on if they had moved. I put “Considering Medina 11th reply," but the wretched address was nine words, and it is only a hope that it will get him though I shall know by the reply. I don’t have to book actually till three days before hand I found out from Cook’s, but I have to chance what sort of cabin I get: I am sorry I can’t choose one, it will make all the difference what sort I get as to whether I behave so well over not being sick as when I came over, I expect, but it can’t be helped. The man said the boats are not full so if I don’t like mine I’ll just make a fuss if I can screw up courage enough. I think you might come & bring me home Father mine, it would be just rather nice and think of all the trouble you would save me. If you can’t, ask Jobber if she will, I know you can’t Mother with the washing to do!
Nonsense apart, Father please write me to Ad Fremantle or somewhere & tell me the Scotts address again I am sorry I have forgotten, only don’t write to them & say anything will you in case I don’t
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4. feel up to going to see them, I mightn’t, & it would not be any loss to them, only I should like to have the address in case for they were exceedingly nice & kind. I shall go up to Box Hill (O.V.) for the best part of the time the boat stays there of course. I am talking quite as if I am coming & I don’t know yet for a certainty if I am, but it seems the most natural thing. If I should be able to get any little mementoes to bring home for various people I haven’t the faintest idea what one does about duty, but perhaps if there isn’t too much to do in the garden you might be able to meet me- I should like you to wear your usual town hat the one without any ribbon and the dark band that looks something like grease, if you could.
But really, perhaps you could advise me in that same letter to Melbourne Fremantle what sort of things are dutiable & whether it is wicked to try & hide them or best to put them all together, though the “all" might turn out to be awfully sickly little for they are such robbers here and charge me such ridiculous prices when I try to buy anything & I know it is so because of what other people have said they have paid for things. As for silks & things like that that I heard were so cheap here, I have priced them & could get just as good and very similar cheaper in Sydney-the mad things. By the way Father one or two questions that you have asked me before I must answer for very shame's sake & I am sorry I have forgotten each letter. One was about the French dictionary, but I won't describe it to you because I shall be giving it to Jobber when I bring it home: perhaps I had better though while I am speaking of it in case anything should prevent me coming though I fully intend to give it to Jobber. It is called English-French Conversational Dictionary & is published or written or something by Richard Jaschke, that is the only name about it. Mine is the second edition. I hope An hasn't got one when I get home because this really is a fine little thing & I won't need it any more.
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5. Then, & I almost blush to think of answering it now, but yes the Purser handed me the money very graciously and quite as it was given him of course. Did you ask me about the type-writer, anyhow I want to tell you. Rid only used it a few weeks at the Hospital and now I have to hump it home again, cheerful isn't it? Still it was one of the risks of war the bringing it over just on the chance of it being useful. Yes it reached him in perfect condition thanks to your tirelessness in its packing, but on the train journey from Alex. when he left there, the box got smashed in a little & one little part of the machine, which, fortunately he says is not important, got broken off. My deck chair is quite good & I haven't lost it yet. If you decide Father that you can't leave the garden to come & meet me I shall sit down on the wharf and weep on arrival because I have got such a mob of things & there won't be my sweet friends the arabs by the million to grab them for me and hustle them into about seven gharis, oh it will have to be a removal cart or something though, I suppose as they don't have gharis there. As far as I know now this is the mob. My big leather trunk, a roll of rug & cushion, deck-chair, a suit case thing (bought here) and my small case, like your school one- cheerful isn't it? And mostly old rubbish packed inside them too, for crowds of my things are falling to pieces and yet too good to throw away specially in war time. Mother I have done yards & yards of stitching by hand here, putting fresh bands on, or new edging, or patching, letting out things that were new & have shrunk &c. &c. & I hate all my clothes.
Well as you can plainly see I'm only talking but I can't help it I am so restless. Let me tell you though, what an unusual day Saturday was at the soldiers' cafe. I hardly ever see a soul I know but this day two or three soldiers I know looked me up and by the end of the day I had seen millions. It was quite queer too the various ranks of these boys, let me tell you who they were.
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6. Lieutenant Arthur Treloar (once of Chatswood S.School), Sergeant Norman Jeehan (lives in Chatswood used to go to school when I did), Corporal Cecil Watt (Chatswood stationmaster's son), Corporal Norman Winn (one of W. I. Winn's boys that we knew in Newcastle), Lance-Corporal Charlie Westbrook (Chatswood S.S.) and Private Powers whose sisters at school used to talk about Anna, he said. And going home I met a Nurse whom I used to go to school with as a little girl someone called Daisy Wearne. Now do you believe the millions.
I want to tell you a little about Charlie Westbrook for he is such a nice lad & I have seen him quite a lot, and shall have a lot to tell his parents when I get home. It is almost impossible to get anything but a hurried snatch of conversation at the cafe & Charlie was very anxious for a talk & begged me to go to Groppi's when I had finished my work & have some tea & a talk and I was as pleased as possible for it was, even then, weeks since I had had had a talk with anyone whom I used to know in sunny Australia. We stayed quite a time & I heard all about the lad's ups & downs and a fearfully hard time he has had too, though he was not grumbling but just telling of things as they had been. His mother will be very glad & proud of him I am sure for a more manly straightforward Christian boy I don't remember meeting for a long time. He spoke so nicely of them at home, in such a loving loyal way yet with all the blunt boyishness of the lad of twenty that I could have howled. I may see him again or not for he has just finished a course at a machine-gun school at Zeitoun & is being moved somewhere else now. I could tell you lots more about this sunshiny lad but I don't want to bore you though I know you will be glad of the little break it made for me. I am so much alone & often for days scarcely speak to a soul beyond the morning salute, that it is almost an event to see someone
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7. I know. I am not sure when I get home to you whether I shall talk till you are sick of the sound or whether I shall have forgotten how to talk altogether, if it is sometimes one & sometimes the other you will just have to scold that is all. I think I told you that I have my own little dining table to myself & I never talk to anyone at meals, but I am not sure that I told you there is no piano here and none of the pleasant social evenings we used to have sometimes at York Pension, though in any case the company here is not so nice, though there are about twice as many as at the York. Now I musn't talk any more or I shan't have anything to tell you when I come home except how big the junks of jam on Leo's coat were and the colour of the towel when he had wiped his hands and the bad words Wal used to use to arabs who got in his way or displeased him, and a few things like that.
Give Jobber my love please & tell her I can't try my brain over any more French letters yet, I only know about six words now & have to look up too many in the dictionary, but I will bring her home a couple of the daily French papers that will be better for her instruction than my attempts at letters.
Later. Still April 18th. I have just had a note from Wallie & must tell you all about it in case his to you are being delayed. Better still I will copy it on the other side of this so that you will know all I know in case your letters from him are blocked or delayed. It is headed "Off Marseilles" & dated 3rd April. The stamp on the envelope is that of London so I think they must have gone all the way there by boat but am not certain.
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8. Wal says "We have had a glorious trip across; the Mediterranean might almost have been Sydney Harbour for all the motion there has been. This is no doubt largely due to the splendid sea-going qualities of the ship. We were unfortunate enough to lose one man overboard, but he jumped over deliberately. We heard last night that a boat had been torpedoed near Malta, not 100 miles from where we were, so we are very thankful to be here cruising about between Toulon & Marseilles waiting for morning. We expect to disembark before mid-day & set out on our long train journey across France, some say to Rouen, others to Amiens. I don't think any of them really know excepting that it is to be in the north of France: they say we have been allotted a sector on the River Somme, but I expect we shall not be really in it for some time to come, the men certainly require a lot of training before they are ready for the Job. I believe we are to be billeted in the French villages & if this is correct I can hope to know some French by the time the campaign is over.
Am hoping to get in touch with Rid & Leo soon after arriving at the Depot.
You may have had, before you get this of mine, something much more decent from Wal, I do hope you have. Evidently they did not stay in France at all but went straight to England for training there, and as he suggest may be there for some time.
This letter of Wal's must have come by the same English mail that brought Rid's I think, only Rid's happened to be delivered this morning a delivery earlier. Wal's cable from London on 12th April is really the most recent after all.
Very much love dear Father & Mother
Your very loving daughter
Olive.
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Pension Wales. R 30.5.16
Cairo.
April 25th. 1916.
My very dear Father & Mother,
On Good Friday morning as I was on my way out to the Church Service I saw in the glass letter box downstairs near the lift an Australian mail for myself. The box is always locked or I should certainly have taken them to church with me for company. It was a very disappointing service for the chaplain resident here is in many ways a rather horrid man and he spoiled it by his bad temper & actions regarding which I won't go into detail just now. Have mentioned to you that the church is just across the road from here, well you can imagine I took very little time to get across the road & nearly flew up the stairs to get the key from Madame, I didn't wait for the slow old arab lift-man to toddle across the entrance & set the slow lift into motion I thought I could do the four flights quicker myself and I did I'm sure. Well there were ten letters & I was so thankful. Father I don't quite understand how it is but your general letter seems to be a week (or rather a mail) behind Mother's of 19th March. To get one dated 19th March on 21st of next month was rather thrilling I think it is the quickest yet that has come, though there was one from someone else I forget just now whom, dated 20th. March. I was wondering if you posted them at the same place & same time for it is very funny. If they had been opened to be Censored I could have understood it, but they had not.
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2. Those last two mails were very close together, one on the Sunday and one on the following Friday. It was so good to hear of you, and your doings and about home & everything & I believe you have been going out a little more lately from what I gather, that is good news. It is so strange to me to think of there being another minister & his wife at Bourke Street now, I loved being there for lots of things & the people too & I don't quite like to think that we are not going back there. Wouldn't I be homeless now if I hadn't you to come back to? Of course I know I could rent a house & all that sort of thing, but I mean a home!
Father you asked if I had been getting my military pay all right here and I have until this half month; I don't know why it has not come as usual & am only going to give them another mail before hunting them up. Last month it was a few days late & though this time it is a week, still perhaps it is all right. Anyhow I have a tongue & I'm learning to manage things by myself much as I dislike it & always will. The remittances have been fortnightly and regular all the time. If I come home I shall not neglect to safeguard myself about it all I can.
Since I last wrote to you, a week back, I have not had one atom of news from any of our soldier-boys, am sorry for your sakes & incidentally my own too. It has been a very long week, very long, and to be only about 6 days journey away from Rid & yet have his last letter three weeks old makes me restless, specially as I have had no reply to that cable I sent him a week ago telling him I was planning to return
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3. home by the Medina on 11th May & asking him to reply. You see I don't know whether he has got it or not, and I can do nothing now but wait till we can arrange things by letter. He may be anywhere now, I don't know, for I think I told you that that last note of his that is three weeks old said they were all packed up ready for another move, which he thought would be the last one. Though it is five weeks since he went I do not know yet whether he has had one of my letters, so you will guess how unsettled I am. It can't be helped I know, it is all just a part of the consequence of this hideous war, I try to remember that and how very gorgeously off I am compared to thousands of poor souls. If we had had any idea that there would be difficulty in getting cables to & from each other I suppose we should have fixed up something definitely, but it never occurred to either of us. It is still possible that Rid may have received my cable but is allowed no other mode of answering other than by letter and I might still get that answer in time to sail quietly off by the Medina. The next is the Orsova on May 19th and the next Mongolia about 26th I think. If it is not the Medina it will probably be the Mongolia I think I don't think we shall have had letters to & from each other in time for an earlier one if all cables are cut out. I am so sorry that I have to leave it all as indefinite as ever dear Father & Mother but you will understand I know. But until you receive this I fear you won't understand why it has taken so long to consider things & how difficult it has been to get letters to & from France except in a very long-delayed manner.
You see it was hard to know what to think when Rid left, for
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4. he did not know where the artillery were going, there were strong rumours that they were going to England for more training and they might easily have done so just as Walter has, and in that case I should have had to seriously consider whether I would go on there or not. Then also when Rid left Wal was still here & though unsettled it was still probable he might have been here for months. But all that has changed and here the weeks are coming and going, slowly certainly, but still mounting up all the same, and as it has turned out it would perhaps have been wisest if I had returned home immediately after the boys went- still one could not tell and everything is uncertain in these days.
This morning was the usual time for the regular English mail and I was a bit disappointed that there was nothing from any of the boys. I expect their mails are being heavily censored or else held back, but perhaps some have gone through to you, I do hope so.
I wonder how they have been spending their Easter time all in their different camps, and you too in your Cairnleith Camp? Mine were quite simple, the afternoons of S and evenings till dinner time of Saturday & Sunday & Monday at the Y.M. Soldiers' Cafe, I was thankful to be of real use, for the holidays brought an extra number. Sunday morning of course, I was at church & it was a nice little service with sacrament afterwards.
The Friday was the happiest day perhaps with all my letters and then I spent the whole afternoon from about half past two till 6 o'clock writing to Wal and Rid and just as I had finished Charlie Westbrook came in to say good-bye
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5. before leaving for Ismailia on the following day, and we went out to Groppi's to tea and had such a nice quiet little time till about half past eight when he had to leave again for Camp. He is a fine lad & his pure Christian faith touched me very deeply, not that he says much but just a little thing here & there & as he was going a shy boyish appeal for a word of prayer made me feel when he had gone that I had lost something. He is so keen on his work too and has done so well in the Machine Gun School, and it is so lovely to think that when I see his father & mother I shall have an almost unqualified report to give. I shan't dare tell them though of the awful food they have had in his company, sometimes for weeks, and the miserliness of it when it was good. I am so thankful that Leo escaped all that sort of thing and that as a rule the A.M.C gets better, a little better treatment that way than the infantry. And Wal of course being an officer will always have the best they can manage to provide under the circumstances & always officers' fare is very very different to the men's. But I will tell you more about that when I come to you.
By the way I haven't acknowledged two Daily Telegraphs that came to me from you, I was glad of them: I suppose one gets into a groove but there seems to be no paper like our Sydney one, the one here is a wreck of a thing & I am sick of it & the news it doesn't contain.
Now I haven't given you much news have I, but beyond the things I have mentioned there really has been none to give. We hear various rumours about the troops being in action or moved here & there, but nothing positive at all, it is all kept dark.
I shan't be able to cable you till right on the time I am
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6. starting I think, in case there is anything to upset the plans.
Just as you are getting it cold there occasionally now so we are getting it hot though only a few odd very hot days, the real heat is yet to come I think.
Well dear ones I am going to close this now to be sure of its catching the mail & if there should be any news later I will post on the chance of it reaching you for if I do somehow manage to catch the Medina this will be the last mail until I come myself, & of course I will wire you when I get to Freemantle. I mentioned to you didn't I that I shall be travelling through Cook's. I have a sort of feeling that I'll be home soon, I don't know: it will be beautiful to see you all again, just heavenly & I mean it, for this sort of life is as nearly the extreme opposite as I have yet had in my short pampered life though I know I might come miles nearer to it yet. And after all I have a good comfortable home here & a better one over there, and all the money I need, & all my dear ones alive & well & am alive & well myself- but it is mounting up so, I had better stop.
Very very much love to you both & thanks for your dear interesting letters, & love to nice Jobber too,
Your very loving daughter
Olive.
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Pension Wales. R. 30.5.16
Cairo.
April 26th. 1916.
My very dear Father & Mother,
I am writing this rather late for the mail & am not certain that it will catch it, but I have just had a note from Wal by this evening's mail and am anxious to let you know of it in case letters from him to you are not going through
As it has already once passed the Censor I can see no harm in posting it on to you as it is. Perhaps you can guess why he calls me Florrie though I cannot explain all about it just now, will do so when I come home, if ever I manage to get things fixed up so that I can come home. I am puzzled about his movements, and am beginning to wonder what that cable from London meant and whether he has not been there at all but entrusted it to someone to send from there, there being no other way of sending one. Of course his letter here is dated 9th April, and the cable was sent from London on 12th so perhaps they simply were moved across the Channel after he wrote. About the address he gives at the top I do not know what to say or whether it is any use using it. I tried to find out at Headquarters here the other day what was the correct address, but it is a hopeless business for one told me one thing & another another, though I am inclined to follow the one who told me just to put the Battalion &c. and A.I.F., leaving it to be forwarded; one told me to put Intermediate Base Depot & another not. It is a mad place to my humble judgment that Headquarters. This morning
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2. I went there to find out why my military cheque did not come in the middle of the month & the man in charge of that part smilingly told me that it was there already filled in but they had lost the address & did not know where to send it! Sublime isn't it? Anyhow I think Wal's address is quite safe like this & there can be no mistake.
Lieut W.L.W.
14th Reinf
2nd Battalion
1st Aust Div Base Depot
A.I.F.
Perhaps the A.I.F. is redundant but it helps to make it noticeably clear I think. I will have another try to find out the address best to use before I come away from here, I meant fully to do so again this morning but I think the sublimely simple explanation of the delay in my cheque rather upset me, I had been prepared for all sorts of trouble & to find it only that, sort of stunned me & made me forget other things.
The S.17 in Wal's letter is a code for a certain town & I think it would hardly do to use that because they might be moved any time, though of course it may mean that the Army P.O will be always there, I don't know. It is so different not having Rid to go & ferret out things for me, I daresay he would have been able to get at higher officials than I could at H'quarters. Wal's letter may seem a little strange to you but there is a reason for that and I am sorry I can't tell you about it now. Why this mail that has brought his brought nothing from Rid I can't think: I am getting
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3. rather despairing over the delay in his letters; that of course will sound rather ridiculous to you when it is only just over a week since I had the last, and "despairing" was rather a strong word to use but you know what I mean. It is so much more noticeable because I have so much time to think & to watch for letters and because my future is so unsettled. It seems so ridiculous to think that I hear from him in time, the next mail after this will bring me to you instead of letters, though on the other hand it may be weeks before we can come to an agreement through letters.
You won't worry about me one atom will you, even if you still have received no cable re my homecoming when this gets to you, I shall be quite all right even if I have to stay on here for a while. I won't deny that I find it trying but it is nothing to what lots of people have, and I shall philosophically try to make the best of it if I am detained on and on. And you see the longer I am kept away from you the more I'll go mad over getting back & having you again.
To-day here has been very hot & you poor dears would have thought it awful I know. There has been a really hot wind blowing all day & the fierce Eastern sun beating down mercilessly & if I had had to be out in it much I should have made a fuss but I was only out for about an hour this morning. Even here at home (home!!), I have been fairly soaking & greasy faced & dank haired but it has not concerned me. I daresay it might take it out of one without knowing it but otherwise I'm sure it wouldn't trouble me. And to think they are having it so cold in France!
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4. There is another delivery about 10 o’clock to-night & I shall leave this open just in case there may be a letter from Rid or Le by it that has been delayed, though even if there is it will be only a tiny scrap I can add for I must post this to-night- the pillar-box is only across the road fortunately. It is eight o’clock now & there is a huge hot dinner to toy with, isn’t it mad. One night we were given ice-cream for dessert! By the way Mother dearie, I thought of this this-afternoon. If you hear of me coming sailing homewards & you want any curtains for my room, please use some of tassely ones that were in that box of linen stuff, I fully intended them to be used, also anything else that there may be of any use. How is my “blue" corner in the garden Father?
Later. The last delivery has been made & there is nothing else dear people mine so I will close this & post.
Very very much love from
Your loving daughter
Olive.
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[This letter was written in France to Olive Oakley by a Frenchman on the wounding of her brother Walter and his receipt of the Military Cross.]
Pernois, par Canaples, Somme France. 25th November 1916.
Chere Mademoiselle,
Votre charmante letter datee due 4 octobre nous est parvenue le 23 novembre, ma fille et moi arone ete touchees jusqu’aux larmes en pousant que Mr Walter, votre frere, vous avait dit qu’il avait une petite soeur qui apprenait le francais et qu’il lui dirait de vous ecrire, nous reconnaissons qu’il a tenu sa parole, nous n’en avons jamais doute, ear, pendant 10 jours qu’il est reste parmi nous, nous avons pu apprecier sa grandeur d’ame et son bon coeur, nous l’avons aime tout de suite et c’est avec beaucoup de chagrin que nous l’avons vu partir, aussi, tous les soirs, a la priere a l’eglise, nous prions Dieu qu’il le protege, qu’il le rende sain et sauf a sa famille apres la guerre et que nous le revoyiions.
Nous avons en le plaisir de connaitre votre beau-frere, Chapelain, Capitaine d’artillerie, il est venu un dimanche voir Mr. Walter, il etait a 4 kilometres de Pernois, nous avons en beaucoup de peine en apprenant qu’il etait blesse, nous formous des voeux pour qu’il soit bientot gueri.
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Nous avons aussi connu votre autre frere qui est venu rendre visite a Mr Walter, etant pres d’ici, nous avons remarque qu’ils aiment beaucoup.
Notre belle France a bien souffert depuis la guerre, il y a au moins 10 Departements d’envahis par ces bandits d’allemands, ils usent de tous les moyens pour tout detruire, il y a des villages et des villes aneautis, nous avons ete preserves jusqu’alors de l’envahissement grace a nos courageux allies, l’offensive de la Somme les a fait reculer, mais que de sang repandu! Que de familles en deuil! Combien de ces braves qui ne reverrout pas leur chere Patrie!
Tres souvent nous entendons le canon nuit et jour et les vitres de la maison tremblent, cela nous attriste beaucoup, vous pensons a ces braves qui nous defendent et qui meurent pour nous....
Nous savions de puis 8 jours que Mr. Walter etait decore, c’est un de ses amis, le Capitaine E. Page, au repos a 12 kilometres d’ici qui est venu nous le dire; nous en avons ete tres touchees, c’est une recompense bieu maritee. Mr Walter nous avait dit ce quis’etait passe a Pozieres, je vais lui envoyer une lettre de felicitations et de remerciements.
Soyez assez boune, Chere Mademoiselle, pour nous ecrire encore puisque vous vous exprimez si bieu en francais, donnez-nous des nouvelles de Mr. Walter que nous n’oublierons jamais, il y aura toujours ici une chambre pour lui, si le bonheur vent qu’il
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revienne au repos parnu nous.
Avec nos remereiements, croyez, Chere Mademoiselle a nos sentiments affectueux pour vous et votre famille.
N Jechoux
E. Bry.
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Box Hill R & A 7.2.17.
6th. Feb. '17.
My dear Father,
You really have been too good to me writing so often, and you must not do it so frequently from now on. Do you know yours of 28th. Jan just came to hand this morning with Mother's & Le's letters enclosed.
They had been sent on to Sassafras by W. Oakley from here on Wednesday evening & at the same time he had posted Doris a note in which he mentioned having posted them to me, (that & another) & I should have received them on the Thursday morning with hers. I went down to the Sassafras P.O. again in the afternoon & enquired about them but they said they knew nothing of them. They used often to annoy me there by the careless way they left letters anywhere about in the P.O. & I believe they have been there all the time kicked into some out of the way corner. It was good of Mother to write too & she must have had such a busy time with the visitors.
Then yesterday morning came your letter enclosing Leo's letter to you & Professor Watt's re Wal. I was very glad to have more details about poor old Leo's doings, & most interested & proud to read the Professor's. I will return them both, and thank you. Yesterday afternoon came another from you 2nd Feb, dear me I thought I was rich indeed. Was rather startled to hear that you had expected Uncle Bertie so soon, had no idea of it
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being nearly so soon. Sorry you have had to put in so much time visiting Dr Forsyth, it is most uninteresting, uncomfortable, unremunerative, and a few other "uns." And I was so surprised to hear that you have had still more rain. Why, we haven't had any over here since that first week up at Sassafras, and I believe that was during the first few days. I am eager to see the garden again & see what it promises to show Wal, but I know you will be looking after it most carefully and almost anxiously. Isn't it too wonderful to think of him being home in a few weeks! My but I'll squeeze you when I get home to let you know how I feel about it & then you can show me what you think of it. Poor Mum she must have had a big wash after the visitors, I am glad you both liked Miss Morrissey, I was wondering if she would be as nice as Harry had said. W Lelean of course always has been very nice. Was glad of the copy of Wal's letter of 13th Dec. that was so delayed by piling up to Sassafras & back here. So his arm is broken! How mysterious it all is.
Hope you received my wire yesterday in time to save you a walk up the village, that was really why I sent it. The money pa will do nicely on Allotment Day, only please Father, also keep out the little bit that I wanted to leave behind in the shape of Miss Butler's help. That will be four weeks now. I really will be hurt if you do not, because you know she is my innovation into the home & I believe you half promised you would too. Ask Mother to persuade you for me!
Doris & I had a delightful drive yesterday afternoon through the country for a couple of hours & then went to the home of these people – the Frasers- for tea & were joined for the evening by Mr & Mrs Oakley. I had a nice letter from Mr Leckie yesterday & am going out there to-day for the afternoon.
Saturday we spent the afternoon & evening at the brother Harold's.
Very much love to you all, Lovingly Your daughter
Olive.
[Transcribed by Lynne Palmer for the State Library of New South Wales]