Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Charles Bathersby letters, 1915
MLMSS 9264 /Box 9/ Item 1

[Page 1]
Thursday
still on water

Dear Ted

Just a line to let you know I am alright hoping this will find you Grace & Mavis still the same we stayed in the harbour until sunday evening I have had a fair trip I have a bad cold so there is nothing to tell I will say good bye for the present with best wishes from your loving brother Charlie

Address: C Bathersby
A. Squadron
B. 12 A.4.House
C. no 94
D. C/O Victoria Barracks

[Written on side of letter at bottom ‘they will send it along’]

[Page 2]
Envelope:

O.A.S.
From No 94
Tpr Bathersby

Mr E Bathersby
Reservoir Rd.
Wentworthville
Merrylands
Sydney N.S. Wales

A.I.F.
Passed by Censor No 29

[Page 3]
Address

31/7/1915
A Squadron
12th L.H. Regt
4th Brigade
Heliopolis
Egypt
A.I.F. No 94

Dear Ted

Your letter to hand this morning & pleased to hear from you & to find you all well & little Mavis getting better too & I’m pretty well only for the heat we get up at 4.30 & drill until 8.30 & we don’t go out then until 5 PM. & knock off at 7PM. it is too hot in the middle of the day although it gets very cool at night Dear Ted I don’t know what we are going to do I don’t think they know themselves they have thousands of horses here but there no good to us if we go to the Dardonelles but we have our

[Page 4]
saddles here waiting to see what they are going to do they are talking about sending us to France with our horses I wish they would this place is full of soldiers Ken Hay & those other fellows are here but I have not been talking to them yet Dear Ted this is the first letter I got & the only one yet I ought to get some from home but there is about ten-ton of mail to be sorted yet so I might have a bit of luck

Hutchinson & I are going to Cairo on Sunday for the day there is a lot of wounded going back to Australia from here in a day or two & a lot of rejects & deceased from the hospitals I think some of our fellows will go astray too it is a different place to Sydney & they don’t see, to see any danger

Dear Ted I have no more news this time so will say bye with best wishes to all from your loving brother Charlie

[Written on side of letter:]
General Maxwell inspected our Brigade this morning & said it was the best that ever came from Australia

I wrote a letter to you when we landed a few days ago

[Page 5]
T. Bathersby Esq
Reservoir Rd
Wentworthville
Merrylands
Sydney N.S.W.
Australia

Stamped:
4th L.H. BDE
Field P.O.
30-Jl-15
A.A.S.

[Page 6]
Gallipoli
8/10/1915

Dear Ted

Just a line to find out how you are all getting on leaving me very well at present I had a letter from home the only one I got they were saying Da was not too good when they heard from you last I hope he is better by this their letter was dated 10th august so that is a good while ago Dear Ted by their letter their not paying any money from the Barracks. I wish you would go to the Victoria Barracks & see the Pay Master & shake them up Well Ted I have no more news this time hopping to hear from you soon with fond love to you all from Your Loving Brother Charlie No 94

I don’t know where all my mail is going I cannot get any

[Page 8]
At the Front
28/9/1915

Dear Ted

Another line trusting it will find you all well leaving me just the same still in the trenches I am still looking for mail but devil a one can I get but it will come some day I suppose

how is poor old Dah getting along now. Hutchy is still away I cannot hear of him

is Sid still thinking of coming he wants to get it out of his head his knee would never stand it as Infantry we may get our horses again after a while I hope so

[Page 9]
Mr E Bathersby
Reservoir Road
Wentworthville
Merrylands
Sydney
Australia

[Page 10]
Gallipoli
14/10/1915

Dear Grace

I received your very welcome letter to day which you wrote Aug 23rd-15 & was very pleased to hear from you all & sorry to hear poor old Da was not doing well it seems very hard for him tell him I was asking about him & I will be back again to see him some day I hope

I had a letter from Rachel – home & one from Edmunds to day I was glad you told me Mah was getting my money she never mentioned it in either the two letters I got from her I suppose she told me all about it in one that would go astray she said she wrote three or four.

Well Grace you were saying

[Page 11]
that is seems a long time since I left but I tell you it seems years to me I got a good bit of while cotton planted in me my hair now which I never had in dear old N.S.W. but never mind we shall have our revenge for all the dear old boys that are under the sod all round our dug outs. I am sitting with a bit of a light all alone in my little old dugout writing these few lines & the roar of the big guns is terrific & the small ones too.

my dear old rifle is my only friend here. Well dear Grace I will bring this short note to a finish but remember me to all your people & don’t forget Knowles when you write to them with all love & good wishes to dear little Mavis Ted & yourself from your loving Brother Charles

A.Squadron No 94

12th Regt A.L.H
4. B.D.E.
Egypt.

[Page 12]
Mrs E Bathersby
Merrylands Rd
Merrylands
Sydney
N.S.W.

[Page 13]
Gallipoli
21st/10/15

Dear Ted

Your letter to hand a couple of days ago which you wrote Sept 2nd & was pleased to hear from you & to find you all fairly well leaving me OK you should have received a couple of letters at least from Egypt from me before you wrote that one the mail they went with arrived as I had an answer from one I wrote home & two or three elsewhere I also had one from old Alick he said he had a letter from you & you had no complaints & enjoyed reading it so I answered it right away so I don’t suppose I will not get another from him for a while as I have not wrote to him much I am sorry but any how he tells me he has a go job

[Page 14]
that’s more than I have here this is a risky one. Tell Mavis I will come back some day again & play with her but I am sorry to say not this year & if next year it will be late. Well Ted old boy I am not suppose to say much in these envelopes but I tell you when we landed here our regiment the dear old 12th was broken up (us) A squadron had to go to the old first regt. & B to the seventh & C to sixth & the rest of the Brigade had to do likewise & poor old P.P. Abbott had to take charge of the 9th regt all Victorian when we parted on a sunday afternoon some could of months ago he gave a speech to us & completely broke up like a child & left us I met him once since he & Antill I was in one of the trenches on my own & they came along he said how would we three

[Written on side of page]
I got the Paper thanks very much

[Page 15]
like to be in old I will now so you see it was hard luck for us on the twelth, you will never read of what they have done or what they will do in the future they took him, Abbott, away the other day very bad I don’t know what up with him some say he was run down. Cloud Cameron wishes to be remembered to you all. Dear Ted I answered Graces letter last mail so I hope she gets it I suppose they will both go to Australia together We were only supposed to be attached to the First L.H. I heard last night the twelth would never be reformed again so no matter what address you put on it wont make much difference but you better put address to the first & if your writing home or to Alick & Ray you can tell them all about it for fear they don’t get mine. Well Ted old boy I will ring off for this time with best wishes to Grace Mavis & yourself from your Loving Brother Charlie

[Written on side of page]
No 94
B. Squadron
1st A.L. Regt
1st Brigade
Egypt

Dear Ted I wrote one & two letters or cards to you ever since we left Aden every week so you always get one every week at least

[Page 16]
Mr. E. Bathersby
Reservoir Rd
Wentworthville
Merrylands
Sydney
N.S Wales
Australia

Passed by Censor No 2241

[Page 17]
Mr E Bathersby
Merrylands Rd
Merrylands
Sydney
Australia

[Page 18]
[Back of envelope with post mark]

[Page 19]
Coloured post card

‘A Merry Christmas’

Egypt – Ploughing near the Nile.

[Page 20]
19th General Hospital Alexandria Egypt
28/11/1915

Dear Ted

Just a line hoping to find you all well leaving me getting better I think I will be getting up in a few days but it it will be a long time before I will be able to go back to the front. I sent you a Christmas card a week ago & suppose you would get it

Well Ted old boy would like to be over there for Christmas I have had five weeks in bed now I am pretty thin I think, I will ring off with best wishes & love to you Grace & Mavis from you Loving Brother CB

I have no mail from the front yet

[Page 21]
14/12/1915

Convalescent Camp
Port Said

Dear Grace

just a few lines to let you know how & where I am hoping they will find you all well leaving me getting on fine again we came here here on the 10th we are on an island here they are all convalescent

Dear Grace I wrote to you before I left Heliopolis & sent Mavis some cards so I hope she get them & don’t get shocked at the one one or two of them. thanks very much for the Parcel you are sending. I suppose it will be tired by the time it over takes me but any how I will have Christmas then. Well Grace there is nothing to talk about here so I will ring off for this time

with best wishes & love to you all
from Your loving Brother
Charlie

[Page 22]
O. A. Service

Mrs E. Bathersby
Merrylands RD
Merrylands
Sydney N.S.W.
Australia

[Page 23]
[Back of envelope]

[Page 24]
[Post card]

[Page 25]
With
best wishes for a
very Happy Christmas
and a
Bright New Year

from Charlie with love
to Ted, Grace & Mavis