Oct 24/1919
40843/1st Garr Batt
Royal Munster Fusiliers
A.P.O Box R L9 I.E.F.
Italy
Dear Jack
I have just received your letter and was very pleased with it. I am glad to hear that you and Agnes are keeping in the best of health, as I am in the pink only this last day or two I have had the tooth ache but I think it is a cold. I have had a letter from Ethel and they are all keeping well at Ilkeston. You ask me if I was cooking. No I have finished cooking and am doing guards and escorting Austrian prisoners but I can do it. I could have had a job yesterday cooking for two officers but I am not having it. never finished till 10 o clock at night and up about 7. you have no time for anything cant get out at all and they think no more about you when you have done it. of course the foods all good but in the camp were we are we live well. you can buy eggs and get all sorts of tin stuff from the canteen so we don't do amiss. I hope to get home before Christmas if not on demob I hope to get a leave it will be three years come Christmas. Dec 28th since I joined up. I don't know when we are moving out of this country but I hope it will be soon. i will let you know if I hear any thing. They keep getting rumours about that we are moving but they never come off. Write and let me know all the news send a newspaper next time you write.
With Best love to you both
Harry
Harry sounds in good shape. This letter was the first indication I had of the date of his joining the army. Before I read it, I had assumed that he'd gone to Rugeley Camp shortly before his first letter in February 1917. From this, it's clear that he went much earlier - at the end of December 1916. BL
2 comments:
Good to hear you're keeping alright Harry. I should think if you stay overseas much longer you'll have to become an Italian citizen!
And the way the officers treated you when you were cooking for them just serves to confirm another long-held belief that fellows like yourself who make life possible for the rest of us are never really appreciated.
Well let me say this, Harry, you are appreciated. And I hope the country recognizes your contribution when you get home once more.
Hello Harry:
Rumors in the Army are as natural as breathing. Im still breathing also, right now in Verdun on some military business while the Regiment is holding the right flank of the Allied line during this push. Still dodging the big shells that come over behind the lines. Stop by for a read when you can.
Regards,
Sam
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