Transcription
8th Queens
B. E. F.
21. 3. 1916.
My dear Father,
Very many thanks for your letter & the glasses, which are A1. Also to mother for her letter & an Autocar. I am sorry her foot is troubling her & hope the pram will help her to get about. Also to G. & W. for food & drink. The latter went down very well on the last night I was in the trenches & I hope in the salient & we buzzed the bottle & to C. & O. for letters. I am v. glad C did so well at the concert & I daresay there will be more soon to disport herself at. Leave has really started & we are sending a batch to-day & another at the end of the week & so on at 4 day intervals, so I really do think I may be back soon, but even now I cant say exactly when.
I went over in a bus yesterday to our new billeting area near Bailleul & found someone else arranging to billet his people in the same place as mine. However on returning I got him turned out & I suppose he is now scouring the countryside for more billets & I know there aren’t any. However it won’t do them any harm, as he is a Field Ambulance bloke & they sit on their latter ends & twiddle their thumbs & for the most part might as well be back at home. Though of course they keep a certain number up the line. The new place is in more or less hilly country & is much more attractive than this & the people are French & very nice – at least they were to me yesterday & I expect they will be to the men.
On my way down the other night I stopped in Wipers & had a look round the Cathedral & Cloth Hall, but it is difficult to see anything to bring away, as the floors are covered with the vaultings of the roof. However I got a few bits of green glass out of the doors of the Cloth Hall & a bit of alabaster & bit of painted wood out of the Cathedral, but they are nothing very definite & might just as well have come out of the Station or any ruined place. I have got to go in charge of the Brigade Transport to-day to the new area – a rotten job, as there is about a mile of it & they all leave the column at different & probably the wrong places & the guides which are to meet them will either not be there or if there be unable to guide – guides out here always are like that. Yesterday on our journey we passed an aerodome & it was very curious at dusk the way the machines dropped in out of nowhere & absolutely quietly & ambled off to their sheds. Did I tell you that in the Intelligence the other day some machine was reported, I forget whether ours or a Bosch to have been seen to loop the loop six times in succession & for no apparent reason. Pure lightheartedness I suppose.
Love to all
Jack.
