Poperinghe

Transcription

8th Queens
B. E. F.
22. 3. 1916.

My dear Mother,

Very many thanks for your last letter. I hope your foot is all right now, & if not that the pram is still useful as a conveyance. We are now in France, which sounds as though we have gone a long way but really it is not much more than 4 miles from where we were before. Still we are in hilly country which I thought v. pleasant when I first saw it, but am beginning to change my mind as I plough my way round to the billets & have to climb to them by the muddiest lanes imaginable. It is also beginning to snow again, which is not a pleasant change after last weeks warmth & sunshine. We should be here for a few days before moving up & I do not expect we shall be in the trenches for 10 days at least. I had an uneventful journey with the transport yesterday except that the Brigade Machine Gun Company did all it knew to lose its way. I found it originally with its nose pointing up the wrong road & facing the wrong way. they are new to the country & don’t appear to be very intelligent. They also managed to kick & lay out a padre who was with the column, why I don’t know, but I don’t mind much as I know him & he won’t be a great loss.

I have got a v. good feather bed & spring mattress in my billet, so I am quite all right & we have come into a country that was previously inhabited by Canadians who seem to have made themselves v. agreeable. Unfortunately they don’t sell whiskey here, as they never do in the area where the Canadians are so I had to send to Poperinghe for ours to-day.

Love to all

Jack.