31 January 1916
Transcription
8th Queens
B. E. F.
31. 1. 1916
My dear Cecily,
Very many thanks for a L. O. & Love in a Cottage which I got last night. I am writing this in a cellar in Wipers, where we are for the moment & I am going up to the trenches to-night & back again in a few days time to the same cellar. The whole Battalion I need hardly say is not in the same cellar, but it is in different places about the town & some of it is still back in camp. This particular cellar is dry, but rather chilly & the Primus was very useful last night in warming it up & I am getting it to go again now.
I must also thank someone for the London Magazine, which also arrived yesterday.
This place is very quiet now though of course they have not given up shelling it altogether.
They put a few shells in daily, so I daresay they will be starting soon.
I don’t know that I have much to tell you.
We were not sorry to leave camp yesterday as it is a muddy spot & it was practically impossible to find anything for the men to do, as there is nowhere to do it. However most of them are taken up to the front line at night on working parties. So they want to sleep by day.
The weather has changed considerably the last few days & there is now an East Wind which is rather cold. However there is no frost & I think we can consider ourselves jolly lucky in the weather we have had as I don’t think we have had frost since November.
I am sorry to be talking of the weather, but there is nothing else to talk of except that they have apparently begun their morning hate, as I can hear distant thuds, also the general has just come in & complains that we are very stuffy in here, which must be the effect of the stove though I don’t notice the stuffiness myself & would be glad if it was a little stuffy. As it is the cellar is full of ventilators & is in fact rather draughty.
Love to all
Jack.
I have not sent a copy of this letter to Odd as it is such tosh.
