My dear Mother,

Many thanks for your last, also for letters from the gals. I am sorry you have all had colds but hope they are on the mend by now. The weather is too beastly for words & it is a wonder that the whole British army is not down with something of the sort, yet somehow we don’t seem to be worried with them. I suppose the healthy open air life has something to do with it, yet there are many who could do with a little less of the open air. I am sorry not to have written for a few days, but have plenty to occupy my time & have really been rather pushed the last few days. When we were back the men had their Xmas dinners by companies & we fed them with Plum puddings & beer & I fancy they enjoyed themselves. Also the sergeants had a dinner & there were concerts & a cinema not far off so they got a fair amount of amusement. I had a joy ride in a car one day to see a demonstration of some of our engines of warfare but there was nothing that I hadn’t seen before, so that part was not very interesting though the

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whole thing took me all day, but I quite enjoyed the run. We are now in the line again & find the Bosch fairly quiet though his minnies cause a little trouble & a lot of work in rebuilding trenches after he has knocked them in & the weather rather helps him than otherwise. We have got a strange Colonel attached to us now, who seems fairly innocuous. He is a Welshman & a Territorial & was out in the Dardanelles, so he knows nothing of this front. I don’t know how long I shall have to look after him, but I think only for 5 days. Perhaps Tringham will be back soon & take him off my hands. I hope you saw your son & heir in the paper the other day. I suppose it was because of the raid last June, as I don’t feel conscious of anything else unusual since then.

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I don’t fancy that this Div. did very well in the list, at least the Divl. Staff didn’t think so, though of course they were all mentioned, but there certainly are several people who ought to get things & don’t. The truth is that those who deserve them most are the ones who try to get things out of the higher authorities & are consequently not popular with the latter.

I hear we are going right back some time, but these rumours get about & are rarely accurate so we may or may not get out, but I don’t think any objections would be raised if we did.

Love to all

Jack.