19 December 1918- My dear Mother

Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_04 Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_01 Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_02 Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_03Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_04
Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_04Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_01 Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_02Peirs_Le_1918-12-19_03

My dear Mother
A merry Xmas to you all.  I am sorry I have not been able to get home for it but I really think I shall get back early in January & may see some of you if not all.  Many thanks for your last letter & for one from Father.  It is a pity the election causes trouble, though
I hardly imagine that the effects will cause much [illegible] bitterness.  You will be able to strafe each other a little more openly.  I suppose Cato will get in fairly easily.  I am at Baisieux, between Lille and Tournai — 14 kilometres from the former & 8 from the
latter.  We are gradually spreading out, as more troops leave the place to go to their proper areas & I hope everyone will have gone in a few days & let us settle down.  I have had a fellow in Paris the last few days getting Xmas dinners, & he has now returned after buying a sufficiency for everyone, but has not been able to bring the stuff with him,

[page]

though he has seen it on to a truck & I trust
it will materialise in a few days.  However
there is a risk yet, as trucks have a habit
of getting off on to weird sidings unknown
to everyone & I have horrible nightmares of good pork & fat geese left unprotected near some camp, where they will be kindly attended to by the inhabitants & we shall go without.  The thought is too terrible.
They are threatening us with (as all New Army Battalions) with the burden of a Silk Union Flag — otherwise Union Jack, to take the place of Colours but to be treated in all respects with the same reverence & devotion.  We have got along without
the beastly thing for 4 years, so why we should be burdened now I cannot say.  It will involve

[page]

horrible ceremonies of consecration & such like & will bore everyone to tears.  I can see myself at the end laying it up somewhere — probably with dreadful ceremony though preferably in a bowler hat with the thing in a brown bag. We have got Madame dining with us to-night with her son who has just come from England where he has been for the last 4 years running some business or other.  I trust we have got something to give her, but one never knows these days.
Love to all
Jack.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *