OUR SOLDIERS

The following is extracted from a letter sent to Mrs. M. E. Aspinall, of 87 Francis street, Ascot Vale, from her son, Sgt. Norman Aspinall. He says : Our batttalion has a good name here; the Brigadier thinks it is the best in the brigade. In fact, he told them so in front of the other battalions this afternoon. He also told us that he was speaking to another general, who said that he never saw a battalion march like ours, when we were entering the line.

We have had games of football behind the lines, and our company were runners-up in the final for premiership for the battalion. Our company took out all the events in the battalion sports held to-day. There are brigade sports on Anzac Day April 25th, and am looking forward to our battalion being champions, as they were last year in Egypt. I was in Bapaume the day after the Town Hall was blown up. Our battalion was the first to enter it after the German retreat, and a sergeant usher of our company, from Essendon, was the first Australian to enter it. He is also one of the Swanston street Church of Christ boys.

One of my mates, George McLeod, of Ascot Vale, has won a military medal for bravery under fire, so convey to his mother our congratulations. In another letter to hand, he writes that Private Frank Hancock, of Flemington, (a son-in-law of Mrs. Aspinall) has been recommended for a military medal for bravery under very heavy artillery fire, in trying to bring  in from"No Man's Land" a captain a prominent Geelong footballer. Since receiving these letters Sgt. N. Aspinall has been admitted to hospital, England, suffering from severe trench fever.

OUR SOLDIERS. (1917, August 2). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 5 Edition: Morning. Retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74603267