The following are extracts from a letter received from Sergeant Thomas Grassham, of Ascot Vale, by Mrs. H. Bird, McNae street, Moonee Ponds:

"Received your very kind letter and papers, which I appreciated very much. I passed the local paper on to some Moonee Ponds boys, who are in our unit, viz., W. O. Seymour, of Epsom road, Ascot Vale; Private Woodruff, Moonee Ponds; and Sgt. Mullett, who enlisted from Geelong, but whose parents live in Park street, Moonee Ponds. We are all fighting like Kilkenny cats from Monday to Monday, and I think we have the best end of the stick. At any rate we keep smiling, and that's everything.

The French villages are very old-fashioned; their streets are composed of cobble stones, and there are water pumps in the streets, from which the women and children carry the household supplies. The villagers are a healthy lot. Of course, the villages are sadly depleted of men, and only those too old to serve and the women do the farm work. It makes one's heart bleed to see old women, who should be at home resting, working from 4 and 5 in the morning till last thing at night. The other day I saw a sight I never wish to see again. There was an old man ploughing, and instead of having horses to pull the plough, there were two old women and three children with ropes round their waists pulling the plough. The sun was hot, and the ground hard. When one sees things like this, it makes him glad he is doing his bit to belt the Germans and belt them hard for being the cause of so much misery.

We have been over here over twelve months now with the M.T. Divisional Supply Column, and have had some ups and downs in that time. We were attached to the 17th Division, and a crack division it was; and we were rather sorry to have to leave and join up with our own. We never missed getting our supplies through, and were only late on two occasions, and these occurred in the middle of a hard winter with the snow up to our knees. We were often exposed to gas attacks, long range gulls and aeroplanes; but still we got there. We also broke railhead loading record, and hold it to date.

There are about 60 motor waggons in every column, and each division is about 21,000 strong, and about 5000 horses. Each division is allowed 11 hours to load, when no other waggons are allowed in the yard. On our first morning everything was strange to us, and we took 2½ hours to load. This was bad, and the Canadians, who held the record, I hour 16 minutes, started poking fun at us, so we determined to lower their record and eventually succeeded. By this time, Headquarters Staff had noticed us as a smart D.S.C., and on 16/3/16, at ----Railhead, we made another attempt to lower our own record.  There were ten staff officers present, and every truck was sealed by them,   and the waggons inspected. Our loaders were also checked to see we had no more than our right number. At 10 a.m. we backed into the trucks, and loading commenced. At 7 minutes to 11 the last lorry pulled out of the yard, and we had broken our own record by 22 minutes, and up to the present no others have come near it. So the Australian M.T.S. Column holds the railhead record for loading for a full division."

Sergeant Grassham finishes with the hope that the boys will rally to the colours.

France. (1916, July 20). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 4 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved February 3, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74593564

Wood and Coal Merchant.

T. C. Grassham, a returned soldier, who has seen 1025 days service (872 days active service abroad), has started a wood, coal, coke and corn business at 320 Mt. Alexander road, Ascot Vale. 

The Essendon Gazette. (1917, July 26). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 2 Edition: Morning. Retrieved January 27, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74603233