Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918
Return to Easton J T R Pte 3023
COPIES OF LETTERS RECEIVED FROM LATE 3023 PRIVATE J.T.R EASTON. 14th BATTALION, AIF - 1915
The originals and transcripts of these letters are held in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Copies have been kindly provided for this website by Lynn Haines.
Roy's letters to his father and siblings were bright and breezy, keeping up his family's morale while he was away, and letting them know whom he had met from his old neighbourhood. He displays a great deal of good-natured affection for his cousin Alan Downie, who was regularly mentioned. The letters also record some of the cultural insensitivity of British people of their time, but they are presented unedited as an example of the attitudes of the day.
Shipping clerk; of Kensington, Vic.; born West Melbourne; educated at North Williamstown state school and at Stott's Business College, Melbourne; was a signaller in the R.A.N R.; joined the AIF on 6th July 1915; took part as a runner in the 14th Battalion raid in the Fleurbaix sector on the night of 2nd July, 1916, and was mortally wounded, died on 4th July; age at time of death, 25.
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Southern Seas.
Sunday
27/10/15.
Dear Dad and Chaps,
As per usual we are still jogging along at same old rate, in the same old spirits and at the same old comfortable lazy swing. This is a first rate journey we are having, the weather is almost perfect and the old packet stands up to it well. The usual shoal of porpoises came out to see us off and since then we have been having other varieties of entertainment in the shape of whales, not one but dozens of them, and yesterday we were visited by dolphins, so you see we are not having an uninteresting voyage. We will have to take pot luck as far as getting letters posted is concerned, as me are not too sure of making any frequent stops anywhere.
This will just about finish up our 1st week today and according to the way things are going it should be quite easy to last out the remainder of the voyage. Had a look at part of the coastline this morning and was surprised at the rugged appearance of the land.
Alan is as bald as a billiard ball now, he had his hair taken off the other day and he is an ugly looking old man. Hope you are all keeping in the best of health and also lively. Give our best to all at Adderley St. and Eltham St. also all the others. If the censor doesn't get this mixed up and put in with someone else you should have & fair chance of getting it,- in the meantime as I can't think of any more news I would be permitted to give you I will dry up for the nonce. Alan sends his love to all.
So does, Yours to the Scaffold,
Roy
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YMCA letterhead from one of Roy's letters , reproduced below. Copy courtesy of Lynn Haines.
SS Port Lincoln,
November 10th 1915
Reg No 3023
Address 10/14 Btn
Dear Dad and Kids,
Suppose you will be calling us nasty names, but we have been out of the way of posting letters. We have had a real good trip so far, only one day a bit of a wind blew up and we had a bit of a rough and tumble for a while, some of us were hoping it would last and (alas) some were not but on the bulk the sea has been as flat as a pancake. We have had plenty of firing visitors. Today we have been accompanied by dolphins, they put up a great show, first at about 6 o'clock this morning running along in front of us at a fair old bat evidently enjoying themselves too. We have also had visitings from numerous land birds away out of sight of land altogether. There was a couple of what appeared to be a kind of finch aboard and they are absolutely fearless, coming to about a foot's distance from us when we were up on deck, also swifts or swallows and there was one bird lobbed that was almost identical with our parraquet, also a couple of days ago a poor old beggar like a crane or an ibis got played out and fell into the water astern of us and that was the last we saw of him then, they must have been blown out to sea by the strong winds and lost themselves. We are never without interest of some sort or other, there are a couple of concerts a week now and a "newspaper" called the "Lyre" has been instituted with a large show of success. The boys all seem to work in together pretty well, too, though for fights the Victorians hold the record.
The salt water showers aboard get a good attendance, and when crossing the line everybody was prepared to be shaved and washed by Father Neptune and his Mrs (except your humble) but it caused a good day's sport all round and they all took it like sports. The ship's steward was slung into the tank with all his finery on and he had a good 5 minutes swimming round on his back but had to wear his Sunday suit for the rest of the day.
Brother Alan has adopted me as his son evidently and I have to do as I'm told and say nothing, he is an ugly looking old man now with all his hair off and I wish you could imagine him knocking about all over the decks with his pyjama trousers on and a blue dungaree coat, nothing like the flash young man who used to come on the bounce, with his light tweed suit, cocked up on one side hat, and zeppelin cigar (oh dash it). Just now he is busy water colouring.
It has been very warm aboard lately and we usually get up on deck to sleep. If you stay below you dispense with blankets altogether, just sling your hammocks and drop in as light as you decently can, in fact many of the boys on our deck turn in with nothing more or less than a money belt round their waist and a wristlet watch on one arm. That glass, Dad, has been a good old cobber and it is first class for getting a look at the stars at night. That reminds me, we have seen some of the prettiest sunsets here imaginable, last night it was set off with the combination of one star and a crescent moon absolutely silver on a golden and about 50 other coloured sky. Old Eff would have got her poetical extravagance up at once - "Oh my artistic soul, my uncle".
Talking of flying fish (pass the mustard please) we have seen more than enough but they should have been called monoplanes, funny thing you can't see their wings flap at all sometimes and you would wonder where the propelling force came from, another thing about them they are all different colours, you would think they had been crossed with butterflies and in fact we have seen them as small as that too. The jelly fish too are variegated, and we have seen pink, blue, purple and other shades also.
Now to get back, how are all things progressing at home, if you don't keep us well informed we'll strangle you. Give our best to all the old quarter (shop again Willie). Has Flo* retired on her means yet or Auntie Jean* got any more cheek? How is Jock getting on with the Saltwater River and is Geo married yet or Betty still going strong at her old Sunday afternoon capers? (I'll put a stop to her funny business shortly). Give our best to all the West Melb. folk and to Eltham St also, also remember me kindly to the pup and Eff when you leave a tin of condensed milk for the cat don't forget to leave a tin opener also for the poor brute. To interest Ive [sister Ivy] there is one violin aboard and if as she says some of them improve with age, well this is the oldest looking thing I've ever seen, fair dinkum old lady. Well tra la la for the time being, from,
Yours as usual,
Roy.
* "Flo" or "Floss" seems to refer to Roy's aunt Janet Rodger Easton who resided with the family, and ran a pastry shop in Railway Place, Newmarket (Now Pinoak Crescent.)
* "Auntie Jean" may have been Roy's aunt Georgina Downie, Alan's mother.
______
10th of 14th Bn Rfts, AIF
4th Training Division
Zeitoun Camp
Egypt - Hurrah
21/11/15
Dear Dad and Chaps,
What oh she bumps. Well, we have arrived in Egypt and have got fairly well settled. We had a grand trip absolutely all the way over, laid up for a day in Pt Suez and had the glass on to everything within seeing distance and amused ourselves immensely watching the different ships coming down the Canal. We then took the train overland and then the fun started, the niggers chased us (as soon as ever the train slowed down at all ) with all kinds of water melons, oranges and anything at all they had, they all go for exorbitant prices but you cut them down to less than half the original and then you don't buy their stuff at all. Well, then we lobbed into camp in the evening, saw Reg Murfey before we dismissed and had a chat, then Geo Bower turned up and we had a confab with him, made the acquaintance of a couple of Egyptians whom we call Mackenzie as the first thing they said to us was "Hullo Mackenzie", they have a fruit stall in the camp here and we often pay them a visit, a real decent "blokes" these are a change from the ordinary sort. The next day we went to Cairo and had a look round there, some parts of the city are as clean as you could wish for, beautiful buildings and first class shops but when you get into the real stingo the place is rotten, the houses are close together and they live together like a lot of rats and there is a mixture of Hindoes, cock a doodle doos, cushie doos, Egyptians, lambs? (Llamas) no lambs, goats I think they are, donkeys, camels and all the rubbish that goes to make up an Eastern city. Well we had our fill of the sights of Cairo, went into the Bazaar and watched the silk spinners, pea grinders, tobacco hawkers and all the rest of it. Their silk spinners are very clever and quick too but the place has a funny kind of a damp smell and you are not sorry to get out into the fresh air again. We had a look at some of the mosques and their flash windows and inlaid woodwork and doors etc, and then a run round the slum part of the place and then we went into a decent part of the city again, but a good old fee up on beefsteak, about 3 eggs, tomatos, watercress, Vienna rolls and goats milk, butter.
I am going into details to give you the comparison this cost about 5 piastres and a piastre is worth 2½d of our money, well we have had enough of Cairo and don't care if we never see any more, in fact we are well rid of it, it lies about 5 miles perhaps from where we are camped. By the way we then lost ourselves and wandered about all over the place, at last we got on to the electric car, and for three of us we paid a fare of less than half a piastre, their smallest coin is a tenth of a piastre (called a millene), will you send specimens next week also some silk stuff which we will detail to you hereafter so that you will know whether you get the lot (these black sinners would shake the eye out of a needle.)
Well to continue, the next day (ie, yesterday) we went into Heliopolis with Reg M, he is our travelling companion and he makes a right good one too (fine little chap he is) and that is a city. It is a boshter, we saw the Palace Hotel now a Hospital for the wounded.
The Palace Hospital. Photographer: Williams-G-G-Pte-3355-Egypt, courtesy of Robyn Benjamin.
It contains about 11,000 rooms (sic), now wards and is a magnificent building, one of the finest I have ever seen. Went also and had a look at the Luna Park, and you can still see the water chute, railways and so on, must like the Melbourne one but beautiful work, and it is now open only for the Red Cross people and holds a lot more of the wounded soldiers. We met a few of the Royal Scots boys and Alan had a chat with some Edinburgh chaps and enjoyed himself for a while with them, then we went round again, niggers chasing us all the way round trying to sell stuff of one kind and another and they always ask twice the price that they will eventually take. One kid came up to sell some small books, he wanted 2 piastres each (ie, 5d) so Reg said “No good, two for 1 piastre”, he said “Yes”, so Reg said “No, two for ½ pt” so he said “Yes” again, we then said, “No, too dear”, but he evidently thought that was a bit too much so he floated off to pester someone else. The niggers do all the dirty work about the camp here and they work for almost nothing. By niggers we mean Egyptians and beggars, etc.
Today we will very likely go and have a look at the pyramids and sphinx and we are sending a book of postcards of the places, we cut them down to about ½d a card. The days are fairly warm and this is supposed to be winter but the nights are very cold and a heavy dew falls every night. We always have to carry a cane (or walking stick) to keep the beggars off, they are such a plague and most of us knock about in short trousers to let the wind blow through and keep us a bit cooler in the day time. The flies here are a bit of a pest and no wonder considering how the niggers live.
We will write again next week and give you some more of our history and this is a list of what we will be sending along, this is only mentioned for security purposes.
In my packet: I Muslin cushion cover, embroidered silk; 1 Egyptian Curio Cover & 1 Book postcards; 2 silk handkerchiefs and a couple of scarabs (coal?)
So as our time is about up we will say, so long, for the present, Give our best to all our friends and let us know how you are all getting along. We are told that nobody looks for letters here as they seem to be mislaid somehow or other, but we are looking forward.
Ta Ta for the present,
Yours,
Roy.
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Zeitoun, Egypt
Sunday 5/12/1915
Dear Dad and the Children,
Have just finished dinner (stew) and am feeling as full as a football. There is nothing much new to tell you and I don't exactly remember where I left off but it is a week since we went out to see the pyramids. We had a good time there, went about ½ way up the largest of them and then went away to see the Sphinx, about 5 mins walk further on. Then Alan had a ride on a camel but I kept off, after that we came back and got into a restaurant for tea, we got 3 eggs each with other things and then Alf Bryden* and Alan started a competition to see who could eat the most eggs, they finished up with eating 12 each (they are about ½ the size of ours) and then Alf B gave up.
Got a letter from Ive this morning, this is the second but Eff’s letter has not turned up yet or anything else, the boys out here say that you are very lucky to get letters at all here but that you always get them when you are in the firing line (well, selah). There are rumours here that we will probably be in camp until the end of March or thereabouts but of course we can’t say. We were hoping that we might have got a say in at Suez but such was not to be the case. A lot of the Austn troops are being formed up into a new brigade here and we should stand a dashed good chance of going in with them. One of the Colemans from Newport is camped over at Heliopolis and left word for me to go over and see him but I have not been yet, he is with the 10th of the 5th, so I think it must be Rowan*.
We see Reg Murfey very often and have a chat with him. There is a wallaby in the camp here and we were over having a bit of fun with it yesterday, but its not so tame as the ones we used to have at the Naval Depot. I was telling you on a postcard that we were over at Abassieh at the ranges, we took a run up to the King George’s Soldiers Home and as soon as we got inside somebody called out “Come inside chaps and give us a tune on the piano”, so we went in and got him playing instead and he started up on all the old Scotch and we had a good old time for a while. He had been out in the trenches and gave us some very interesting news about how things are done. We met a few more of his push and some of the English Tommies and all started singing together and then this bloke started singing in Gaelic and that settled it. The British soldiers are a sedate lot in comparison with ours, they don’t knock the baskets of oranges off the heads of natives, or pull the boys off the donkeys by curling the end of their walking sticks round the heads of the said boys and pulling, but walk along the street as if they had the reputation of the whole Islands at stake and perhaps they have. I think they imagine us to be a lot of hooligans and something to be well avoided but I think I like the humour of them better than the boisterousness of our own lot.
There is not another mail for a fortnight so I am in a bit of a hurry to get through and I always forget what I’ve told you before so excuse repetitions, you might even be hearing all this again from me next week.
I forgot to bring away that photo of you two kids (taken together) if you can find it please send it on as meself would like to have it and we must apologise for not sending that parcel on as we promised, we haven’t been able to find any paper to wrap up the stuff but it will follow almost directly after this. Have been cadging some small coins from the nigger (a very decent little kid, a cobber of ours), so will enumerate and value them for your edification and the last thing I have to say for the present is to keep sober all of you at New Year and expect to hear shortly from
Yours,
Roy
Alan sends his love.
* 3010 Pte Alfred James Bryden, a hatter of Carroll St, North Melbourne, aged 26 years.
* Probably 3078 Pte Rowland Basil Coleman, fitter of Newport, aged 19. 5 Inf Bn.
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Zeitoun
8/12/1915
Dear blokes,
We are now having another look round Heliopolis, we were on guard last night and yesterday and have got a holiday for the whole of today after 9 am, so lobbed over to the Aerodrome Camp and saw Tommy Dunn and then Jim Easson. We have been talking to Jim for the last hour or so and are now waiting for him at the YMCA. Went into the Esbekiah Gardens on Sunday last and watched a picture show (scenic) for about 1½ hrs, and then listened to a lecture until 9 o’clock. Have just had our boots cleaned by the niggers (lively shine too) for ½ disaster, how’s that, eh! Got Eff’s letter also now, turned up yest. and will certainly drop a note to Mrs Johnston.
Things are still going on in very much the same old way, ie, jogging along and we are almost certain to have a long spell here. Glad to hear things are going on alright, we are evidently getting letters quite all right without any trouble but a bit of delay now and again. Rec’d one from Lillie, one from Mr Machieson and one from Walter Dowell (used to be with P W Wilson Customs Agents) so that’s not too bad. Reg and Alex Murfey and their mob are going to Abassieh for their shooting practice shortly but are expecting to have to walk home again every night. The Maori boys are camped just opposite us, and they are a merry hearted sort of crowd too (they are always laughing either at themselves or somebody else. )
Went into a Music Hall the other night and saw amongst other things a bloke juggling crocodiles much bigger than himself, he got into a tank (glass) of water on the stage with some of these brutes, clapped his fist over its jaws, and then wrestled with it in the water, then he emptied out plates of halfpennies into the bottom of the tank, stayed under for about 2½ minutes and came up with a mouthful and counted out 65 on to a tray (think it was fair dinkum too, but can’t understand how he kept the quantity in between his jaws.).
What word is there of Jack Dadsey*, will he be attached to the brigade, suppose he will be getting them broken in by degrees. Jim has just arrived so I suppose we will be trotting him around the streets for a while. Did I tell you we mounted the yellow and blue square (for 14th Batt) on our coat’s sleeves so that we could look flash, some Guys we Australian Swaddies are, no doubt. The YMCA is a wonderful invention, it always supplied you with note paper and envelopes at exceedingly cheap rates, to wit nothing. (Arabic signification ˑ ) rather smart, ˑ for nothing eh what? Further signs for numerals are as follows.
123456789
١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩
But to write say “twenty” well ask me something easy, it’s a combination like a spider’s web. The favourite expression is “Imshi yalla”, ie, “Get away out of this”, or “Rech min hines yo homea”, “Go away quickly you donkey”, and other of the same calibre, but the beggars understand almost as much English as we do and they all or nearly all speak French.
Am enclosing the two Heliopolis cards of the Luna Park and Palace Hotel (the places I was telling you about being Hospital Red X) I like this quarter so much that I will send you the full set of 12, the price of the 12 being 3 disasters (=8½) so you can see how highly appreciative I am, just fancy 8½ small fortune. Have got the afternoon off again today (Friday 10th) so have lobbed into the YMCA in the camp at Zeitoun. Got a letter this morning from Hilda Trezise rather a nice little note and very elegantly worded so will be dropping her a line or two unegelantly worded.
Jim Easson turned up alright and we took him all over the place, into Helio, on the Electric car to Cairo, in and round and about all the highways and the by ways into a cheap restaurant and we all had 3 eggs and a piece of bacon with goats milk butter and bread twice for 3 disasters and your
hat and stick hung up on a hook for buckshee (noting) in contradistinction to backsheesh (money), then went into the Esbekiah Gardens and watched some skating on wheels and then some boxing contests, lost him on the way and found him the way, got into a train at Cairo (Port Limoun) took him down to Zeitoun el Helmers showed him our canvas house, trotted him back to the Aerodrome where he resides and left him long after lights out, like gallant soldiers and old times, then we met our friend Hector Macneil* notably one of our Sergeants and we three came back to camp together singing Nursery rhymes in Scotch and Mac singing “Hors ma nighean an bridheach” at the top of his voice while we were passing through a couple of native cemeteries, out where the sands of the desert grow cold, because they do grow cold every night. So ended the first day with Jim.
Will now close up the show again until next week as we will have to be getting ready shortly for another route march 5 pm til 8 pm, so tra lala for the present.
Yours ever,
Roy
With regard to the postcards and the concluding remark, Ivy will remember what I mean when she thinks of how she used to describe her old haunts viz you go up this street and down that one and then you come to the horse trough, but enough of nonsense and now to business. You addresses are first class. Please continue to put “Abroad” on them and they will always chase us. Thanks, that’s all today.
* Probably Acting Sergeant 3064 Hector McNeill, butcher, aged 23. 14 Inf Bn.
* 3001 Sapper John T Dadsey, engineering student from West Melbourne, aged 19. 5 FCE. Jack was Roy's first cousin on his mother's side.
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First Edition
“Egyptian Weekly”
15th Dec. 15
Have received most of your letters up to date and also Eff’s prints and without doubt some of them are boshters, that one of Mary Lee with the old tea pot is the real stingo, have shown the whole lot of them to the boys and they created some disturbance for a while. Teddy Bowlen* has it advertised all over the camp that the kiddie is his own and Alf Bryden was quite pleased to see how black he had come out, he used to be up on one of the Aboriginal Stations – Rameeae – or some such name at one time and we always referred to him as the black tracker so you see it is rather appropriate, the Mentone ones are right oh too and you are getting on fine, if you can spare me some more of the group of our tent mob so they could have one each and one extra I would say thank you twice and while I am on the cadge would you mind letting their people have a copy each, you will see they are all so proud of their little graphs and I know you won’t mind the bother.
Thanks for the lot of them anyway and for the little medal. We will be sending you a graph of our tent mob from here shortly and we expect to be having it taken tomorrow so we will have another half holiday again then, the result of our (mind you) having made the best trenches here (N B, mine wasn’t too good but I am taking the half holiday with the rest.)
Unidentified Australian soldiers digging trenches in the desert, circa 1916, Egypt. AWM H00159.
Haven’t anything much in the way of fresh news to give you this week except to say that we have been to the museum and have had a look at the mummies, one very interesting person was an old rogue named Ramesis the Second. This codger is supposed to have been the Pharaoh of the Israelite oppressions You can see his personage down as far as the waist all perfectly preserved and no wrappings round that part of the body, his old ribs are showing through is skin and his hands are crossed on his chest and he is sleeping the sleep of the unjust, he is only an ordinary sized, or rather small build of a man and not at all a bad looking bloke, his hair is still showing on his old head and there is a hole in the top of his skull. He has long fingers and nails and the old man looks as if he had been petrified with a half cruel expression on his dial. There are warriors of the Pharaohs lying at anchor in this interesting harber (sic) and their mummy cases and other suits are also in evidence. The most of the exhibits in this museum are the mummies, but there are also millions of scarabs (the beetle shape is predominant) and imitations of dogs, fish, antelopes, goats and many other animals and gods and goddesses and the average size of these is about ½ an inch of long and about the same depth. You could hang most of them on a watch chain, this is about the size and shape of one of the dog exhibits. ***** rather an artistic business perhaps, these things are cut out of stone mostly and what was their original use I can’t possibly imagine, the sizes vary of course from the above, some are very much larger but the above is in very much evidence. There are also models of Egyptian Infantry on the march, 10 rows of 4 men each, armed only with spear and shield and a waist cloth round each, this is presumably some very old style and to my idea is a vast improvement on present day inventions. Again are models of galleys and galley slaves and a lot of other things I haven’t been able to understand, but the mummies win by majority.
Well, about we – to begin with we are still well and still training, are getting on first class with all hands from the skipper to the cook, doing two route marches every week, one on Tuesdays and one on Fridays, in each case about 2 miles, with full packs up and we only have one spell as a rule on each march, so you see we are keeping in condition, the march lasts about 3 hours and it is not too bad a game especially in the evenings passing along roads lined with trees on either side part of the time and then fields of maize and sugar cane, dirty black niggers all round you and then a tramp through the sand again.
What oh she bumps! It is now Saturday afternoon, things are still going on smoothly, the latest is that the Tasmanian boys here have purchased a dog which is now rejoicing in the name of “Measles” and a monkey known to all and sundry as “Jinny”, the latter and Alan have naturally (the monkey having found out his love for animals and his idea of buying ½ disasters worth of monkey nuts) have become firm friends, so it is not an uncommon thing to see the youth sitting on the monk’s box, and the monk sitting on Alan’s knee, with his hand in Alan’s breast pocket and the brute beast hauling out 3 at a time monk nuts. There is a lot about the man and the monk but it is a short cut round squares.
We had our holiday off on Friday as promised but the tenters were too lazy to go over with us so the octette has been reduced to duu-ette. We are told that Jim Easson and Tom Dunn are likely to be sent back along the line to Zag-a-zig, but are not sure of this yet, by the way Jim showed us that photo of Ruth and himself the first day we saw him and said it was one of yours. There is another mail in and we are going over shortly to collect your letters, we had our graph taken today and expect to have the cards tomorrow, smart work for these Egyptians. There was an impromptu concert on the YMCA tent the other night so we had to stop and listen and heard some fairly good talent. Getting to be a lovely writer, don’t you think, but the conditions do not permit of too artistic a job so yours truly has got into the habit of slugging up his writing in the easiest possible way. If you don’t mind the trouble and so forth, kid, the names of the codgers who would be glad to have a copy of the tent mob are as follows:
Mrs Bryden* – 33 Carroll Street, North Melbourne
Mr Bowlen* – 7 Bryden Street, Albert Park
Mr Cremer*– 213 Station Street, Port Melbourne
Mrs W J Heatley*, 125 Sackville St, Collingwood
Mr Pinsent* – 122 Alexandra Pde, North Fitzroy,
and you will have the satisfaction of knowing like the good boy scout who knocked the man over and then picked him up again that you have done your good deed for the day. So long for the present, please remember us both to all at West Melb and Eltham St, to Alex and Pete and Bill and everyone else in and out and round about and next week you will hear again of your old campaigners. For the nonce,
Yours,
Roy
* 3009 Pte Edward James Bowlen, rubber worker of Albert Park, aged 22.
* 3026 Pte William Joseph Heatley, bootmaker of Collingwood, aged 25.
* 3021 Pte Edward Cremer, labourer of Port Melbourne, aged 19
* 3111 Pte Harold Charles Pinsent, packer of Fitzroy, aged 21. Pinsent started army life with the 14 Inf Bn, but transferred to the 46 Inf Bn
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Xmas Day
25/12/15
Egyptian house of bondage as the
Hymn book says
The Menu and Personal Comforts List only
Well Dad, Flo and the kids, have just had a blow out viz (A Xmas Box and Xmas Dinner) which I absolutely must set out here in detail. – 1 Xmas Box contg 2 – 1oz tins tobacco, 50 cigaretteettettes, 2 cigars, 1 box matches, 12 post cards, 1 billy can contg about 2 lbs of confecty, 4 ozs tobacco, 1 pack cards, writing paper and envelopes, a lead pencil, a mirror, a comb, a brush (for teeth) and about another 5 bob’s worth besides, and a dinner consisting of ½ lb pork, ½ lb roast beef, 2 lbs cabbage, ½ lb plum duff, ½ pint sauce, 1/16 of a bottle of pickles, 1 bottle of ginger beer and another dozen cigarets, haven’t been able to eat the playing cards and can’t pull on the fags but am having a birthday on the remainder, the boys are walking about with the cigars or a new pipe between their teeth and to look at them, you’d think they wouldn’t call the ------x their uncle. (x must obey military rules you see, and am not supposed to use any disrespect for the powers that be, so please excuse the curtailment of the proverb.)
Birthday Cards
Miss E E Easton Compliments of the twins for 31/12/1915
“ I O ditto “ “ “ “ “ 11/1/1916
“ J R do “ “ “ “ “ 7/1/1916
Mr James S Easton “ “ “ “ “ 5/1/1916
And all the rest “ “ “ “ “ the whole of
The blooming year birthdays and all included
Wishing you all a happy New Year and New Year.
Yours to a cinder,
Alan and Roy
3022 and 3023, 10th of 14th Batt
AIF, Egypt.
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