From: London, Eng.
Mon. 9 Oct. 1916

Dear Mother -

I received your letter sent to Army P.O. of 19th Sept., the day after I received your other. Also, on same day, I received the draft OK from Kingston and have it with me here to cash at their branch in London.

I have 6 days leave and am spending all of it in London where there is much to see. We arrived about 8:15 on Fri. and were taken by bus from Waterloo Station to The Maple Leaf Annex, 5 Connaught Place, Marble Arch, London where large apartment house has been turned into rooms for soldiers visiting city, and where we can put up very reasonably. Let me say here that there are many such clubs all over the city for soldiers & sailors as for instance, one I am now in. The London police on all corners and anybody who knows seem only too glad to direct one around. I cannot begin to tell you what it is like. Something I never dreamed of.

On Sat. a chaplain took charge of a party of us who went around the city (part of it) on buses and we stopped at important places. There is a tour of this sort for the soldiers nearly every day. It is a very cheap and good way of seeing interesting places. One sees all sorts of soldiers here - Australians, New Zealanders, and wounded returned soldiers.

We started about 9 o'clock on Sat. morning and went first thru Hyde Park passing the Kensington Gardens & palace where Queen Victoria was born. Then we got off the buses at the Albert Memorial, a large wonderful monument erected by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband. We passed by Buckingham Palace where the royal standard was flying, showing that the king was then in it - then to Parliament Bldings and the Abbey. The Parlt. Bldings & Westminster Abbey are close together and we spent about an hour in each. On one of towers of Parlt. Bldgs we saw "Big Ben". Inside, we saw House of Lords & of Commons, also several lobbies, corridors, ante rooms, etc. in all of which were rich paintings on the walls depicting scenes in Eng. hist. The Commons sits at 4:30 tomorrow, I may try to go. In the Abbey, we saw the tombs of many great men, notably that of Mary, Queen of Scots & the shrine & tomb of Edward the Confessor in the oldest part of the bldg covered and surrounded with sand bags to preserve from raids.

St. Paul's Cathedral was the next place, underneath in the crypt of which I saw the tombs of many great men and from the tower of which (I went up about 375 steps and was not near top), a view of whole city could be had. Inside in the "Whispering Gallery", a circular gallery round the inside of the hemispherical dome about 102 ft. in diameter, I sat at one side and heard a man who was whispering information at other side, the sound travelling around the walls. I have been along Downing St., Cheapside, Threadneedle St., Fleet St. on the Strand, Picadilly & Leicester Square, also I have seen large hotels as Savoy, Civil Garrick, Charing Cross, etc. and the large stations. Underneath London are the underground railways, a perfect network of tubes thru which one travels very quickly by train to different parts of London. That afternoon, we passed thru the East End, Whitechapel and some of the slums. We saw London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Here I saw the armouries where all kinds of ancient arms & armour are kept. I saw the Bloody Tower and the room where the two Eng. Princes (Ed. V & his brother) were smothered to death by pillows. I saw instruments of torture, the spot where Mary, Queen of Scots and many others (Henry's wives etc.) were executed. In another room, we saw the crown Jewels - rich crowns & sceptres, etc.

Sun. morning, I went to church in Westminster Abbey at 10 a.m. and in the afternoon went to the Zoological Gardens in Regents Park where are many kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, etc. In all these places where many visitors go, they collect a fee of 6 pence or a shilling but it is all open to soldiers.

This morning, I have been to "Madame Tussaud's Exhibition" - the museum where they have life-like wax models of all the sovereigns of Eng. since Wm. 1, of many prominent Eng., French & American men & women both living and dead, where they have life-like tableaux showing historical scenes, where there is a room devoted to relics of Napoleon, where there is a "room of horrors" showing models of world's famous criminals - where were models of heads of persons after they had been beheaded as at time of Fr. Rev. - where was a model of guillotine, etc, etc.

It cost about 2 s. to see all this but it was well worth it and I consider it about the most interesting place I have yet seen. Oh, it is wonderful.

But now I must close and see some more this p.m. Perhaps it will be the Br. Museum. Love to all.
Yours sincerely
Gordon