Stockcross, Birkshire,
May 23, 1916
Dear Folks,
Tuesday night and I must drop you a line. Had a letter and a bundle of papers from Clemmie and card from Enid on Sunday and a letter from home the latter part of the week. I intended to write the last of the week but did not get around to it. Well, we have said goodbye to Lydd. We left on Thursday morning and came to Stockcross, a little
village three miles out of the town of Newbury, a nice little town with 15,000 of a population. Here we are under canvas and our life is practically the same as it was in Brighton. It is a beautiful country around here, the most beautiful part of England that we have yet been stationed in and everything is green and fresh, just like July at home. The free open life of the tent is certainly splendid and we are enjoying it to the full. Don't know how long we will be here. Perhaps we leave next week, perhaps not for three weeks. We have drawn practically all our mobilization stores including our guns which are six inch howitzers, the newest gun out and the best in the service and they are dandies.
From here we expect to go to France directly and hope to be in action in early June. I hope we get away next week. We are all anxious to get across. The old 98th has made a name for itself everywhere it has gone and believe me it will not disgrace itself when it gets into the actual work. Our life here is as near the life at the front as it could be out of hearing of the big guns. The cooking is done in outdoor kitchens. There are the same number to a tent and we have the same equipment as we will have at base and as for work our training has been harder than ever our work will be in France. As for danger in siege work the percentage of casualties is very small and even if the danger was greater it
would be all the same - we all hope to get back and we all expect to get back but if Providence should see fit that any of us should remain then we are ready for what comes. We do not take this as a joke, we realize that it is a serious undertaking but still we are anxious to get across and see it and take our little part in it. Personally I have no fear of going and only wish we were going tomorrow. We have the same hours here as in Horsham and Lydd -.do not have a great deal of work. Chiefly the overhauling of stores such as wire and telephones etc. so as to ensure their perfect working when we get across.
Sent some postcards of Scotland a few days ago and a long letter describing our trip also a picture of the battery. It was taken when I had the measles so I am not in it but it is a very good picture of the battery. Let me know if you get them all OK. Am sending a few little trinkets this week. Hope they get across safely. They are not of much value, just a few little things I got in Scotland.
Am glad to see that they are having such good success with the new battery. There is certainly a good bunch enlisting in it. You will recognize the names of a good many of our college crowd. PEI is certainly doing well. Had a long letter from Nelson McEwen a few days ago with all of the college news. Have a lot of letters not answered. We have been so busy since we went to Lydd that it has been impossible to find time to write. I will try to send a bunch of postcards and let them serve as answers. When we get across the number of our letters I suppose will be restricted to two or three a week so we won't have much chance to write anywhere but home. However I hope the friends down home
won't forget to write even if we haven't time to answer. Possibly by the time this reaches you we will be on the other side. But wherever I am I will be happy and I don't want you to worry if you could just see how jolly we are you would not worry about us. I was weighed a few days ago and now weigh 185 pounds so am not losing any.
Think I must close now and drop a line to Clemmie. Will write you the last of the week. This must be an awful scrawl as I am writing with a pad on my knee outside the tent and it does not make a very good desk.
A heart full of love to all from your soldier boy, Harold
