Shorncliffe, Kent

England

30th Battn. C.E.J. Regt.16 Platoon

Address reply to #77681

This number is different from the one I told you before. this is the right one.

My own dear wife

I am just sending you these few lines to let you know that I am all right & still at Shorncliffe. I recd your letter all right & I was very sorry indeed to hear that you had hurt your arm so badly, I do hope it is all right again, you must be very careful, you know, dear, & not get laid up while I am away, as you know how anxious I am about you. As I told you in my last, we are still quarantined here & we cannot get out of barracks, it is perfectly ridiculous the way they work it here, every morning there are one or two more cases of measles, by the way it is the German measles & they tell us that the whole Battalion will be kept in quarantine for 10 days after the last case is cured & at the rate they are going sick, we are liable to be here for months, the rotten part of it is that those of us who are well are being worked extra hard, every day now we go on a route march of at least 15 miles & sometimes do 20, & they take us through villages & towns & then they wont let us leave barracks on our own & to make matters worse, this being Sunday, they marched us out about 8 miles instead of going to church & we had a sham fight, which has taken us all day & we are all pretty tired, we have another long march on for to morrow & we miss our day of rest, there are an awful lot of men laid up with sore feet, pretty near half of the company mine have kept up splendidly & except for one or two small blisters I have had no trouble, in fact since I came here, I have never missed a parade.

I suppose you have heard by this time about the splendid showing of the Canadians at the front, the papers here are full of it, but the poor fellows must have suffered terribly, we just got word of the action last night, but have not got any details yet, but we know that their losses were very heavy because every available doctor in the country was rushed to the front last night, our doctor being among the number.

So Ike Mann has joined the B.C. Horse, I guess he was beginning to feel the pinch, I’ll bet he wishes he had the money now that he put into that house, did he go to Victoria with the rest of them, I guess if he could got a job he would not joined up, is Stevenson on the city police or the military, if he is on the city, how on earth did he get the job, he must have had a pull, but if he is on the military police, I dont envy him, it is the most thankless job he could have & they usually give that job to the most useless men, you say that Boyd was paid off & got back again, was Harlow paid off too?.

This is all I am going to write to night, dear, as I am very tired & am going to turn into bed, I wish you were with me, love, I miss you very, very much & every time I look at your photo it makes me feel more lonely & homesick, I wish I could have you in my arms to-night, dear, it is all I want to make me happy, Kiss the children for me dear & give them both a great big love from their daddy & remember me to all my friends in Vernon. So Good-night my darling wife & believe me to be always your own loving husband.

Jack

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