I have just received a very welcome letter from you. I append a list
of things I want and would be very grateful for at times:--
1. Powdered milk.
2. Tea cubes.
3. One tablet coal tar soap (Wright's).
4. Mixed soups.
5. A warm pair of bedroom slippers.
I did not enclose a note in my last letter, as I have only French
money. I will do so as soon as possible!
As a week has gone, I can tell you we crossed Folkestone to Boulogne
and passed through Calais on the way here. I don't think I can tell
you any more. Perhaps you can understand my reference in the last
letter, if you cannot no one else can.
Could you not get Finlay's to send cigarettes out of bond to me. Try,
at least, with a small quantity, and I will let you know if I receive
them--it is so much cheaper. I must have cigarettes, and Seddon says
his brother always received his all right.
The weather has been beautifully fine, if slightly cold, the last week
or so. I do hope Father is getting better now, I was awfully sorry to
hear he has been ill. Now that we live in more luxurious
circumstances, Graves, Major Morton's servant, does our cooking.
Foster came to dinner in order to play bridge afterwards, and we had a
pleasant meal, consisting of soup, roast beef, and apple fritters, and
had a rubber or two afterwards. To-day we have done a few parades and
practised for the inspection. I told you about it in my last letter
and it is coming off to-morrow (Thursday). We paid out this morning;
we each have to pay our own platoons in francs and to sign lots of
documents, and to get the men to sign is rather a job. We marched out
to-day and the whole division was drawn up along the road two deep,
and we had to wait two or three hours in a piercing wind, with squalls
of rain and sleet, to be inspected. Then we were inspected by General
Joffre and Sir Douglas Haigh, who went slowly past in a car, followed
by 13 other cars. You must remember that the division would stretch
for 12 or 15 miles along the road. We returned a little time ago to
our billets and have just had tea. Some of the French papers have a
German official communique in them saying that the 34th Division has
been badly cut up. Well, the 34th Division is ours, and we have not
even seen a German yet, nor even come within miles of one, so they
must have been very clever.
P.S.--I am starving for cigarettes, please get some sent out of bond.
I am sorry to ask for so many things and to cause you trouble, but I
hope you don't mind. Please give my especial love to the Aunts and
Aunt Polly and Francis if you get any opportunity, also Uncle Ted.
There was rather an amusing paragraph in the Cambridge evening paper
of January 14th about our departure. I think it is the "Cambridge
Daily News." You might like to write for it. Watch the first letters
of each sentence in my next letter on page 3. Yesterday I was
unfortunately slightly unwell and stayed in bed in the morning and got
up in the afternoon, and in the evening we had a brigade alarm and
were out from 7 till 12. I had only had six biscuits and some milk, so
I did not feel very strong.
To-day being Saturday we have done little, and we bicycled into the
same huge town to make some purchases. Don't send me cigarettes unless
I write again for them, as I find I can get them cheaper from the
Officers' Canteen out here. I must close now as we move to-morrow a
few miles nearer the firing line and billet again, but we shall still
be rather safer than we were in England. Well, write again as soon as
possible.
Much love to all, from your loving Son,
ALEC.
11TH SUFFOLKS,
B.E.F., January 23rd, 1916.