My Dear People,
Just a line to let you know I am quite well. When I got back from London Friday night there were two letters here for me, one from Nell and one from Mum & Annie, dated Dec 11th 1916. That is the last mail I have got. I was very glad to hear you were all well, but was sorry that you were worried about my pay.
Of course that is the usual course for reinforcement sergeants, but I did not know it when I left. The reason is this - the rank is only acting & any big bug can revert you at any time if you are not up to your job. So the C.O. of a troop-ship generally reduces a few of his N.C.O.'s on the way over. Our Colonel reduced a good many. Well you see, if they were paying out C.D. pay while you were on the trip they would not know of the reduction in pay till you landed here & it would cause a lot of inconvenience getting it back. So they wait till they get the news from this end before paying it out. But I suppose you have got mine before this. It would be about £14.0.0 for the trip over. After that you will get no more till I am gazetted a sergeant so that I can make a fresh allottment.
It is the simplest thing to get reduced here - if you lose a prisoner when you are Sgt. of the guard, or when in charge of an escort, they court-martial you & then take your stripes off in front of the parade of perhaps a 1,000 men. So it does not pay to take any risks with prisoners here, as some of them are pretty hard nuts. I saw one Sgt reduced here. He was in charge of an escort & got drunk & one of his prisoners got away. So they took his stripes off & he is in the clink now, doing 30 days detention for his carelessness. So you see you have got to be right on the mark here.
Yesterday I was sent to Marlborough with a man as escort for a prisoner - it must be about 60 miles away. We caught a train at Wilton, a small town about five miles from here (we always catch the train there if we are going London way) & went up the London line as far as Andover Junction & then we had to take a train going on the Cheltenham line - to Marlborough. We had about an hour to spare so had a bit of a walk round the town. It is rather a nice place. We had a look at an old water wheel flour mill - the first I have seen. It was a good wide wheel about 6 or 8 ft wide & the water was running under it & turning it around.
Australian soldiers are pretty rare there - as we could tell from the remarks we heard - but they know you a mile off on account of our hats. You are not allowed to wear your cap here & all the
English tommies wear caps.
We saw a big college there & a lot of the boys playing hockey. Well, after a bit of a stroll we went back to the Police Station & got our prisoner. He belongs to our Coy & came over with the 7/32, the same unit as H. Tralaggan. He cleared out of camp about a week ago without any pass or anything & got caught up at this place. I knew I would have to do some rum jobs when I joined the army, but I did not know I would have to do police jobs. I had a pair of hand-cuffs in my pocket but he came quietly so I did not put them on him. He got 28 days clink today for being absent without leave for a week. When you are Sgt of the Guard here, which happens here fairly often, you are something like a head jailer, with a bunch of keys locking & unlocking cell doors to let prisoners in & out. There are about 3,000 Australian soldiers floating about England absent without leave. They came over for the trip not to go to the war & it is on account of them that it is almost impossible to get leave except the four days London leave.
I will now tell you about what is said to be the coldest snap they have had in England for twenty years. When we were coming home from London there was a dry frost on with an East wind. The air & ground was absolutely dry, in fact so dry that the dust was blowing. But it was some cold I can tell you! All the water taps were frozen & a good many of them burst. The only place we can get water is at the warm bath house. The water buckets in our huts were frozen solid & after we warmed them over the fire a bit we could turn the ice out in a solid block. I have not seen anything like it before. For ten days the thermometer has not been above freezing point & there is plenty of skating going on about England. A good lot of the Thames is said to be frozen over.
The cold is playing up terrible with our men. A lot of them get colds & pneumonia & a good many Australians are dying over it. I do not mind so much, except standing on the Parade ground while the Battalion does a flash fall in. Of course when you have a rifle it is cold on your fingers so I bought a good pair of leather gloves (lined) in London. But it is cold calling the roll & we are not allowed to wear overcoats on parade. While I am moving about I do not notice the cold & I sleep warm enough at night, you can get as many blankets as you like, but I appreciate your nice warm socks that I have, but I would not wear a scarf as your throat gets too soft.
The climate here is ever so much drier than I thought it was; there has been very little rain here since I came here though they say it rains a good lot here a bit later on. The ground, in England seems to be mostly a few inches of soil over a rocky bottom. The farmers here use single & double furrow ploughs & they plough very light "scratchings". They are always manuring it with rotten straw etc.
They are making great efforts to organize the production of the country & orders came through for P.C.s to cultivate every inch of ground they had to spare for potatoes etc. & the millers have got to put at least 5 percent of oats or barley crush in their flour. British people generally wake up a year or two after they ought to. They are also short of sugar here. We get plenty of tucker here. The sergeants have a mess here. We pay sixpence a day & it is well worth it the way we are fed. They say we live as well as the Officers.
Sunday Feb 4th.
I have just come back from Church Parade. We have mass here every Sunday morning. The Priest is the best preacher I have ever heard. I am sending you a bundle of Post-cards views of London. I hope you get them alright. I was sorry to hear Aunty Ada had been ill but hope she is well again. I will be writing to some of them soon but I have been pretty busy since I came here. I do not remember the Miss Tothill that died. So Mr Davidson will be leaving Mt. Bryan. I hope they get a "strict" teacher in his place, don't you John? There is a rumor going round here that there are so few men enlisting that they are likely to close Mitcham & send the men to Melbourne & that all N.C.O. & Officers Schools are closed. I don't care anyway as it makes no difference to me.
Well, I must close now & post this as the Australian Mail closed today. Hoping you are all well as I am, except for a bad cold which everyone has here.
I remain Your loving Son & Brother
Tom.
It is snowing lovely here now.
