France; July 7, 1918

My Dear People,

Just a few lines to let you know that I am quite well and doing all right. Things are not too bad now, the weather is good, there has been a bit of fighting going on, but everyone is waiting for Fritz's next big push which will happen any time now. If he does not hurry up you'll not be able to force the Allies to terms as the Americans are becoming a very serious item in our armies and they are getting over here at an enormous rate, so I don't think that there will be any peace for a long time yet.

I have been promoted to Corporal and I am altering my allotment from 26th of July to 6/6 per day. 1/6 is deferred. I'm still drawing 2/- per day and from that 26/7/18 you will draw home 6/6 instead of 3/-. Of course it will be some months before it is paid to you, as it takes a long time to go through from here, but the pay will probably be sent to you in a lump sum, when the alteration goes through. I have been drawing 5/6 per day as a temporary Cpl for nearly 3 months and by the end of July my Pay Book will have a credit of £45.0.0 which is a very nice sum to have available over here, besides that I have a fair bit of cash on hand, as I have spent practically nothing since I came to France this time. There is an Australian mail in and we will probably get it in a day or so. Hoping you all well.

I remain

Your loving son and brother,

Tom.

Warminster, UK; March 3rd, 1918

No 3 Battalion
Overseas Training Brigade,
Sandhill Camp. Warminster

My Dear People,
Just a few lines to let You know I am quite well. I came down here Thursday & have been fitted out with a full set of fighting equipment, rifle, steel helmets, & gas mask etc. & things are beginning to look very like France again. I am supposed to stop here for 3 weeks training, but if they will let me go I will get put on the first draft for France.


View Larger Map

We have had very cold winds here the last day or two. I went to Warminster yesterday. It is a nice little town, but crowded with Australians as there are a lot of camps about here. We are about 20 miles from Salisbury. One of the Earles boys is in the same hut as I am here. He was in the 32nd Transport. It was his brother you had working for you last year.

I sent you 2 parcels from Hurdcott. One books of views & the other a little box of souvenirs. I hope you get them alright as I sent something for each one of you - all little trinkets of Ireland. I have got four parcels, one with the leather waistcoat from M.B.C., one from home with a tin of pudding which I like very much, one from Siss & George with some very nice preserved fruit & a parcel of woollens from Mt. B. Red cross circle. I was very pleased to get all these parcels and of course am writing to thank the societies for theirs, but the mail route is a bit risky now.

I am enclosing a photo of myself taken at Hurdcott just before I went on leave. You will notice that I am wearing two stripes. I was a Lance Cpl in the Battalion for a good while and about a fortnight before I was hit was promoted Temporary Cpl and of course was being paid for it, but as soon as I was hit my pay stopped, though I still wore my stripes. When I go back to the Battalion I may be paid again but if I am not then I will hand in my stripes altogether as I do not believe in having charge of a section and get no pay for it. I do not care very much about my position in the photo and prefer my stand on the donkey cart at Killarney. They are cutting down the rations a bit for home service men here, but men under training for France still get plenty & I am in pretty good condition. I do not think my leg will give me any trouble.

I see by the papers that they are sending soldiers to the part of Ireland I was floating about in, to enforce law and order a bit. I thought that would happen.

Well, I will close now, hoping you are all well.

I remain

Your Loving Son & Brother

Tom

Portsmouth; November 21, 1917

Ward A 15
5th Southern General Hospital
Milton Division

My Dear People,

Just a short note to let you know I am getting along first rate.

I am able to walk about now but it will be a month before my wound is healed up, although it is very healthy and is doing first rate. Of course the bandages hinder me a bit but I think I will go for a stroll tomorrow. I do not use a stick as I have no faith in them. They are like girls, they would let you down if it came to a pinch.

There is a lady here who looks after the Australians here and gives us our Red Cross stuff, cigaretes etc. I got a razor etc. off her. We are looked after real well. There is a chap here who was in the same section as Bert Lilley and he tells me Bert won the Military Medal - good luck to him.

I do not know how long I will be here. I might be sent out to an Australian hospital at any time. We are paid the magnificant sum of 3/- a week here, but I do not spend any at all as I do not want for anything.

I am enclosing the bit of shell that made a hole in my leg. If ever I get home I will make a watch pendant of it. Well I must close now. Hoping you are all quite well.

I remain

Your Loving Son and Brother

Tom

England; November 13, 1917

My Dear People,

As I told you I would give you a full account of my experience when I was hit. I will do so now.

I was not with the the Battalion at the time, but was doing some fatigue work (carrying duckboards and making roads behind the line) for the Engineers.

Australian soldiers walking on Duckboards

We were camped around the edge of a big mine crater in little sandbag dugouts. The dug-out I was in was not satisfactory to me so I was building another. I had it nearly finished and it was just getting dark on the 16th October (Dad's and George's Birthday) when Fritz put over a few 5.9s. I did not take much notice but went on working, when one landed in the crater and I felt an awful blow on the leg.

A 5.9 gun

I waited a bit till the pain went, as I thought it might have only been a piece of dirt. But when I looked down at my leg I saw the blood pouring away. I then called out that I was hit. To stop the blood, as I thought a main artery was cut, I took a few steps towards the dug-out where a Red Cross man lived, but feeling a bit weak, I laid down and went out for a bit.

When I came round they were working on my leg and someone called for a stretcher. It was not the artery that was cut but a big vein and the bleeding had stopped. I now began to demand my pack, which was in the dugout not far away because I wanted my razor. To pacify me they sent a fellow to get it, but they carried me away so quick that he never caught us up. So I never got my razor or anything else.

Just before they started away with me they gave me a big nobbler of rum which I drank like water. Now the rum that is issued to troops is Dinkum stuff - 40 over proof - and as I have never drank my issue yet, this took considerable effect on me and I was very talkative indeed.

Well four of the lads carried me about half a mile to a dressing station but as there was no doctor there I was put in a motor and taken into one of the big dressing stations at Ypres. Here I was undressed and my wound washed and dressed. I had a hole about 1 1/2 inches long in my leg and 3-4 inches deep with a small piece of shell in the bottom. The orderlies got everything out of my pockets and put them in a little bag for me. I had about 60 francs on me so I have enough money for my requirements in hospital.

I was then put in a motor and sent down to a Casualty Clearing Station. The two stretcher-bearers who were there were arguing the point about all the work they had to do. I promptly roused on them and shut them up - you see the effects of the rum had not worn off.

I was then inoculated against Tetanus. A priest came round looking at my cards and enquired about confessions etc., but I assured him that I was quite a good boy. They then took me into the operating room and at 11.30 that night I was put under chloroform and ether. Now I think going under chloroform is lovely. I like it alright. An American doctor got to work on me, sliced my leg open, took out the piece of shell, tied up the cut veins and stuffed the wound with packing so I could travel. It was still dangerous as the big artery ran on the side of the wound.

I came to, a couple of hours later and was terrible sick. An Orderly came to me and cleaned things up a bit. I missed my teeth and he assured me that they were in the little bag I had. But I wasn't satisfied so he got the bag and showed them to me, all wrapped up in cotton wool. I then fished around in the bag and found the bit of shell wrapped up in the same way.

The next day I was very thirsty, making up the blood that I had lost, but the sister gave me plenty of lemon and water to drink. That night I was put in a Red Cross train and taken to No. 16 General Hospital Le-Treport arriving there about 3 pm next day. Those Red Cross trains are done up splendid, have comfortable beds in them and are alright.

I was looked after pretty well in the hospital. My leg did not trouble me much, although it would insist on lying a certain way for a start. The doctor gradually removed the packing from the wound and the hole is filled up now, so it ought to be all healed up in another month or so. I was in that hospital over three weeks and I was sent in a train to Havre and put on an Ambulance ship.

The Captain thought the Channel too rough to cross that night so we waited in the harbour till the next and then crossed. We had a lovely smooth trip. Those ships are very comfortable and the food we got on ours was splendid.

We pulled into Southampton yesterday morning, was put on a train and arrived at this hospital yesterday afternoon. This is Milton hospital close to Portsmouth. I am able to walk a bit now but I am still regarded as a bed patient.

I see by the news from Australia that there are a considerable number of strikes going on there. I saw in a Casualty list that Bob Crewes was wounded, young Dew from the Burra was wounded on the same job that I was - he got hit in the arm. I was not with him at the time but I do not think it was very serious.

The description I have written of my experiences on being hit are about the usual ones of a man hit behind the line. If a man is seriously hit in the line you have got to add a carry of about 3 miles on a stretcher. It takes about 4 men and is dreadful heavy work over shell holes, through mud and all sorts of tangles and probably be shelled on you on the way out.

Sometimes if you are not too bad to travel you are sent to England straight away. I would have liked to go to some hospital in Ireland but I could not get there. It is usual to get 10 days leave on leaving hospital and as I have about £25 on my Pay book I could have a slithering time on it if I liked.

Well I must close now. Hoping you are all well and assuring you that I am getting along quite well.

I remain,

Your Loving Son and Brother,

Tom.

Hurdcott; March 11, 1917

My Dear People,

Just a few lines to let you know I am quite well & doing alright. 

I got two letters yesterday one from Sis and one from Mother - dated Jan. 9 & 21st. I was very glad to hear you were doing alright & had got my cable. We had a lot of snow here Friday & it had been raining ever since, so the snow is all thawed now & it is not very cold now. I am going to the bombing school at Lyndhurst tomorrow. They have altered the run of things here now, before you used to do all your training in one Company till you were fit for France, but now you have to go through the 4 Coy' s.

When you arrive first you are put in D Coy, then C, then B, & finish up in A. When you leave A Coy you go to France. This change was started yesterday & we all shifted huts. We were transferred from D to B Coy. Previously each Battalion had a Company of its own which trained all its reinforcements. It will mean that there will be a lot of shifting as the men will only be in each Coy two or three weeks. But it is part of a soldier's training to move about anywhere. 

We do not have to eat brown bread yet, as although they are cutting down, the rations for civilians they are still looking after us pretty well.

I am enclosing in this letter a receipt for the sum of Ten Pounds (£10.0.0) which I gave another Sgt. here. He is only drawing 1/6 a day & was rather low financially & as I had nearly £20.0.0 on me I gave him ten. He was in the original Battalion, was wounded in France & is now one of the anti-gas instructors here. His people will pay the money to the credit of your account at Elders. When they do this & send you the receipt for it, you are to send this receipt I am enclosing to his people at the address on the receipt. It saves him the trouble of getting the money cabled over here. If my duty pay goes on much longer I will either have to bank it or else cable it home to you as I do not want it here. I expect his people will write to you as soon as they hear from him. I will repeat this information in another letter in case this one goes astray. 

I was very glad to hear that A.V. [Almondvale] was putting up a fairly decent crop & I hope that eventually you will get a good price for it. I hope the parcel of flannels you are sending get here before I go to France, but I am pretty well equipped that way at present. I will be at Lyndhurst for about a fortnight & I believe the grub down there is not too plentiful, so I suppose I will have to buy up a bit at the canteen which I have not had to do since I joined the army. My weight now is 11st.11b. so I guess I am not doing too bad. 

Tell Nell her Frankie is alright & is still in the cook-house. A good place to be. Well as it is nearly bed-time I will close now. Hoping you are all as well as I am.

I remain, 

Your Loving Son & Brother, 

Tom.

They are sending a Photo of the Sgts of this Training Battallion to some of the Australian papers so you might happen to see it. Tom.

Hurdcott; January 31st 1917

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.

View Larger Map

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.

Palace Hotel, Cnr Bedford and Bloomsbury, London; January 24, 1917

My Dear People,

Just a line to let you know I am quite well, as you can see from my address I am in London enjoying 4 day's leave. 

We came up from Hurdcott yesterday & must be back Friday night. It is about 90 miles up here from our camp. The tariff at this hotel is fairly high 6/6 for bed & breakfast, of course you can get it a lot cheaper than that but things are very stylish here & as I have a tenner to blow I am going to have a good time.


View Larger Map

I am drawing my extra duty pay of 4/6 a day here since I left the boat, so you should draw 9 weeks C.L. pay on my allotment for the trip over, but after I landed I have got to draw it here. They will not let me allot it to home now as it might stop at any time. But if I am appointed Sergeant permanent on joining the Battalion in France I can allot it then, as once you are gazetted a sergeant they cannot reduce you without a serious reason necessitating a Court Martial. As it is now you are pretty sure to revert for awhile on joining the Battalion. This means that I will be drawing 6/6 a day here which is far more than I need, but I suppose if I get too much I can bank it.

England is a very interesting country & London is a wonderful place, though I haven't seen much of it yet. The only thing I have against England is that it is too cold in winter, there has not been much rain here since I landed only light just a little snow. But the frosts here are very severe. It will come in with a little rain or snow & then a frost. Now in Australia, after a frost you get a nice sunny day – but here you do not, it keeps frosty all day & the ground & roads are all frozen & that slippery that you can hardly walk about without sitting down sudden. The sun rarely shines, if it does, it has no power.  It seems to be that if the sun does come out after an English frost, the air does warm up, the ground thaws & everything is sloppy.

I believe in March very cold winds blew but we have had very little wind yet. I saw in a Record I got (29th Nov) that you had a big wind storm home that blew Mackerode about. I hope it did not do any damage to your places. I saw in the same paper that Dave McDonald had been killed and A. Pohlner wounded. I have not got any more letters only the two the day I got to Hurdcott. I hope you got my cable & letter alright. Well I must close now as this is not seeing London! I am going about with my Corporal, as a mate he is a very nice fellow & it is nice to have a mate here. 

Hoping you are all well.

I remain your Loving Son & Brother,

Tom.

Hurdcott Camp, Salisbury; January 11, 1917.

My Dear People,

Just a few lines to let you know I am quite well & doing alright. We landed at Plymouth on the 9th, after a trip of exactly 9 weeks from Adelaide. After we left Cape Town we had a lot of delay, we called at a place called Freetown in Sierra Leone & met a lot of other troop ships & two cruisers: the Kent & Highflyer put in away from a reported raider. It is only a new base & we could not get labor to coal our ship. We had to do it ourselves. We worked shifts of 3 hours & loaded about 1,000 tons, those who volunteered first, 60 men from each unit got leave ashore, I was among them. 

It is a place with a population of 900 whites & 35,000 niggers who are real characters. I got

a piece of cocoa-nut under my teeth & pulled them out to get it out & absolutely astonished some of them who were standing by. Afterwards if I wanted to draw a crowd I used to pull out my teeth. I had several offers of a shilling for them & one nigger offered me two bob, but I wouldn't sell them.

 It is a very hot fever-stricken place & we were stuck in the harbor for four days when five ships pulled out with us, one an armed liner & we went on to Dakar, a French settlement on the African coast.

We spent Christmas Day there, we were there four days & there was no leave ashore, which made all the men very discontented, as it is a very tiring thing stopping in a harbor with no leave. We did not get off at Cape Town either. After we left Dakkar a few days later we met some other ships & the Kent who had come on from Freetown & our armed liner left us & we were a convoy of nine A.I.F. troop-ships, with the Kent as escort & a French cruiser who came out from Dakar with us not far away & each troop ship had a gun mounted astern (we got ours at Dakar) to deal with submarines but we never saw any. 

HMAS Kent  from http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-00-ClassInfo2.htm 

We had a lovely smooth trip till the day before we landed when a heavy cross sea struck us & we had a rolly time for awhile, which made some of our men sick, but I am proof against seasickness. 

We had two funerals on the trip, one man dived into a shallow bath on the ship & broke his neck, they collected over £100 (for his wife & children) on the ship. The other lad died from pneumonia. We had a lot of mumps on board, as many as 80 cases at one time. Noel Tiver had them slightly but I had splendid health all the way over. 

It was a very quiet trip over, but one day a Russian fool jumped overboard & caused a lot of excitement. A boat from another ship picked him up & we turned around & got him. He had a lifebelt on. The story was that he had a bad ear & wanted to see some other doctor as ours could not cure it, but after a day or so in hospital they stuck him in the clink & used to send two sentries with him whenever he had to go out.  

We used to have submarine drill pretty often & every man had to ship out wearing his lifebelt as soon as the alarm went. We all had places allotted us in boats or rafts. I & my fifty men were allotted four rafts to jump on in case of being sunk; we would have a lively time wouldn't we, when we were in the danger zone every man had his lifebelt with him all the time. 

When we arrived in Plymouth we were taken off in lighter's that night & trained here but we couldn't see anything as although it was moonlight they keep the blinds down at night on account of Zepps.

View Larger Map

After a march of about 3 miles we arrived here at half past five Wednesday morning. 

That morning I got two letters one from Kath & one from Auntie & Mum and was very glad to hear you were all well. I also got a Burra Record by the way, I would like you to pay my sub to the Record as it is due now.

Next day. 

I sent a cable home to you as I knew you would be worried as we were so long on the trip & we heard there were rumors that the Afric was sunk but I can assure you there was no truth in them. I hope you got the cable alright. It only cost six shillings, but you have to sign your surname to cables here or they won't send them. Do not worry over the money for sending cables as it is not likely I shall be short. I can overdraw on my pay book a tenner or so if I get stuck. I do not spend much.  We are to get four day's leave to go to London soon & after that they are going to put the training into us red hot as they are short of men at the front.

Sunday morning.

I went to Church Parade this morning, there were a lot of men there, this afternoon there is going to be a funeral. I think I will go to it. We went for a route march of 6 or 7 miles yesterday afternoon in full marching order, it knocked a lot of our fellows out as they are very soft after being on the boat but I can stand it alright. 

I am still holding my rank but I am not sure that I will get the extra duty pay here. I suppose you will find that out from my allotment. You do not get appointed permanently till you join the Battalion in France & if they do not want N.C.O.'s, then you have to go back to the ranks till there is a vacancy. With regard to my allotment you should draw 3/- a day & 4/6 a day extra duty pay for the trip over but if the extra duty pay is stopped you will only draw 3/- a day, just let me know if you are getting it alright. 

The drill here is a lot different from what we were taught in Australia, especially Musketry. Each Brigade has a training Battalion for its reinforcements & we are in D company of the 8th training Battalion - but you had better address my letters the same as before I will get them alright. 

I have been making enquiries for Frank Richards & he has been in hospital with a bad knee but is now in some Convalescent home, so I suppose he will soon be back here. Wally Arnolds has gone to France. 

This place is not too bad. We have nice huts and a coal stove in each. Of course it is very cold & we notice it after coming in off of the Tropics. The sun takes a mighty short cut across the sky here. It isn't daylight till about 8 o'clock & dark at half past four, but it will be better directly. This must be a lovely place in the summer as there are nice hills here and little villages. Funny, all the houses here have thatched or slate roofs & they are as old as the hills. I would go to Ireland for my leave only it wouldn't be much now in winter & the leave is too short - but I might get an opportunity later.

I suppose you are busy harvesting now. I hope it turns out alright & that you do not have too much bother getting it off. I get along first rate with my men & Officers. 

I must close now. Next letter I will tell you more about this place. I can only hope you are all as well & happy as I am. 

Your loving Son & Brother

Tom.

Mitcham, November 7th 1916

My Dear People,

Just a line to let you know I am well, we are not sailing till this afternoon as the transport was delayed.

I saw Mrs. Cahill Saturday night and took her and Ethel to the Dandies. It was Mrs. Cahill who was looking for Kathleen in town, she left a note at Grants' for her, but I suppose they did not give it to her. I went and saw Nell Simmons last night. I am to get two pounds ten embarkation pay before I go, so I will have plenty of money. There is no other Quinn in this unit now, as the other chap has been transferred somewhere else.

I must close now as we will soon be off. Hoping you are all well. 

I remain

Your Loving son and Brother 

Tom.