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.


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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

France; July 5, 1917

My Dear People,

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

We had our Divisional competitions yesterday and though it looked like rain in the morning, it fined up nicely in the afternoon and we had a very good day. We were in the Company drill competitions & came second - the 38th Battalion beating us - but I don't think they had very much to spare.

I went to a French church last Sunday. It was a nice little church & they had very nice singing. They sing all the Mass. The Churches here are all done up magnificently inside and some of them are very old.

In a casualty list the other day I saw where a J. F. Dann, Oodlawirra had died of wounds. I suppose it was George's brother. Very hard luck for his people to lose two boys.

The crops are all out in ear now. The French people are making their hay. They cut patches of grass or anything, using a mower to cut it. They have queer ways of farming, there are no fences & each farmer has his land set out in little pieces & grows wheat on one, barley another, beet on another & so on. Each piece only being about an acre, or less. They drive their horses with one rein. Their ploughs are comics, a single furrow has two ploughs - one ploughing & one up in the air. When they come to the end they change ploughs & go back the same side, the plough turning the soil over the same way. This does away with furrows & keeps the ground level.

From WW1 Liberty Gardens

July 7th.

I am at a Brigade bayonet school for a few days now but will be back with the Battalion Monday. The weather is splendid & everything is lovely & green. I would not take any notice of the rumours of no green etc. as it is probably only bluff.

I have heard there is an Australian mail for troops in now. Well I will close now hoping you are all quite well.

I remain

Your Loving Son & Brother

Tom.

France; April 28, 1917

My Dear People,

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

I have just got a letter from Annie & Nell (Jan 14th) it was sent to the Batt before I joined it & was returned to England. I do not get my Records now as they do not worry very much about papers. I have not received my parcel of woolens yet, but it is getting nice & warm here now.

We had a football match here on Anzac Day between the boys of the Batt & yesterday we had our Batt sports & they were not too bad. To-night we are having a concert. We are doing a little drill now to keep us a bit fresh.

Harry Tralaggan showed me a photo of the M.B.C. Honour List & I saw a list of names in a Record of those who were to be put on the Burra list. We are going to vote here on the Commonwealth elections in a day or two. It seems rather strange to be so comfortable here & a few miles away they say there is a war on. We can hear the guns going all the time, they never stop.

Harry Tralaggan saw Lyell Bell the other day, he is just the same as ever. Well I must close now to catch this mail.

Hoping you are all well.

I remain

Your Loving Son & Brother,

Tom.

 

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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.