Letter from William Cope to [James Oswald] Fairfax

PR82/8
1^st Australian Division
BEF France
[*A well known Sydney man
who is working for the Australian
Comforts fund writes*]
Dear Fairfax
We are out here in the Mud &
Slush of The Sunny Land of France, inevitable
in these wintry Months.  But our Men are
standing it very well & cheerily & are giving a
good account of themselves. One can always get
a smile from them even when they are so caked
with mud & wet through that one hardly knows
one from another. I have just come in for further
loads of Primus Stoves Tommy Cookers 1000 one
Nivusand Soup Cocoa & Milk Coffee Preserved
Milk & Sugar so generously supplied by the
Kindly thought of the Men & Women of every
State in Australia for their men in the fighting
line & I am one of those whose duty it is to
see that these great aids to the comfort &
well being of the men are distributed where it
will do most good- (Of course it is a great
disappointment to me that though I am on
the Reserve list of Officers in Australia & have
always kept myself fit and my services
available I have not been permitted to join my
JO Fairfax Esq
(1)
Union Club Sydney

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Old Comrades with whom I served in Africa
& who want me - But one has to do the
work that's nearest and though it is a
small part to play while such great things
are going all round-it is better to be helping
even in this little way -than to be out of it.
At least one sees most of what is going
on and I am very proud of our Young
Australians - The way they tackle the
real hardships of winter wet & cold and
the indescribable mud onto which thousands &
thousands of Men & horses churn up the
land at the front for Miles upon Miles &
over which they march & in which often they
sleep without cover in the rain - is a
revelation to me & I have seen some rough
times - The modern Concomitants of War
are themselves pretty beastly and nerve racking
but these they seem to take as a matter of
course, and while quite alive to the necessity
for reasonable care, they seem imbued with
the one soldiers creed that one must take
the chances of the game and go on smiling.

There are some wonderful burrows like
rabbit warrens in these parts and some
elaborate underground rooms more or less
furnished. But it is an overated
amusement to occupy the bulk of the
trenches & dug outs which at best are
mouldy wet and unwholesome places to
live in - and in many places they have
been so bashed about by our own fire and
are often so gruesome owing to the things
which once were men buried in them
that it isn't everybody's job to succeed
in being happy in them - We have and
quite right so very strict Censorship & I
cannot describe the interesting work now
going on, but you can gather it from the
Communiques published in the Press- which
give a fair idea of the situation - Our Air
Men are splendid and it must be admitted
the German Taubes are very daring & their
men are also brave & skillful - There was
some very interesting fighting in the air
today, our men as usual driving them back
but they take a lot of catching-
To be in the first flight of the Airmen
a man must have more than their ordinary brains
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be As active as a cat. have nerves of steel,
sinews of indian rubber as strong as iron - be
impervious to bitter wind & cold & rain & snow
sight like a hawk and the constitution &
Courage of a Lion - Add to this that they
are quiet modest God fearing courteous 
men - and you get something near the
Perfect Gentleman whose name rarely appears
wh but who does in his daily work and as
a matter of course, deeds as great as ever
did his forbears of old & who Earns many
times in a week without whose deeds week
after week are though unrecorded & rarely
mentioned worthy of the DS.O. or V.C honours
often given for much less- We all sleep
sounder for the watchful care of the Airman
who keeps the Enemy from seeing our positions
& dropping his shells with uncomfortable
precision - The Candle is flickering out &
I have some night-work to do
My Compliments to Mrs Fairfax & kind
regards to all mutual friends
Yours truly
William Cope
JO. Fairfax Esq