Correspondence between Herbert Vincent Reynolds and his family, 1917 - Part 11

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military service, the former are equal to
the task, but its very unfortunate that
these lads are going through all this, it
must tell on them in time to come, besides
they are loosing the best years of their
lives though certainly they are doing it
for a noble cause, it is my opinion that
no lad should be allowed to leave
Ausie unless he is 20 or over. I have
no time for our Government at all, it has
allowed men, who have no earthly reason
what ever, that they should not be over
here doing their bit, shirk their duty,
& have instead  of governing the country
as is their duty, asked the people to
practically do it for them, the sooner
they wake up & enforce conscription the
better for all, not waste money,  & leave
it to the people. I hope these few
facts reach you before you are asked to vote
you can please yourself wether you vote
"Yess" or not vote at all, after reading this
 

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it is not at all fair to ask you to
vote on the subject at all.
We have had a very cold day
today & a little snow fell at dinner time
There is very little news
to send so I will close these lines
trusting you are quite well
Yours ever very truly
Bert.
 

Mrs Reynolds
Albert St
Sebastopol
Ballarat
Victoria
Australia

[*Nov 22^ND 1917*]
 

Hurdcott Eng
Dec 6^th 1917
Dear Mother
I've received up to date letters nos
68 69 & 70 of yours, also word from the Bank about your cable,
they want to know how much I am expecting & numerous other things
so I've just got to guess, as I don't know for certain what you
have sent. I am pleased to know that you received the
packet of cards allright, the views of Bournemouth really do not
give you an absolutely true impression of the place, I don't
know of a prettier place, it is beautiful from one end to the
other, it is really a city in a forest of pines, for every
where you go in the surrounding suburbs you will see
big plantations of pine trees, the buildings are fine looking
structures, especially the residences in the suburbs, & some of
the neatest looking buildings what I have seen in England,
that is modern buildings, are situated on the hills surrounded
by fine large trees, the country around the city is rather
hilly & in some places most beautiful scenery is to be seen
Alumn chine is very pretty, & to motor through it is to
see one of the prettiest of South coast scenes. The sea
scenery is also beautiful, of a fine day a magnificient view
is to be obtained from Constitution Hill, which is only a few
minutes walk from the Retreat Hotel, the view extends over the

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town of Poole & its harbour, the sea comes in & forms
numerous bays in which nestle a number of small islands
I am sending you a view taken from this hill but it
is an exceptionally poor one it has been taken on a rather
dull day, & the islands & promonotarys in the distance can-
hardly be seen.
I am sweating on my leave, I'm anxious to
spend this Xmas with the friends, they want me to
go down there for Xmas & if I can only get down there,
you can depend upon me having a real bonza time.
I smiled the other day, when I got a letter from
Miss Hunt, it seems the mate who spent Xmas two years
ago at the Retreat with me, slipped in to see them
a short time ago with his "fiancee", so I was advised
not to do any thing so silly but there is no
liklihood of me doing any thing like that, though
I might tell you, there might be something doing, if I
happened to be situated differently, but please don't
take exception at what I've said, I'm quite contented
as things are, I think more of you than I could ever
think of any one else so don't think Im any ways discontented.
Up to the present I have received two
parcels since being in this camp, one from Eva Stones the
other from Vi, I was very pleased with the socks in both
parcels & also the mufler from Eva Stones, it is just the
thing these bitterly cold days. I am writing to Eva & Ciss
tonight, I'm afraid there is a lot of grousing in both letters
but a fellow has got to let himself go at times anyhow
there is good reason for it all, every body is at it here.
we're absolutely disgusted what with one thing & another.
 

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I am rather disappointed with the way Stan is shaping
at School, but I expect he is doing his best or at least
hope so, it is the chance of his life, & he ought to make
the best of it, if he will go to school next year, I should
certainly send him if I were you.
We are getting some awfully cold weather
over here lately, a heavy frost almost every night I'm
mighty pleased that I'm not over in France now.
Well I'm not getting on as well as I
ought to be, the wound is still open, though it is
very slowly healing, it will be a fair while yet before
its right, I cannot get a days leave untill the wound
is healed, they will not give a B1^b man any leave at
all, while he is under treatment.
I don't know what we would do in this
place, only for the YMCA concert partys that come
along sometimes to entertain us, we get very little
consideration from our medical authorities, we are supposed
to be in a convalescant camp yet it is not run like one
at all, they get us out on parade & keep us standing
about on the frozen ground untill our feet get that cold
that we can hardly walk, all for the purpose of calling
out a number of names, but I suppose its no use telling
you all this we're too far away from home, for our complaints
 

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to be worth much we cannot get any one to take
any notice of them over here.
Things are very short in the tucker
line over here  I will give you an idea of what we
get, for breakfast, two thin slices of bread with fat
on them for butter, we never see jam here, a fair
helping of porridge with no sugar or milk, then a fair
helping of curry with very little meat, the tea is the
limit it has milk in it but no sugar & its like
taking poison. For dinner today we had a small
piece of boiled mutton, more grease than meat, a fair
sized potatoe, with carots & parsnips, & a bowl of
shaddow soup. For tea two slices of bread with fat
for butter & a sausage roll, and we are the
best fed Army in the world, God help the others
then, if they get less  I might tell you that its
not because there is a great shortage of food over here,
for you can get enough to feed a doz men if you like
to pay for it at an army canteen, or YMCA, I reckon
its a dirty principal to work on all through, like
a good number of their methods in the army.
Well I reckon Ive done quite enough
grousing, so I had better ring off, so Au revoir for
the present  yours sincerely
Bert
 

Mrs Reynolds
Albert St
Sebastopol
Ballarat
Victoria
Australia
[*Dec 6^th 1917*]
 

No 3 Command Depot
Camp 5 Hurdcott
England
Dec 13^th 1917
Dear Mother
I was very pleased to receive a packet
of letters today from the base post office, there were 3 from
you Nos 65, 67, & 71, you will notice that they are coming
very irregularly, but I don't mind that in the least, so long
as they do not go astray altogether.
There were four letters from Ciss in the
packet, I feel rather ashamed of myself for not writing
more often, because Ciss writes very regularly to me, but I
suppose she knows how we feel about letter writing, just
about sick to death of it, its nothing but the same old
thing time after time, & when it comes to describing
any of the places that we see, well we feel more like
sending the pen & ink as far as we can throw them, than
writing with them, we are sick  x of all the sight
seeing over here, all we want to see now is any sort
of a sea going boat, that will find old Ausie for us
either when we've got our ticket, or when the war is
over, in my case I think its the latter, & I hope
it will not be long before things are settled up.
 

Friday 14^th
Well, I had to leave off writing yesterday to go
out on parade, & did not get a start on after coming off,
so I'll try & write a few more lines now.
You mentioned in one of your letters, about
getting the diary bound, - well its not worth while,
& you might just keep it as it is, untill it is more
complete, I might get a fit into my head to write up
a few more months, from the notes that I have kept from
day to day, I'm that fed up with the buisness, that
I have not got the patience to write about all the
experiences that have been mine since leaving old Ausie.
Up to the present I have not received
either the parcel you mentioned sending on −−
Well I ll start again I've just got
back after arguing the toss with the orderly sgt, they
detailed me off for a job of cleaning up the lines, but
come the old soldier trick of talking my way out of it.
I don't mind doing a fair amount of work, but don't
see why a fellow should do some of the things they
want him to do here, when he is not fit for work.
I went round to the dressing hut, & got my chest rubbed
with liniment, so they could not make me toe the line
for refusing duty, because the doc ordered me to have
my chest rubbed twice daily, also medicine twice daily,
for a rather severe cold I have on the chest.
Well to get back to what I was going to