Correspondence between Herbert Vincent Reynolds and his family, 1916 - Part 1

Monte Video Camp
Weymouth Eng
Jan 5^th 1916
Dear Mother
Well I received a bundle
of about 16 letters a few days ago and
was extremely pleased to get them as
I have been patiently awaiting them
for the past month. I suppose you
have been wondering how I enjoyed
myself this Xmas. well it was a
most enjoyable one, & shall ever remain
in my mind with the most pleasant
recollections. There were 3 of us invited
by Mr & Mrs Hunt to spend the Xmas
with them at the Retreat Hotel
Parkstone, at the last moment one of
the other chaps had his leave cancelled
& only two of us went we got there on
the evening of Dec 22^nd & was'nt the
feather bed a luxury after the hard
boards in the huts. well we were treated
splendidly & could not have wished for a
 

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more happy holiday we went for motor
rides with a friend of Mr Hunts who
has a garage along the street a bit.
Bournmouth is absolutely the
prettiest place that I have seen over here
yet it is well named when called the
"Sunny garden of the South" there is almost
any sport going in & around the district
the sea beaches are fine ones, & the
scenery is absolutely beautiful. You
must excuse me for finishing this letter
in pencill as my fountain pen fell
& broke. I had a letter from Miss Hunt
inviting us down again for a week end,
& have just been speaking to her brother
who is a dispatch rider here in Weymouth
& he asked me when I was going down
to Bournmouth again, as they wrote him &
asked him to find out when we can get
away, so you see that we have a welcome
from people who are strangers. I have also
been asked to spend a week end at 40 Weymouth
St & another invitation came from a Mr Key
of 181 Brecknock Road London, so I do not know
 

3
which to accept, as Bournmouth is much
nearer I think I shall go there the fare to
London is to hot it runs into 12/- reduced rate
while the other place is only 2/6, by the way
1/- a day does not go far here, well anyhow
I cannot complain as none of my money goes in
smoke & I can always make my 10/- go for a week
ordinary times. Well about Xmas dinner it
was some dinner I can tell you, it started
with turkey & about half a doz kinds of vegetables
then the chief item the duff with silver in
it I was unlucky though, fruit trifle & a glass
of port finished things off nicely & I think
I can safely say that there was more joy
over that dinner than any other that I
can remember bon bons were cracking &
great was the amusement when the contents
of them were doned by their owners, paper
hats of all shapes & sizes fell out of them.
I do not know if there is any thing going
on in the way of the wounded buying their
outfits etc, you remember you enquired
in one of your letters. Well all I can say
about it is that so far as I am concerned
I have not seen an instance of such bad
treatment I must say that the way
 

3
we were treated on the boat Georgian
was absolutely rotten & we could not
have been treated worse, but I do not
trouble about that, as it could not be
helped under such circumstances to
a certain extent, & what was more at
the time, personally, I did not care
what treatment I got or did not get
as it was impossible to expect too much
from the small staff on board, clothing
was issued to where necessary to patients but
it was very scarce but in no instance
have I seen where anyone had to buy
from the Red Cross. Well I have been
more contented here since Xmas & have not
been worrying about getting back home I could
not shake off the continual longing to
get home but since being to Bournmouth
I have not been troubling so much although
I wish that it is possible to get home if
only for a few weeks Well hoping you
spent an enjoyable Xmas I remain ever very
truly  Bert.
 

Mrs Reynolds
Albert St
Sebastopol
Ballarat
Vict
Australia
[*5 Jan 1916*]
 

R.O'B. W 20144
MELBOURNE 6th Jan. 1916.
[*35635*]
Dear Madam,
Advice was received, by post, from the
High Commissioner, to the effect that No. 622 Private
H.V. Reynolds, 1st Field Ambulance, had been admitted
to 5th London General Hospital, St Thomas' S.E.,
wounded and suffering from dental trouble. As he
was never previously reported wounded a query was
dispatched to London asking for a confirmation of same
which has now been received.
Should any further information be received
you will be promptly advised.
Yours faithfully,
J M Lean
Capt.
Officer i/c Base Records.
Mrs. Reynolds,
Albert St.,
Sebastopol, V.
 

January 28^th 1916
Monte Video Camp
Weymouth. England
Dear Mother
There has been no letters from you now for over a month & I can
not make it out, unless you have been addressing my letters to the unit, as
I wrote & told you to do, instead of c/o High Commissioner, no doubt you
were in a bit of a fog about addressing them, I did not think of the
authorities notifying you about my postal address or I would not have
mentioned it, any how I did not expect to be here as long as I have & I
suppose the best thing to do is to address any future letters to the unit
as it will not be long before I am on my way back to it, I had hopes
of getting home on the last hospital ship with the disabled men as
orderlie, but was turned down & others put in from London I would
not mind if they would give us a fair deal, & send fellows who have done a bit
of solid work but they did not they sent those who have not left home
above 9 mths, & never been near the front, they are not sea transport men
either. Ah well never mind expect we will get back again if we are lucky,
if not well its nothing worth worrying about. I had a letter from Siss
the other day dated 13 Dec you might tell her that although I seldom write
that I have not forgotten them, their letters are always welcome they
 

cheer one up a bit. I write very few letters don't know why but I 

am clean off writing lately, I have to force myself to write to you not

that I have not the time as we have more time off than we know what

to do with, there seems so little to write about for one thing. 

Well last Wed was Foundation Day & we all marched into Weymouth to a

concert at the Jubilee hall after dinner it was a very large parade

about 2000 all-together, with the depôt band, one of the performers met

with a nasty accident he was performing on horizontal bars when he

fell & injured his back severely, & is now in a badway in the hospital.

A party of Weymouth people gave a concert in the gymnasium in this

camp last night it was not up to much though, about the best items

given was by Charlie Findley he is here in the depot he rattled off

the Irish Jubilee in the same old style as he did when at Sebas

We are having a beautiful spell of fine weather now, and I suppose when

it breaks we will get nothing but mud from daylight till dark for a 

month or more. We had a spray of the good old wattle given to us last

night at the concert & it was good to see a little of old Aust once 

again, although it was only a spray of the golden blossom. 

I do not know if you have ever thought of it, but could you get your

photos taken & send one along I would very much like to get one

of you. I am writing to Eva & Ade by this mail & am sending you the

book of views sent by the Vict War Association to all Aust troops in Eng

Did you ever get those few souvenirs of Anzac that I sent you. I got

a couple of papers from you the other day but no letters with them why don't

you send a Courier along now & again, I would prefer them to the other papers,

Well trusting you are all enjoying the best of health I remain

ever yours very truly 

Bert

I am keeping A1 lately thanks. 
 

Jan 28 1916

Mrs Reynolds

Albert St

Sebastopol

Ballarat

Victoria

Australia
 

[*PS. Trusting you are 

all all right I remain

yours ever very truly Bert.*]

Monte Video Camp

Weymouth

Feb 7^th 1916

Dear Mother

Just a few lines as there is 

nothing much to write about, I am still 

patiently awaiting a few lines from you, 

there were no letters this week from you

& I do not know what can be wrong.

There are a couple of photos enclosed

The building is the little Church of 
England at Fleet about 2 miles from 

our camp I went there to a service 

one ∧Sund afternoon with the chap second from the

left standing in the photo marked I it is

a very interesting little place the church

was destroyed in 1824 & the present one

was built in 1827 it is a very small

place & was built by the then vicar

of the church at his own expense. The

service is held at 3pm & only 8 others

besides us & the parson in the place the