Correspondence between Herbert Vincent Reynolds and his family, 1916 - Part 5

France
April 23^rd 1916
Dear Mother
Well it is extremely hard to find
anything to write about, I could write till further
orders about things that we see, & what happen
around us, but you know we cannot do that.
I still have had no news from you & cannot make
it out, it is terrible the way the letters are going
astray, just fancy only two letter from you in
about five months.
I am sending a letter to Ellis enclosed in this
green envelope so you will put a stamp on it
& send it on will you, we only get one green
envelope per week, there may be some news in
it fresh to you but I don't think there is.
Well Mum I don't know of anything else to
write so please excuse these paltry few lines
Au-revoir for the present
yours ever very truly
Bert 

ON ACTIVE SERVICE.

23 April 1916
Mrs Reynolds
Albert St Sebastopol Ballt
Victoria
Australia
Signature}
H Reynolds 

Anzac Day April 25^th
Dear Mother
Well I have some good news this
time, yesterday a mail arrived, & I received a
letter from you also one from Flo, you don't
know how pleased I was to get them.
I am extremely pleased to hear that you have been
receiving my letters etc & that you were pleased
with the cards; did you get the curios I sent to
you, the bullets & pieces of shell I mean, you
know I have not received your previous letters
for a long time, & if you mentioned it in them
I have not received them.
Your idea of getting a photo of yourself & Flo &
Stan taken is splendid, it is just what I
mentioned in a letter not long ago.
I cannot understand C T putting so much
trouble in the way of the girls Eve & Ade
over the settling up of Grandma's affairs
I don't know what he can be thinking about 

(2)
It is very strange for that card which I had
at Galipolli to be sent to you, I remember the
one, it was sent to me by Alice McAllister
& at the time I was stuck for paper of any
description to write a few lines to you on, so the
card being an extremely thick one, I tore it in
half, you know, split it to be correct, well
I wrote your name & address on it & got no
further as I was called away to go on duty.
I placed it under the waterproof covering
of the dug out & left it, we must have been
pretty buisy after that & I forgot all about it
It had been hanging in my dugout for some
time along with a few others before I took
it down & thought of using it. No doubt
you are pleased to have it as it is a bit
of a curio. I often wondered who would occupy
my old dugout after my unit was releived, it
was a pretty comfortable little place & once when
others were flooded out of their's mine kept quite
dry & my mate & I were comfortable inside 

(3)
while others were dodging about in the wet
draining their's out, by the way; he is now
with the 14^th Fld Amb, & Geo Cochrane that was
his name the fat chap in the photo that we had
taken at Broadmeadows. I have not seen
him since I left the peninsula.
Was the boat that you referred to the "Maloja"
that was lost when we were on our way to Egypt
thank goodness all our travelling by sea is over
now for some time I don't fancy these sea trips
now, there are too many tin fish about.
I cannot understand you addressing my letters
c/o High Commissioner I think you should have
received my letter before the date that they were
written, saying to address my letters to the unit,
if you had, I would have been getting letters long
before now, your letters are going to England before
coming to me & are marked "Returned to Egypt for duty"
Well today is a beautiful day the finest that
we have had since arriving here. 

We were paid a little while ago  & tonight we will
be able to celebrate the first aniversary of
Anzac Day by having a decent feed for once,
our rations are terribly cut down to what we have
been used to.
Well it is 12 mths since we first seen the real thing
& yet the war does not seem any nearer the end, a
great deal has happened during the last 12 months,
as far as I am concerned more has occurred than
in all the previous years put together, but there
is more to come and as ggainst it & we have a
tremendous lot more to do before victory is finaly
ours. In Aust no doubt you are celebrating the
day with carnivals etc, but over here nothing is
taking place, the day is calm, very little activity
either in the air, or along our front is taking place,
& every thing seems peacefull, one cannot but
notice it as other fine days has been just the opposite
Well Mother I must close these few lines & will promise
to do my best & meet anything that may be coming, squarely
& trust & hope for the best & a safe return to you. truly Bert 

Egypt  May 7th 1916
Dear Mrs Reynolds
Just a few lines while off
duty. We have been here one month this
evening, and I'm about full up with
Egypt and its sands flies and dirty niggers
I wont be at all sorry when we are
leaving for the real thing, which I don't
think will be long now. I have been
in the best of health up to date, but you
have to be very carefull. The camp which
we are now in is a long way from Cairo
I went in to have a look round, about
a week after we got here. It is a very
dirty place as Bert has told you. It is not
a fit place for any white person to see
that is the town itself, but on the outskirts there
are some sights worth seeing, its no use me
telling you anything about it, as Bert has
already told you all about it. Harry & Perce Bawden
came into camp last night. Will. Raine is also
here, he has been on the Peninsula. I asked him
and a few others if they had met Bert but
they had not seen him. Well, I suppose I will have
to close, as I am a poor hand at writing, hoping this finds
yourself, Florrie and Stan, all well I remain
Yours Sincerely
Loy

[On
Active
Service]

Mrs H. Reynolds

Albert Street
Sebastopol
Via Ballarat
Victoria 
Australia
7.5.1916
AB
2/4

6th TRAINING
Battalion

FROM LOY BRIMACOMBE 

France
May 9^th 1916
Dear Mother
Well there has been no Australian
mails arrived since last I wrote, but a letter of
yours dated Jan 24^th along with one of the same date
from Stan, came along from England a few days ago.
I wish a few more of the delayed ones would come along
as there is a terrible lot of news that will be
fresh to me contained in them. I am very pleased
to see that you received the diary letters, that I
sent you, I wish now that I had written a
few more & completed the diary up to the time I
was in England, but you see after Xmas
I did not write any more as there was a probability
of me getting back to Aust, & then I could have
left the diary that I have with me at home, so
I did not need to write it in letters; that is if
my anticipation of the trip home had been
correct, I could have got a trip to Aust if I had liked