Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family January 1915 - May 1915 - Part 13

over to the country. He has a fine collection of
swords daggers & [[?]] etc which he gets from

the natives mainly in the Soudan when he goes
up to Khartoum & other places. He is very
nice & good ^to me but seems delicate & I would not
be surprised if he did not live very long. It
would be sad for Mrs Crawford & her bairnies children
They seem very fond of xx each other & the bairnies children
are such good little mates. They are helping
their mother to stuff pillows with raw cotton
for the wounded soldiers. They had to
tease the wool cotton out as we were doing the
wool at home. It is not quite so tangled as
the wool but is pretty tedious work & the
fluff gets up their noses & makes them sneeze
so it is not altogether a pleasant job. Well
darling pet Goodbye & God bless & keep you
& our dear sweet wee Bairnies all safe & sound
Love to Baaby & Nana & everybody. I am
wondering if your Jack will come here
They have left all the Light Horse Horses
here with one man to every four horses to
look after them & have sent every other
man away to fight as Infantry so men
are pretty urgently required. I doubt
 

if they will do as well as our Infantry men
as we had. trained our boys very well - drilled &
drilled them until they were steady as rocks
and the pity of it that they have been
slaughtered as they have. But Sir Ian
Hamilton issued an order which ^it is said came
from Kitchener that the place must be taken
at all costs & truely the boys answered well.
It was wonderful to see them taking no
more care of the Bullets than if they were
at a sham fight. But this is skiting
about ourselves isn't it. So I had better
stop. Goodbye once more my own dear girl
truest sweetest & best of darlings. God be with
you always & cheer & comfort you my dear Sunshine
Lady. Millions of kisses to you & the two little
pets
from your very own
Dida Donny.
 

19/5/15
"The Craig"
Maadi
Egypt
My dearest Kit.
I had hoped by this date
to have been away back to the Dardenelles
& having a shot at the Turk or his
pal who hit me but unfortunately last
Sunday evening I got a bit of a chill
which sent my temperature up again
& I was packed off to Bed again
Here I am on Wednesday still forbidden
to get up. In addition my foot also
gave me a bit of trouble. - I walked from
Heliopolis to the Zeitoun Camp to see
Ken Walker & some of the other boys who
are there drilling some of the new recruits
It was about 3 miles walk there & back &
it caused my foot to swell up & ^the wound
to fester slightly but Mrs Crawford has
poulticed it with hot fermentations
& it is now splendid. I wanted them
to send me back to the hospital as it
was such a trouble to them but they would
not hear of it at all. I have however
been able to get some idea of how the
Regiment is fairing. Sergt Dickenson who
was left at Alexander in charge of the
 

-2-
Baggage has sent me a list of the Killed
& wounded officers. 7 of the officers are dead
for certain viz Capt R, Henderson, Capt Hunter
Capt McKenna, Lieut Blick Lieut Darcy
Lieut Henderson & Lieut Chapman. It is
dreadful for the Hendersons to have lost
both their boys like this so soon & they
were so splendid & ^brave all through.
And poor little Blick. He was splendid too
Every single other officer that I brought out
from Victoria has been wounded with the
exception of Capt Weddell & Lieut Grills xx
who seem to have gone through everything
without a scratch and Capt McCrae &
Lieut Tuft whom we left in the Boat
to look after the Horses & waggons
Poor Jimmy Johnston is I hear in
one of the Hospitals in Cairo. He has three or
four bullets in him & is pretty bad. I have
not been able to trace him as I have not been
able to get about at all & there must be
a dozen different hospitals in Cairo now
& a dozen more in Alexandria while all
the towns between have had to take some
wounded. The losses appear to have
 

-3-
been very great both for all the troops
engaged. Johnston was not in the first
fight as he was ill with a Septic Throat
But he landed as soon as he was better &
was wounded almost straight away.
Lieut Heron who was wounded before he got
ashore & reported dead was sent to Alexandria
but he went straight back as his wound
on the head was really slight & landed & was
shot again in the eye. He has is now once
more back at Alexandria. I am delighted to
hear that Majors Mason & Jackson are almost
well again. Poor Major Blezard is having a
hard fight for his life but I hear it is now
thought he will eventually recover. All the
other wounded officers are improving I am glad
to say. Poor old Colonel [[?]] who was
placed in charge of the 7^th for a time was
killed at the second big fight last Saturday
week. I suppose by the time you get this it
will be a little past the wee laddie's Birthday
Give him a big heap love & a [[?]] from Dida
I'm afraid I will not be able to get out & buy
anything for him before the mail goes but I wish
him a million happy returns the dear wee boy
 

4
Your birthday too will be at hand darling when
this happens along. In case there is no mail which
I can catch I will wish you also many many
happy birthdays at "Nirvana" with all your family
round you cheered & made happy by your sunshine
smiling eyes. I forgot to tell you that I had £20
say saved for you & in case the Turks should
catch me when I went ashore I gave it to
our R.C. parson Capt Hearn who was
not to land until after the waggons were
put ashore which was to be two days later.
I hear they are not ashore yet but where
this parson is I cannot say. I hope he does
not go ashore & get captured but I feel
sure the money will be safe & I will remit
it to you at the first opportunity. It was a pity as
it turned out that I did not keep it & I
could have sent it on from here as you will
be needing it for the interest. Sergt McKinnon
writes to me that there are now 487 of
my poor boys who have come back from
the Dardenelles & are scattered wounded
in the hospitals in Egypt or Malta or
have been sent on to England. 28 of them
have died so far either here or on board
 

5
ship. But no return has yet reached him
of those killed outright on the field of
Battle except the officers I have mentioned.
I am afraid there wont be many of the poor
old Seventh left for me to go back to when I
am fit. However the vast majority of those
in the hospitals here are recovering fast and
are eager to go back & get even with the
Turkeys. Well darling As the mail does
not go for a few days yet I will try &
add something more to this before I close it up.
21/5/15. I am very pleased to say that I have
now been allowed up again. My foot is splendid
&  my cough nearly quite gone already.
Darling pet do you love me still - big heap millions.
I am so longing for a letter from you but
goodness knows when I will get one from
you. The P.O. people are such fools that if you
get me away from the Regiment that the letters

never by any chance find you for months &
months, & I suppose when they I get back
to the Regiment they will ^have been sent back here
somewhere. I think of you & my wee bairnies
always & every day & love you more & more each
time. When I get home the old soldiering ^bunnies will
have to take a back seat & I will be
 

6
more with my own dear ones than I used to be if
I know anything. Give my love to Baaby, Nana
& everyone. I got a cable from you wishing me
good luck from Tocumwal & Northcote.
I hav wondered who had sent it as it was
addressed to Alexandria & took a couple of
days to find me here while Mr Roberts knew
from the Cable I sent them that I was in Ciaro
& I supposed he would have told you
The Crawfords have been wonderfully good to
me. I feel ashamed that there is nothing I
can do to thank them for their kindness
Did I tell you that he is Inspector of the National
Bank of Egypt here. They seem comfortably off
but are not "toffs" in any way. They have
a Scotch nurse lady to look after the Bairnies
and a nigger housemaid & a nig cook and a nig
Gardner but Mrs C. does a lot of the housework
herself. Well darling I must close this
at present. I may be able to add a few more
lines before I post it as I have no idea when
the mail goes. Goodbye my dearest love & God
bless & keep you and my dear wee ones.
With all my love to you & them
from Dida Donny.
[*Go to back of p 1*]
 

Sunday morning →
Dearest one Just a few words
more. I heard yesterday that poor Johnston
was dead. His wounds opened for some
reason & he bled to death. His poor
old mother will be sad. And our General
Bridges is killed too. What will be the
end I wonder. I am nearly well again
& hope that by the end of this week I will
be back again with the Boys. I enclose
a letter I have just received from Walter
Conden. After you have read it would
you mind posting it to Cap. J. S Stephen
Chancery Lane Melbourne. You could
ring him up & tell him I asked you
to send it on to him & after he
& Capt Durgan have read it ask
him to return it to you. You will find
it very interesting. I have asked added a few
explanatory notes. You will see that the men
who were promoted officers from Sergeants did
not last very long xxx safe. It seems a
decidedly unhealthy occupation to take a
job of as an officer these days. Well all I
can say is if they hit me again before I see

a Turk I'll come home and give up the
thing as a bad job. I am going to get a rifle
next time & see if I can't get a Turk too.
Ah dearie pet I managed to get into Cairo yesterday
& buy a little gold & enamel brooch which I am
sending along to you by this mail. I hope you
will like it. It only cost 22/- so you wont think
I was extravagant will you darling. And I am so glad
I was able to get you a wee something - just for a remembrance
of my Kit & so she will know I am always thinking of her &
that she is the best & dearest girlie in all the world. With
million loves & kisses from Dida Donny
 

[*Enclosed
with last
letter*]
Friday.
Deaconness Hospital.
Alexandria
Dear Colonel.
Just a few lines to give you some
news that we have had. Yesterday a Hospital
Boat came in & Scanlon & Swift came along
to see us. and gave us all the news of our
men.
The 2^nd Infantry Brigade we taken
from Gaba.Tepe & sent down to Cape Helles
to Re-inforce the 29^th Division. They made
a big attack to take Krithia and failed.
From what I gather they were taken away
on the 2nd Saturday after landing and
had a couple days spell at Cape
Helles. On the following Wednesday they
made a big effort to take Krithia. This
village they say had been taken beforehand
but our men had been forced
to retire & hence this attack.
The attack began at 5.30 p.m. &
the 2^nd Brigade & New Zealanders formed
the xxx line first line. The first line was
2^nd Brigade in the centre, N.Z's on the left
& French on our right. The fire was terrific
& our men lost heavily. They got to