Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family January 1915 - May 1915 - Part 8

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until in the attics. I believe you can obtain all   
you desire in these things for one piastre 2½d
Then remember that there are no liquor licenses
here that everyone or anyone can sell all kinds of
liquor without restriction. Also there are no inspections
& they can adulterate the drink anyway they
like & these nigs are so cunning. They have been
known to drill a tiny hole in the hollow in the
bottom of a whisky bottle of a good brand say.
"Buchanans"" fill the bottle with a mixture
of metholated spirits & other filth & sell it as
Buchanan whisky. Now our men never
expected things like this knowing how strict
we are in Australia & moreover they were
here at Xmas & New Year when naturally
they wanted to celebrate. Now I think of it
all I am amazed that everything one was
so well behaved. If the same conditions
prevailed in Melbourne peoples hair would 
stand on end at the result or these smug
people who stop at home & pretend to be horrified.
The men I have under me are taking them all
round the finest lot of fellows you could
raise anywhere in the world. I work them
very hard indeed. Marching & drilling or
digging trenches in the heat & dust
which rises round you like a choking fog
Choking FOG
 

7/
You must stand up for my boys. Katie. I am
sure you would be pleased with them if you saw
them Drilling. Col McCay is particularly
pleased with them & as a reward he has
practically promised that we shall be the first
who will have a fight if he can do anything
in the matter. Moreover I hear the General is
specially pleased with our Victorian Brigade.
Col McCay & has promised him first fight if
he can. So we should soon see some fighting.
By the way this reminds me that perhaps it would
be better to hand the Gonglies  Aigulettes back to Mr Dent &
ask him if he can keep these for me. 
Those £3 might be more useful to you than the
Gonglies Aigulettes if Brother Turk should happen to pot
me. But I'm going to take good care of myself
dearie so don't worry or fret you dear little
sweet heart. We (Major McNichol) & myself are
going out again this afternoon (Sunday) to see little
Marjory Milne. She reminds me of our wee
laddie with her funny little talk.
I was interrupted for an hour or more just
now. Arthur Olden one of the family at
Ballarat. He was a dentist in West
Australia. He is now a Lieutenant in  the
W.A. Light Horse. They have just
arrived here from home. You Tell the wee
 

Laddie he was quite right. Dida Daddy has never been
on a camel & doesn't intend to. The dear
wee boy chap knew real good well that Dida Daddy only rides a
gee gee. Tell them the wee pets the children I got their card & was very pleased
with it. Well there goes the Bugle for lunch
& I must leave you for the present. Good bye
for the present my dearest only love. All the
officers are quite well. We have a good many
men in hospital with Influenza but
nothing serious.
Monday morn. 15/3/15
Dearest love Here I am again
I hear there is a mail in so maybe
I will get another letter from you.
Always so far I have got one from
you my beautiful little sweetheart love.
& sometimes two or three. Well
little pet love we went out to
Milne's & saw wee Marjory. She has
got quite used to us now &
calls me "Uncle" & likes to be picked
up & cuddled. She is a dear wee
mite & made reminds me of my own wee
pets. We had a very nice
dinner & a nice talk with little
Mrs Milne & her hubby. Now bye darling
love millions of love & kisses from Dida Donny
 

P.P.S. Just received
a lovely long letter from
you so I opened up this
to thank you. It is dated
the 14th Feb & you had just
received the lovely Brooches
That was lovely
Thank you mistress for all your
love darling
P.S. Tell Mrs Clarkson
her nephew is quite
well. He is a L/Corpl
& is spoken very well
of by his officers &
will probably get on all
right
 

1
Mena Camp
18/3/15
My dearest wifelet
Your long & loving letter
dated the 14th November duly came to hand. It is lovely
getting your letters so quickly now & to know that all was
well with you only 4 weeks ago. I will ask Capt Finlayson
his wife's address. She is living somewhere at Malvern &
you can ask her out. With regard to the other Colonel
Elliott we never have any difficulty over our home
letters but the local people sometimes continue to confuse us.
You had ^evidently quite an at home day with Mrs Roberts
Mrs McLeod Minnie Buckey Cruickshank & the others all on one day.
I am astonished at the wee darling our laddie remembering me
so well after this long time & he such a wee mite. I am so
glad you liked the brooches dearie. It is lovely to give you any old
thing at all because your way of thanking me is so nice, my sweet
wife. You are a charming little person with your sweet winning ways.
I wish you were near me so I could take your face between my hands
& kiss those dear sweet lips that thank me so charmingly. Fancy
Fancy that little rubbish of a Khusach teasing the Laddie because I didn't
send him anything. I must get something for him this very
day, the dear wee pet. I am so interested in your tales about their
funny little ways & their talks together & their songs. I read your 
letters over & over again for fear I miss a word of them. I cannot
understand how you missed ^receiving General Birdwoods letter. I think
if I remember rightly I put it inside a newspaper
& posted it. Perhaps they do not allow newspapers
to go from here. I am delighted to hear you are paying
xxxx a book. That will be lovely won't it when that
 

2.
is quite paid off. If you manage to save another
£50 send it along to the Trustees Coy on the 1st June
or 1st December in each so as to reduce the interest. It
would be lovely to get some of that paid off & you are
just the darlingest infelit in all the world to help me as
you have been doing. I hope the tentworth turned up all right.
It had not come along when you wrote.
The parcel of envelopes you sent me must have gone
astray as it has not been delivered. I shall be very
interested to hear that Major Smith has left with a contingent.
I suppose your next letter will give me a full account of his
new baby boy: I am very glad to hear that Mrs Gribble is
so kind to you & that she likes our wee pets little ones. I am always
delighted to know that. I like everyone to love them. My own
darling - it is just your goodness shining out in them that
makes them loved.
We are still living in hopes of an early move but there is
as yet no definite news as to when we move on our ultimate
destination. We have been doing divisional training under
the Direct supervision of General Bridges our
own General & General Walker who is Chief of Staff
to General Birdwood. The 7^th Battalion I am glad
to say has earned nothing but commendation

throughout & without doubt as I told the boys
this morning when the real thing begins we
will be right up in the Stalls & we will need
all your prayers for the General has been promising
us all the the fighting we will want before we go home.
 

3
[*Mrs Finlayson's address is
"Woodbourne
Douglouft
Malvern*]
again. Of course I'm not a bit pleased with my boys.
But all the same I do cost them scandalous am still pretty strict with them when
I think they need it. Some of the men appeared to be terrified
to death when they come before me (for any offence). Of course I ^must always
pretend to be scotty angry with them & frown at them.
But in some cases you would smile to see a poor chaps
knees fairly knocking tgether together with fright,
& I am not really scotty angry at all. So you see I follow
your good advice. The only time I am annoyed is
if any of our men go down into another Regiments
lines & bring disgrace on us all by getting drunk
& raising a disturbance there.
Well dearest old lady, I will must stop for the time being
the mail does not go for several days yet so I
will not close this down yet but add more in
a day or so
Capt McKenna gave me this morning a photo a girl friend
of his took of me in Broadmeadows with little Dhumen
Veck. I am enclosing it herewith for her all with from Dida
Sunday ^21st Feb.
Well sweetest love here I am again. It has
been a drefful dreadfully hot day but is getting lovely &
cool now. That is one blessing the nights
here seem to be always cool or even cold
& although a number of the men have
caught pneumonia from this owing to getting
heated & sitting down in the cool air it is ^a very
pleasant change. I don't think there is much
PTO
 

4
news I can tell you dearie except that
a lot more Australians have landed amongst
them a number I know the 3^rd Contingent under
Colonel Hughes. Yesterday was our holiday &
I took the opportunity of visiting the Citadel
& some of the big Mahommedan Mosques
They were very interesting & the Interior
decorations were very fine indeed. One
old one has still some of Napoleons
Cannon Balls sticking in it when he
besieged & took Cairo about 110 years
ago. There is still no definite news of
men going & we don't know whatever
has become of the 3^rd Brigade though
we hear rumors that they have landed 
on the island of Lemnos just off the
Dardanelles. But noone has received a
letter from them & all their letters are
being kept here for the time being. I suppose
we will learn in good time. I bought
a couple of little ornaments & am sending
them herewith under a separate cover. One
is a little enamel casket & when you open
it you will find a wee laddie in it. This
is supposed to be "Moses in the Bulrushes". I
bought this for the dear laddie ^because he didn't get anything before but afterwards
I thought the little lady might be ^sad so I
[Go to back of P2]
 

5
bought her an Imen ^miniature immitation Mummy
case with the mummy inside. You know
of course that the ancient people here went
to the most wonderful pains to preserve their
dead. They entombed & preserved them & put them
in beautifully decorated cases & then put them
into huge stone coffins where were in many
cases elaborately carved. Well this
is a representation of one of these mummy cases
but you can tell Dhisack it is a nice
Dhisack Dolly in a bed. from Dida me. I would
not have my wee bairnies sad for a minute while
I am away the dear wee loving pets. Now dear
old sweetheart love what can I do or say to make
you happy also. I feel that when I come back
to you I must do everything to please you. Every
single thing that I do must be after finding out
what you think & if it will please you
& do it only if it is pleasing to you. Nothing
else can pay you back for all your love & tenderness
my own  darling girlie. to make our wee home very
nice darling just as sweet as yourself & you &
I will live together there always & there will be
no more soldiering or anything but love between
us my own sweet angel wife. I forgot to ask
Capt Finlayson (I forget if I told you he had
been promoted) his wife's address. I must
Go to Back of p 1
 

6
ask him in the morning before I close
this up. Ken is still looking splendid
Now there is nothing more to add
except that I love you & admire you more stop
every day & the more I think of you
the more perfect a little wife do you appear
to me & The more I am satisfied that no
other girl in all the world would have so
entirely satisfied me as my wife. My
dear little old pal whom I can tell everything
& anything - my true helpmate who has brought
out all the good that ever was in me. my
whole desire in this life is to serve you & please
you so that you may say always my dear
husband - my Donny - in your own little
sweet way that goes to my heart. It is very
sweet to imagine I hear your sweet voice calling
me your Donny love just like you used to do
Goodbye darling love & God bless & keep
you - my darling sweetest angel wife. A million
Kisses I send to you for your sweeet lips &
eyes & cheeks & just every part of you
the sweetest tenderest little wife in all the
world & love & Kisses for the two sweetest
little Bairnes in all the world from Dida
Donny