Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family January 1915 - May 1915 - Part 9

1
Mena Camp
25/3/14
My dearest wifelet
Your long loving letter  
dated the 21^st & 23^rd last month duly came to
hand & with it one from Baaby & one from
Capt J.G. MacDonald of Alexandria So I
was quite well supplied with letters for once
But of course I am looking forward already to
next Wednesday when I hope your next letter
will come & tell me how you liked the parcels
I was delighted to hear of the wee pets little ones. How they
are coming on. Fancy the little rubbishes able
to pretend they are Uncle Geordie & Lyn. Whatever
does Lyn say to it. There is very very
little news to tell you. I have not been in
town since I last wrote & I've got
£3 saved up for you & hope it wont run
away before I get a chance to send it along
I must be good & economical like my darling
We have no notion when we are leaving &
it looks as if the leaving was indefinitely
postponed. There is a rumor that the 3^rd
Brigade are back at Alexandria but
it may be only a yarn. The general
impression is that the change of
Government in Greece & the fact
that Greece has not declared war
 

-2
as expected has upset the plan for a
descent on Constantinople. We are all
heartily sick of the sand & dust of this
place & of getting up in the middle of the
night & digging trenches out in the desert
which we have been doing for the past fortnight
& the men are losing interest in their
training
27/3/14
Dearest sweet love of mine.  Here I am again
& I'm very sleepy & tired. We have been
up all night & it is pretty hot &
sweaty & I cant sleep good well in the
day time. So I must just write a few
words to my dear old love lady my little
sunshine girlie. We have still no news
of going away by but General Sir Ian
Hamilton has arrived as I hear to take
charge of us all. If this is true
maybe we will get a move on soon
Your note paper and envelopes came along
you dear little old loving soul
thank you very much for them
I am glad you liked the photos. I
hope to send you a few more shortly
This is a funny old place. The other
day some of the boys went into a furniture
shop in Cairo & the man showed them a
novelty he said - It was a "micky" & when you
 

picked it up by the handle. it played a
tune. Did you ever hear of such a thing. He
told them he had sold one to an Australian
who had it shipp posted off home as
a present. How would you like one.
Sunday
Well here I am again. Today has been
the dreffulest most dreadful dusty day that ^ I have ever I
saw. seen I could not write a word all day &
you could not see across the road
There is no news at all dearie so Ill make
love to you. Here is a little poem I came across
written by a soldier now long ago to his lady love
"Though I wander far-off ways,
Dearest, never doubt thou me :
Mine is not the love that strays,
Though I wander far off ways :
"Faithfully for all my days
I have vowed myself to thee :
Though I wander far off-ways
Dearest, never doubt though thou me
Long ago to thee I gave
Body, soul, and all I have -
Nothing in the world I keep :

"All that in return I crave
Is that thou accept the slave
Long ago to thee I gave
Body soul, & all I have :
"Had I more to share or save
I would give as give the brave,
Stooping not to part the heap ;
Long ago to the I gave
Body soul & all I have -
Nothing in the world I keep.
Little old lady he knew how to love good didn't he.
These boys of mine are always snapping me
in all sorts of attitudes. I wasn't really
surly angry in that one. It was a very windy dusty
days & I was striding along leading my horse
at the head of the regiment & one of the men snapped
me. They were delighted with it. What do
you think of it.
My precious sweet darling love goodbye now. Give a
tish & a big hug cuddle to my two little loving pet
bairnies & tell them Dida loves them t & thinks about
them all the day & wants to give them loves & heaps
of tishes. And tell the wee laddie Dida wants him
to look after his little mum for Dida. God bless
& keep you all. This won't much of a letter
darling but we have been up all night for three nights
this week & one can get no proper rest during the day

PTO
 

with all the dust & heat & flies. So
you will forgive me not writing you
such a big fat long  long letter as you deserve
I am ashamed of it after the long ones you
have been sending me every mail but
But I love you just the same as ever
Kit darling &
"Faithfully for all my days
I have vowed myself to thee"
Good bye once more darling & God bless & keep
you all safe for Dida Donny
 

Mena Camp
Easter Sunday

Dearest Kit,
Just a wee short letter in a great
hurry. We have just heard that we
have to get ready to leave at once &
embark at Alexandria. Where we
go after that I cannot say but
the balance of opinion here is that
it is to the Dardanelles. So we
ought to see some fighting soon
But I have said this so often of late
that you wont be believing me at
all. In any case however you
will probably not get any news
from me for some time. There is
not much of importance to tell you
since I last wrote except that General
Sir Ian Hamilton come & inspected
us all. He said to me "You have a
very fine regiment. I congratulate you
they have learnt their lesson they
stand like Rocks & again as he was
going away he said "They are wonderful wonderfully
steady!! I just got news that we  were going
away about 10 minutes ago & then
the mail orderly came & told me that
they were closing the mail in a few
minutes so I thought I would just
scratch a few lines. Well darling
 

2

old pet God Bless & Keep you & the
wee Bairnies. Tell Baaby I got her
letter & to be sure she saves up those
pogues for the links for me & not go giving
them to Shauries or John Gilfin or

some old Pluskin or oters.
Goodbye now. my old darling wifie wife
Pray good hard for Dida Daddy He have to do his
duty & that he may come back safely to
his very own darlings
Million loves & kisses from
Dida Donny
 

SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL
CAIRO
4/4/14
Dearest Kit,
Well we are on our
wanderings once more. We
have seen the last of Mena
Camp thank heaven for that
Before down we will have
seen the last of Cairo & three
times thank Heaven for
that though lots of good
people have tried to make
things pleasant for us.
I saw poor old Col. Seminem
before I left Camp. He has
been invalided home. He actually broke down
 

and cried poor old chap. It almost broke his
heart to leave his boys just when they are
going into real farmers. It is very hard.
He will ring you up he said when
he gets home. I am enclosing
two little pieces of Egyptian moneys for the Bairnies
One is a piastre "Egyptian money"
in which all reckoning here is done
Our men call them "Disasters"
since they sneak away from
you so quickly. The other is
a Ceylon 10 cents. There will
be one each for the wee pets.
with a kiss from their old Dida Daddy.
I expect you will be having an
anxious time now my darling
for rumors of our move will no
doubt have reached you but God
will strengthen you should your
own strength fail. Remember always
should anything happen to me that
it was necessary that some should
 

be taken & ol only God knows who could be best spared
& hard though it may be you must tell the wee laddie that he
must be ready like Dida if Daddy if the Japs or some other Sperrites
enemy come against Australia in the future.
Well now darling pet goodbye once more & God
bless & keep you. I will write whenever I
can & when I cannot you will be ever in my
thoughts. Millios of love & kisses to the wee ones
& yourself. from Dida Donny.
P.S. Did I tell you the paper & envelopes came to hand a
week or so late. Also thanks for the lovely strong
thread. Ill be able to tie up a Turk with it I think
Major McNicoll is now Colonel in Col Seminems
place & Majo Blizard takes McNicolls place with
me & Capt Mason becomes Major & Lieut Layh is
now Captain which will be nice for little Mrs Layh as the
pay will be 7/6 a day higher for her man
Dida Donny