Letters from Harold Edward Elliott to his family January 1916 - June 1916 - Part 2

(5)
offended with her scandalous you very much. You have
not referred to it & I had thought that I
may have spoken too harshly. If I did
dear old lady please forgive me good. I suppose
that xxxx they do worry you. You mention in
your last letter almost going out to Geordie
Lyn's place but you don't say where it is
Do you know whether Mother helped them or not.
I am glad you are strong. I hope that last
little misplacement you speak of in one of
the letters has quite gone. I had a letter from
Violet written after she heard I was ill in
England. She says she is 13 stones. What
a size she must be. She then spoke of
going to town to see about her teeth, but
from your letter I judge she has not been
down yet. Can you afford to get a rocking
horse for the wee laddie for his next birthday
do you think or do you think a nice big one

would be too expensive. It depends whether
you expect having any more Bairnies. You
know your Witch lady xxxxx you
xxxxx & was it three or four Bairnies
Well this separation must be your
widowhood & when I get back to you that
will be your second wedding wont it
dearie pet. Little Johnny Avery was
 

(6)
in just now. He is away from Heloman
& is now attached to the 5^th Brigade of
Artillery the new people Brigade who have
just come over here. They are with
the 2^nd Australian Division.
We had a big review yesterday. General
Murray who has come out to take
over the Command from General
Munro inspected us. It was not
anything like so careful & minute
an inspection as that of General
Sir Ian Hamilton that xxx day at
Mena before we went to the Peninsula.
However he said he was very pleased
& that he would be delighted to see
us get the Germans but in the Open
He reckoned we'd go through them
like as if they were nothing.
I xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xx Except Violet's letter I have had
no letter from xxx Tocumwal for a very long time
before this the only letter I got was when
Mother heard I was wounded. She wrote
then but not since.  The 31^st Oct letter
was the one I got telling me about Geordie's
wedding so that didn't come by the last
mail but by the one before. The others came
 

7
by this one though. Jack is looking the
picture of health. He has got quite brown
again with the sun since he has been here.
Everyone is getting fat & strong again
here in Egypt. The men who as the
"cockies" would say got g "dog poor" in
Gallipoli are "swelling visibly before
our very eyes" as Sam Wellier says
somewhere in Pickinick
Major Layh, Major Jackson o Capt Denehy
& Capt Murphy of the old men are all
with me. All of course were wounded
but are now quite all right. Jack
West g Geordie's friend the 'Varsity footballer
is at Cairo. He is not yet fit for
service owing to the wound to his head
but can drill recruits if he keeps
out of the sun & doesn't get excited.
I have my leg still strapped up
with sticking plaster & bandages but
it still hurts me a good deal if I stumble
or stub my toe on anything but I
can ^however get about quite comfortably. I
cannot run yet though. Well dearie
old love this is just about all. What
did you give Lyn & Geordie as a present
xxxxx Oh and you never told me
 

(8)
did you what was the description of the
piece of silk you gave Baaby so I could
replace it & here we are back in
Egypt & I don't know what it was. So
just tell me in my your next letter will
you deari xxxx please because I want ^to know what to buy
you for your Birthday this year. Well I
have almost a million letters to answer
including one short ones from Baaby & Nana.
So I must stop now except that the middle
you close up to me & kiss your xxxx
you I was delighted you said xxx'
to me at Xmas in your letter. Have 
good sweet little loving wifie I am
doing my best to be worthy of you &
your sweet love. God bless & keep
you & the dear wee ones safe till my
return. My heart is always with you
Tell the wee darlings that Dida was
just delighted with the snap shots
They are lovely.
Millions of kisses & heaps of love to
you all from Dida & Donny
 

Tel el Kebir
24^th Jan 1916
My dearest Katie,
I am enclosing a sample
of our Battalion colors which I took
off the old overcoat I took from Victoria
& landed in at Gallipoli on the 25^th 
April. I got a new set for my new
coat. We had a competition between
the machine gun men of the 7^th Battn
and those of the 22^nd Jack's men
and my boys licked them hollow
I got a plum pudding from Mrs
Lloyd Edwards which however had
been so long in Transit that it had
gone mouldy. But I got another
parcel from her with socks a
nice muffler, mittens hanky xxx tooth
paste & soap. She must have sent
them before the news that we were
back in Gallipoli got out & so
thought we would be suffering from cold.
It is ^in fact very cold at night here but it ^is bright
& warm in the daytime. Yesterday I
posted to you a brass xxx box with
a pencil in it which was Queen
Mary's gift to the troops in place
 

P. P.S. The 5^th & 6^th Battns went away
last night & we are awaiting orders & follow
on.
of the chocolate ^we got last year. Just
give the pencil to xxx xxx our little lady for
her birthday on the 2^nd of March from
dear Dida me & give the box to the wee laddie
boy with heaps of love from his Daddy just
so he won't feel lonely. You will find
the Queens monogram on each of
them. I love you big xxx million
dear darling old xxx - I'd like to press
my cheek against yours this very moment & kiss
you a long xxx & put my arms & legs round you
nearly cuddle you all to bits! My dear old
girl. Won't it be lovely when we know I
can come home to you & the little darlings. I
wonder who will be the most excited
Daddy or Mum or the wee pets. I wonder what
wee laddie & xxx Dhurack will say to me. It is just
lovely to think about meeting you all again

you dear loving sweet ones. I am very
fortunate I think to have such darling
pets waiting & watching for me. It
is very sweet to be told that you love me
dear old girlie. I have been very happy
with you darling just think of every [[?]]
you again fills my heart, full of joy. It makes me feel
warm & happy all over. Though it is cold today, we have
just had a sharp shower & the wind is keen but it will
soon be bright again. Bye darling love Millions of kisses from
Didda Don.

 

Tel el Kebir
Egypt
27^th Jan 1916
My dearest Katie,
I have just received your
letters dated the 4^th Oct. the 5^th Oct which you
addressed to the War Office & one of the 11^th Nov.
by some Special Mail which you mention.
It clears up a lot that I was wondering
about viz. Whether the Box of old Shells etc
which I sent ever got to you. I sent one
more later on with some hand grenades in
it but the boy never got to Alexander I
think but went off to England so I
suppose he never sent them at all
I saw Jack last night. He was just
off with his Regiment. He is looking A1,
& growing his moustache again. Tell
Geordie if he meets a lad named
Shadbolt one of my boys, (He was sent
home some time ago badly broken
leg to say "halloa" to him for me. This
boy did splendid work up with Ken
Walker at Hellespont & I had marked 
him out for promotion. In the Lone
Pine fight I gave him four or five
reinforcement boys. He xxx did great
work. However at the end a regular
shower of bombs came over & these
[*P.S. If you have another of my
photos spare send on to Miss
McCallum Digwell Place Welwyn Herts
England*]
 

new boys lost their heads & ran away
& left Shadbolt at the end of the trench
to meet the Turks alone. An officer
named Young saw them & made sent
them go back ^to their post —Meantime Shadbolt
had killed 4 Turks himself but
was all broken up with a bomb. Young
himself & the other men were all
wounded afterwards & I never heard
the story until I got it from one of
the wounded men the other day
So I didn't send his name in.
I will try to do something now but
I am afraid it will be too late
This is how it is often—the bravest
things are not seen or reported
because all taking part in it are
killed or wounded & the time goes
by for sending in the report. I am
delighted to hear that the wee pets
remember playing games with "Dida" &
the date - the dear wee mites. I would
love to be back with them. I would love
too to have heard the wee laddie tell you you
had him to console you when I I can took
the paper away. Bless you millions x
 

millions for giving me two most
wee sweet pets. And now I know that
you didn't ever tell me the kind of silk
you gave Baaby. Aren't you a disheartened
little rubbish. You just tell me in the
next letter or I'll be scandalously very offended
beCause your birthday will be coming & I
won't know what to send you. I am
glad you were able to tell the Walkers about
Ken. I have never written. I saw
Jimmy Johnston's brother. He has been
in hospital but is better again. He is
a Sergeant. I wonder did you get my
last letter from Gallipoli. I hear they
burned a lot of our last letters as they
found they could not carry them all
Tell the wee pets I love them good
all the time. I will be delighted when I
get this letter from ^our Wee Saga girlie. I was so
interested to hear she is learning to
write. I seem to have missed some
letters yet as in several letters you
speak of intending to go to Mrs Roberts
& to the Beach but I have not yet got
the letters where you first tell me of
your intention of going to either. I know
of course you ultimately didn't go to Mrs
 

Roberts but went to Berwick instead.
but didn't get where you told me of the
irritation. Mr Richardsons brother
came over with the last lot of reinforcements
& is now with us. I am going to make him
& Charlie Non Coms soon & perhaps
officers later on. I am glad you are
getting to know Mrs Black Mrs H Dial & the ladies
of my officers. Have you seen Mrs
Layh. Geoff McCrae is in hospital
with what we think is Para Typhoid
a modified form of Enteric. xx The
innoculation does not quite prevent
the disease but modifies its form so that
it is rarely fatal. He will probably be
sent home to Australia. Tell Mr McCrae
I have his letter & will reply when I
can manage it. Also that Geoff again
did excellent work during the last
week or so that we were on the Peninsula
Located several enemies Guns & trenches
I forwarded his name to the General xxx
as deserving mention in Despatches
but don't know if he will send it on
They have to send in only a limited
number of names & they have to pick
out the best. It is wonderful though