Letters from Harold Edward Elliott to his family January 1916 - June 1916 - Part 13

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I have a young fellow named Monrow
You may remember his brother, Hugh coming
to see me at Drummond Street. The brother
Andrew is with me & is doing very excellent 
work too. Darling old lady I am very lonely
for you. Tell me you love me about I million
wont you dearie. There is no news when we
will leave here dearest but think it will be
soon. I told you I think that when our
prisoners etc were inspected & the 15 Brigade
outfit was the best in the Division. I was
very pleased about it as it has been
very hard to get cleaning material
Now the mail is to close in a few
minutes so I will say goodbye once
more dear od sunshine lady. I am

eagerly looking forward to more snap

shots. They are just about keeping one

close. I look at them all every day

million love & kisses from Dida Don

DONATED RECORDS LIST
3297
3rd Series
  

Egypt
11 May 16
My dearest Wifelet
I am afraid Ive been neglecting
you for a few days but we have been very
busy as I have been given a lot more men
to look after - two whole Battalions &

some artillery [[?]] handed over to me
I have therefore about 7000 men to xxx oversee

off. of course it is only temporary & as
soon as we move off all their people
will go away back to their own xx Commanders
& I will have just my own Brigade but
it is all experience for Higher Command
which I may get some day "perhaps."
I heard that General McCoy has sent my
name on for Brigadier General the other 

day. He is a pretty hard man to satisfy
you know. I have had to work hard
& post tell people up off but I have got my own
Brigade pretty nearly as good as the old
7th used to be. My Brigade camp is just
a picture for neatness & cleanliness. I
had a lot of "shaping" before I got it
to suit me but they do it now without
telling. General McCoy was round
yesterday & he & General Godley & also
the Commander in Chief General
 

Murray were all round today & all
said they were very well pleased with
all the work we had done in fortifying
our position. I must however give
every ch credit to my Staff Officers
They are splendid boys& are a
wonderful help to keep things in order
They seem to think of everything
So I must be very grateful to those
that appointed them also appointed
my Battalion Commanders & they some of them are
beauties sure enough.
We have had a good deal of excitement
recently owing to rumours of an intended
Turkish advance but I have given up all
hope of that & our only chance of more
fighting will be down in France. I
believe we are to go wany now very
shortly.
This is not much of a letter Kit
because I havent had a dear long letter from
you to inspire me into writing, also
there is not much to tell. My arm is nearly
all right again. I have it out of the sling
now. It is quite a bit stiff & sore. My
ankle also is better. I had a note from
P.T.O
 

Mrs Milne acknowledging the show.
It is nearly time I was getting another
letter. We never hear when a mail is coming
in either so dont know when to expect
one.
P.S. General McCoy told me today he
had sent in my recommendation to General
Birdwood for me to be Brigadier General
a fortnight ago. Nothing has happened
since then so I dont know what is
to be the result. Million love & kisses to you
& the wee pets from Dida Don

DONATED RECORDS LIST
3297
3rd Series 

Egypt
13/5/16
My darling Kit
I posted a letter t you
this day but I am afraid it missed
the mail. We were not told it was
going until a few hours before it closed at
Ismailia & though I sent it off at once
I dont think it could possibly reach
you. There is every indication that we
shall shortly leave here without a chance
of going to Cairo again so I have written
to Mrs Milne & asked her to go to
the same shop that I went to last
year. I have told her to get a plan
Black & a plain white for you also
the same for Baaby & a Black one
for Lana & an embroidered white one
for you like you gave to Baaby last year
if they have anything of the kind this
year & a shawl for Dhurach & a
wee something for the dear wee little laddie
so he will know he is not forgotten.
the dear wee manikin. So you will know
that I love you all millions & millions. Ive
told Mrs Milne to put in the parcel to Nana
& the parcel to Baaby from Lt. J. D. Campbell
because I hear this year you are to pay
duty on everything over £10 in value.
 

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I have been in command of two whole Battalions in addition
to my Brigade with a Regiment of Light
Horse & three Batteries of Artillery & one of
Howitzers for the past fortnight & General
Murray who is Commander in Chief here
now rode round & inspected our
line a couple of days ago. When he
left he expressed his great pleasure to
General McCoy at the work we had done
and as a result the following order was
published
Para 310. "The Commander in Chief E.E.F. this
"morning inspected a portion of the front
"line held by this Devisers & was pleased
"to express his great satisfaction with
"the amount and character of the work
"done there, and with the way in which
"the troops th are performing their duties
"The G.O.C Division desires that all
"ranks should be aware of this appreciation
"and especially the 15th Brigade, which
"has recently been in occupation of the front
"line."
Also I told you in my last litter that
General McCoy told me this morning
that he had a fortnight ago recommended
to General Birdwood that I should be
appointed Brigadier General
 

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so dear old lady you have a fair chance
still of being Lady Elliott one of these days
if I have any luck at alI. I wonder would
my dear old lady be pleased with it. I dont
think I would care a bit. In fact Only for
others getting rewards & the fact that I got
nothing would tend to make people
believe I could not do my job I would
rather not take get any reward at all
for I feel that I have not done a bit more
that I should be expected to do. But when I find
others getting them & greedily reaching out for
more & not less & many of them men who had
not done they jot at all I must confess
I felt hurt. But nothing like as badly
as over the General unloading these old
fossils of C.O's upon me. However as
we have got the Brigade on so well I
am the more inclined to take credit to
myself that if I had the men I wanted. I
must say however that I am not satisfied
with the Brigade yet. They are not as
steady as I would like. Sir Ian Hamilton
would not say of them as he said of the 7th
Battalion at Mena. "They have learned
their lesson. They stand like rocks." Do you
remember. I was very proud of my boys
that day & from then felt confident they would
 

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face anything. Colonel Cars, as he is now,
was telling me how they faced the fire at
Krithia while I was away. It must
have been a great sight to see them
march over a bare cultivation paddock
with the green grass covered with
poppies & daisies - the boys marching as
steady as on parade with the little white
puffs of the shrapinel bursting above
& around them & the boys going straight
into it without a swerve or any
hurry. From all accounts it was the bravest
thing done by any body of men on the Peninsula
for there was not a vestige of cover & they
could see as at the landing they could
not- what was before them. It made
the name of the Australians also more than
any other battle ever the landing for the
British & French Armies were present & saw
it all & were unable to advance & keep
up with our boys under the same fire & it
was their failure to advance that caused our boys
advance to stop because the Turks were surrounding
them. I don't think these boy of mine are
quite equal to that yet but a very little
more would make them, if only I had a few
more officers like Bert Layh. I think I will accomplish
it in time though. They are all getting broken in
 

- 5 -

well dear old darling loving pet if you
don't get a letter for a good while after this
you will know we are on our travels again
& almost certainly we will go along & join up
with the old boys where they are. We hear
all sorts of wild stories about them being in
heavy fighting & losing a lot of men but I
dont believe it. It is always the same
When part of us get away from the others
we always get the same yarn about hundreds
of killed & wounded. But I know they
are actually in the trenches as part of the
British line in Flanders. My batman had
a letter from one of his pals there. The country
there he said is lovely but it is always
raining. When he wrote they were not actually
in the trenches but were in huts near by. They could
hear the guns going all the time. Since then I have
had a letter from Mrs Buckley, whose husband had
just returned from a visit to them. He said they
had just taken over some trenches & were quite
settled down & happy & were getting on splendidly
with the inhabitants who said they liked them
better than any other troop they had ever had them
being more courteous & kind to everybody than
any of the other troops. They took over the trenches
from one of the "Bantown Battalions" raised in
England & the people were very amused to see our
 

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big fellows towering up over those wee little
chaps. It must have been rather a joke. I had a
letter from Aunt Mary & another from Josie
All are well at Low Fell. I sent auntie
a photo of you & the bairnies one of the snap
shots & she was delighted with it. I had
such a lot that I could afford to part with some
but the one where you are holding up a lol lol
& the two are looking up at you & one of the latest
where the two wee pets are together in the garden
& a few other I am going to keep from everybody
just for my very own. I was xxx very pleased
to get others & am looking forward to getting
some more. I expect though the light will be
getting too low now for good snap shots. Do you
tell the wee pets I stay good & quiet so that
Dida will get a nice photo & be pleased with
it & do the wee rubbishes take any notice
that. Did I tell you that General Irving who
was very patronising towards me in Tel el Kebir
has got the sack from his - the 14th Brigade -
& has been given a job at Cairo. I am sorry for
him as he was not in my opinion given a fair
chance as he had in chance in his Battalion Commander
& unlike myself did not fight against taking
them & so did not put them on their mettle. Mine
were all scared to death I'd get they sacked
& so had to work their very hardest to