Letters from Harold Edward Elliott to his family January 1916 - June 1916 - Part 16

-5-
better & quite as young looking as when I landed
in Egypt. Just exactly as I was before they say. so
you can just think of that dearie & not worry about
my sad looks in that old photo. The only difference I myself
can detect is that my hair is much greyer than
when I left you but otherwise I think I look just
the same. I'm getting a wee shade too fat I think but
that will correct itself when we get into the trenches
once more. Dont you worry about sending anything to me
dearest. We get all & more than we need & the men
waste a lot even then as they buy fruit etc for themselves
Frank Fircher is mistaken about his brother. Lone
Pine was on the right centre of our position at
Anzac. It was taken by the 1^st Brigade under General
Smyth V.C. & held by the Victorians mostly under
your old man myself. There were no N. Zealanders in that
show at all. But the same night that Lone Pine
was taken the N. Zealanders advanced on the
extreme left of our position. Stormed Destroyer Hill
Bauchopes Hill Little Table Top - which was a
curious hill with the top bulging over the under like
a mushrom - One would think it was impossible but
somehow they found cracks & crevices up the rocks &
got there & bayoneted all the Turks on it without
firing a shot. Then joining up with the 4^th Brigade
they stormed Rhodadendron Ridge & Chanuk

Bair - the crest of the ridge - from which they could
look into the Dardanelles & we all thought
we had won when we heard it. They held
this ridge all next day without food or water.
Then the next night some of the British Troops
who had landed at Suvla Bay - the Connaught
Ranger & Wiltshire Regiments. They were
two or three times as numerous as the New
Zealanders whom they relieved yet next
morning when the Turks attacked again they
ran away. The Turks came on in dense
masses but if N.Z or Australian were there we
would have held them but their inexperienced
English & Irish boys cleaned out & left the Trenches
& we never got them back again but our artillery
War Ships & Machine guns took a fearful toll
of the Turks dense masses. The Hillsides were paved
with their dead for weeks after. So you can tell
Frank it was on this brave fighting up the
slopes of Chanuk Bair or on the Storming of
Table Top or Bauchopes Hill that his brother died
but the N.Z's musn't claim Lone Pine as well.
That was our very own & there fell as I've told
you 344 men & 12 officers of this poor old 7^th out
of a total of 511 & 16 officers leaving us [[?]]
167 men & 4 officers surrounded & this was to hold it
only. To take it some 1500 new South Welshmen
died It is said the Turks lost 3000 men in lining it & trying to

regain it but that the truth we shall in all probability
never know. Baaby told me in her letter about the wee rogue
of a laddie talking to ^one my soldier man in the train &
startling you my old lady. Well darling pet That I think
deals with all your letter. Lacking the inspiration
of your dear old letters I am afraid you will find
my last one or two rather dull but there is lots of
news in this for you. I sent in a wee letter I posted
yesterday a few seeds off a tree which grows in Ismailia.
One Street has an avenue of them & in the hottest day
you can ride along under them without a speck of
sun reaching you. The trees are like big umbrella's
on each side of the road & form a perfect archway of
soft feather plumes like wattle leaves but softer &
more graceful. The bark is also very like wattle bark
but the flowers are large bell shaped things like
rhododendron something & ^at present the streets & gardens are
simply a blaze of scarlet with them & at
night the air is scented everywhere with their
perfume. McGlen Mrs Milnes sister brother is coming to see
me tonight & I will try to get the name from him.
Probably the seeds would have to be steeped in hot water
like wattle seeds before planting. You might give
some of them to the botanical Gardens man Director if you liked
I never saw the tree before & it would be a great
attraction I'm sure, & perhaps you could not get them
to grow yourself. The In the Park here there is one growing
up to about 40 feet high but most in the Street are 

not over thirty. There is of course no rain here
& they are watered ^entirely by irrigation. The climate is
hot & dry. The seeds are borne in huge long
pots from 6 inches to 2 ft 6 inches long like
huge beans & they seem to hang on for a long
time. for example last years pods are still
hanging on the trees. Although they are in
flower again now. Well darling lovey sweet
pet - General McCay has just been along. He went
with me & inspected our Harness. You
know we have a lot of Horses & carts in connection
with the Brigade. He was very pleased &
was of opinion that the turn out of the 15^th Brigade
was the best in the Division. So you see I am still
trying to be worthy of ^you my dear lady love & my boys are all
helping you me. What do you think of this for Germans tricks.
We get a lot of Bully beef from America in tins. In one
firms tins we found a lot of spikes with pa barbed points
like fishhooks put in the meat - I suppose by some German
working for the firm in the hope that some unfortunate would
get it stuck in his tongue. So far however no one has
been hurt. It was a clumsy idea but it just shows
you what they would do. Its just as well it wasn't
poison. General McCay is very sad. ^He Says owing to some
trouble about shipping we are going to be delayed again,
So perhaps after all you may get another letter from here
from me. Old Bert Layh will be having a fine flirtation with the
girls in xxxxxxxx if this is so. He went away yesterday. Millions of
love & kisses from Dida Don for everybody

Egypt
14/6/16
My darling Katie,
Goodness knows when this will
reach you since all letters are forbidden for the time
being until we are out of Egypt. I managed to
get leave to run up to Cairo on Monday to
get admitted to full membership with the Masons
I enclose the Programe. Give my kind regards
to "Brother" Lang, when you next see him.
I've been writing a While there I called round
to see wee Marjory ^Milne but she was asleep & we did
not disturb her & I could not wait. After
the meeting Mr & Mrs Milne came to say
goodbye to me at the hotel & they told me
Marjory was scandalous very offended because
her mum didn't wake her to see me &
cried. They had another Visitor & Marjory
told her her mummy was naughty because she
wanted to hear about my little boy & girl & mummy
wouldnt wake her. She was quite Sickening
about it. Isn't she a funny little rabbit thing. th
Mrs Milne had just got the little "Essendon
Rifles" Badge. It was quite a surprise to
her & she seemed very pleased to have
it. On Monday morning I went out to
Maadi to see the Crawfords again.

-2-
Little Ian has quite recovered from his attack
of fever that he had a Xmas. Typhoid &
looks splendid. Ailsa looked much thinner
They have a play horse like our wee ones
with a [[Bead?]] in it too & were having
great fun. They don't have school in the
summer months in Egypt so they have a
holiday all day long. Do you remember
anyone named Ronald Dickson from Warnambool
His people have ^had a big store down there for years
but he himself has been in London ^for some time
of recent years for experience in Buying. He seems
a very decent boy. He is an officer with me &
is doing very good work indeed. He would
be almost 27 years old. He is rather short & stout
but is a very good runner & it is a great
joke with his Regiment the 60^th to get
officers of other regiments who kid them xxxxx they can run
a bit on their running to match themselves
with Dickson who always manages to win just
by a very little so as to encourage them to put some
one else up. You wouldn't think he could run
a bit to look at him & here of course the joke
is taking the others down. He is a jolly little
chap & very popular. I met another boy here
who knows you a Lt McLeod from Kew. He is
with General Tivey's 8^th Brigade. He said

-3-
he saw you at a Gaelic meeting - you &
Dhusach. He is an old Ballarat College
Boy & Knows Geordie quite Well being
there ^at the same time with him. His mother Mrs McLeod
was also at Ballarat College in the old days when
it was a mixed Boys & Girls School. They are
not related he tells me to you or the
other McLeods at Kew or ArchVale. I don't
think I ever heard you mention these people
to me. He tells me Mrs Norris is now in London
Is that so? I never got to see her while she was
in Egypt. We had a combined Sports Meeting
this morning & what do you think - My boys
won the championship. The Tug of War &
the officers Relay race were the most exciting
events & we won both after great contests with
Tivey's Brigade who were quite sore about it.
particularly because Major Duigan who recently
transferred over to us from them ran in the
officers race for us. I was greatly disappointed
that we did not do better in the Best Turned
out Limbered Waggon & Pack Horse. In the
latter we got only third being beaten by two
other competitors - the Artillery won & I think the
Signallers 2nd. But neither the 8^th Infantry nor
the 14^th Infantry could get a place at all. In
the Limbered Waggon Competition ours looked beautiful

and I was
sure it would get well up but we
could get no better than 4th. being beaten by the
8^th Field Ambulance, the Artillery & the Signal Section.
But the judge said they were all Splendid
the 14^th Inf. Brigade came next after us. & the
8^th Inf. Brigade never got into the final round at
all. but were put out in the 1st round ^held on a previous day. & did not
come into the Show rig ring at all. So that you
see so far as the Infantry pure & simple were
concerned my boys jx kept their ends up
very well in deed. I am as you may guess very
well pleased about it. My boys also won
the High Jump & the half mile but were
badly beaten in the Jumping competition for
horses, in the Obstacle race in the 100 yds & 220
yds championships ^and also in the relay race on foot for NCO.'s & men & relay race for Bicycles" but fortunately no one other
Brigade won all of these. but ^The artillery won xxx one
& 8th Brigade another & so on so that we ultimately
finished 4½ points to the good & got quite a nice
lot of prize money for the Boys. We are not to get
any more letters here as our Army Post office has
closed down & is packing up its trays. Is'nt that
sad dearie. So the sooner we get a move again is
the better don't you think.

(1)
On Board Ship
Wed 21st June
My darling Katie,
I feel as if
I had been neglecting you scandalous
It is a whole week today since I started a
letter to you at Ismailia in Egypt which
I could not post owing to all the P.O's
being closed to us for fear we should give
away our movement. Well on Friday we

got away in the Main about 5.30 & got
to Alexandria once more at about 1 am &
bundled aboard this old Tub - I cannot
tell you her name because of the Censorship
regulations. I have of course a cabin to
myself which however is very different
from the magnificence aboard the Olympic
but we would not complain of that but
she just crawls along at 10 knots an hour
for my that. We will be a whole week
getting to our destination so far as she
can take us that is. We got in at 1 am;
the next day we loaded all our horses
& gear aboard & at 6 pm pulled out into
the Harbor. As however no escort was
available for us that day we had
to remain in harbor until 6 pm the
next night Sunday then away we

(2)
sailed. Next day Sunday there was
nothing to see but blue seas & our
little destroyer escort playing round
us. It was very hot & close anywhere
under cover particularly for the men
on the Troop deck which is beneath the
horses but in the Breeze it is beautiful
Next morning Tuesday we were passing
land & as usual everyone had his glasses
picking out the little villages & etc. It seemed
a barren rocky land without any shady trees
to give it relief yet by the Books it is appear a
fertile & populous land. There was quite
a considerable anxiety this day as
it was thought that here if at all
we would be liable to submarine attack
but & we were joined by several
other destroyers. & Towards evening as
we neared the coast of Greece we
were joined by three mine sweepers
who kept by our side between the land
& ourselves. The weather ^remained much the same
However nothing happened & today we
are out in the open seas again, no
sign of land & our escorts have left
us. So I suppose we are fairly safe
for the time being. Tomorrow we pass