Letters from Harold Edward Elliott to his family January 1916 - June 1916 - Part 6

Tel el Kebir
25/2/16
My darling Katie,
I havent much news to
tell you this time, I am still in
Command of the 1^st Brigade and getting to
like them better every day Last Sunday
I was feeling very lonely and miserable
and wishing I was back with my own
old pals. At the Church Parade we had
two hymns which cheered me up a lot
One was "Fight the good fight with all
thy might." The other was "Lead Kindly
Light". You look them up in the Hymn
Book & sing them in remembrance of Dida ^me
& his ^my troubles - to the wee pets. One thing this
promotion has done for me. It has removed
me out of the Scope and reach of the petty
worries which since my illness I felt so
trying – viz men going off to Cairo & getting
drunk & playing up in various ways
& having to get sorted ^reprimanded. That is out of my
line now. I have four Battalion Commanders
who have to go through all that & I have a Brigade
Major & a Staff Captain & an Orderly Officer
& a Brigade Machine Gun Officers & others
who look after everything for me & they
are all good men & work splendidly 
 

-2-
They are all very nice boys too - except they
all are Englishmen. When General Smythe
was here he selected Englishmen somehow
This always more or less riles me because it
always hints at inferiority in Australians - That
they are not good enough for their jobs. But
still they are all nice boys & there is nothing
too great a trouble for them to do for you ^me
I am as a consequence feeling much
better in health than when I was with the
7^th . I am afraid that if I had to continue
as a Battalion Commander I should have
been run down completely very soon. I 
had bad headaches was very cross & worried
& ^almost always tired to death. Now I am
ever so much better already & with decent
luck ought to Keep going. I am doing
my best to get Jack fixed up as Transport 
Officer with Major Layh. - You know The poor old
7^th Battalion was cut into two pieces &
half the men & officers stayed the 7^th  under Major
Jackson while the other half under Major Layh
came up here & became the 59^th Battallion. All
the gaps were filled up with recruits
If he gets across he will be in the 59^th
Battalion  15^th Infantry Brigade under
Brigadier General Irving & in the 5^th 
 

Division. I hear General M^cCay is coming
out to Command this Division but you
may Know more of that than I do.
Anyhow my love you will Know I am
getting on all right in my new job & as I
get to Know my new Boys better I will like
it still more & I hope will do all
right at it. But you must all pray
harder for your Dida than ever dearie pet
for I have 4 000 lives instead of 1000 depending
on my Clearness of thought now dearie. I
saw Major ^Gordon Ross. He is getting one of the new
Field Ambulances so he will be Colonel
too. All your old pals are getting on Jackson
& Layh will both be Lieut Cols I hope & 
Denehy ^a Major. I was sorry I could not
take Bastin my Adjutant with me. as my
Staff Officer.  I would like to help him on
He would do splendidly as a permanent
soldier after the war, I am sure, & experience
as a Staff Officer would help him immensely
We had an inspection of our Transport
Section here today by General Cox an
Indian Officer who said he was delighted
with it & that he was sorry he was
losing ups. Of Course we are to go to
the place 
 

where the 2^nd Brigade are shortly whilst
all the new Brigade will stay here
under him for training. He is a
queer old chap but he know good
work & my boys had their harness & buckles 
done up like fire Brigades. It was
glorious. And the horses were as glossy & fat
as ever they could be.
The Battalions themselves are all working
very very hard but they have so many new
men in them that they are not yet anyway
near the old 7^th. I am afraid it will 
break my heart afresh when I meet them
again for they will have been filled up also
with Fresh men who don't Know me
from Adam & fresh officers too. Well l
must stop now I am afraid darling. God
bless & Keep you always & ever my own dear 
loving sweet wee wife.  The wee lady's birthday
is getting very near isnt it. She will be
quite a grown up lady when I see her. I wonder
if she will Know me. Perhaps as Geordie is
getting so like me - She will say like ^as she did
once before – "Two Georgies" – when she was a wee
tiny mite Only able to crawl about wasn't she
smart to see the resemblance & she so tiny – Will add
a little more perhaps wh before I close the letter 
 

Nothing more this
time darling pet millions
of love & Kisses to you my
dear sweet wife & to those 
wee darlings of ours from
Dida Don 
 

Dear wee laddie,
Dida must write a letter to his
laddiekins so the wee boy wont think ^his “Dida” has
forgotten him. Next time mum takes you
to See the Zoo you ask her to show you a
chameleon. It is a funny little lizard
" Dida" caught two of them the other day on
a bush. When Dida got them they were
green & when he got them home they had
changed their color & were brown. And
whenever you put them on anything colored
they try to get the Same color as that so
people cannot see them & catch them
They are poor harmless things & don't bite but
just stay quiet in your hand like a frog
Dida has got his in his tent on a string
They are not tied up at all but they cling on to
the String like a monkey on a stick & wont
let go & presently a fly comes & sits on the 
string just near him & the lizard makes
himself like a bit of old stick & never moves
The the fly runs along the string & when he
gets near the Chameleon pops out his long
tongue with some sticky stuff on it like 
fly paper & the old fly stick to it & is
gobbled up. They are quick as lightening
bobbing their tongues in & out. & never miss a
P.T.O.
 

a fly. And they have such funny eyes
The eyes dont move together like ours but
separately & they are able to look back over
their Shoulder with one eye & straight ahead
of them with the other Wouldn't that be
a handy thing to do. Goodbye dear wee laddie
Give dear mum a tish from Dida. You will
look after mum while I am away like the
good little man you are & cheer her up.
Wont you laddie.
Tish from Dida 
 

Egypt.
1^st March 1916
My dear wee Dhusach.
This is your birthday today & you
are growing up to be a great big girlie mummy tells
me. & I cannot come to see you & tell you that "Dida"
loves his gir dear pet just the Same whether she is
big or little. Dida wants you to be good & loving to dear
old mum always, because she is sad that Dida is so
for away & cannot give her a love & a Kiss. But
Dhusach & the wee laddie can cheer mummy up quite
good ^well by being good little people & helping mummy all you
can. The little boys & girls here are all funny little
black people & they have hardly any clothes & only ugly
dirty ones then & they don't have any nice shoes or gloves
like Ga Dhusach but they play about in the Sand at
the beach all day long & hold up their frocks
for the soldiers to throw little penny moneys
into & call out "Bachsheesh", "Backsheesh" to
the Soldiers - which means ^in their language "A gift”- 'a gift". & so the Soldiers
throw them pennies which pleases them very much but ^your dida
gets offended because all these ragged dirty little black boys &
girls keep following his men about & talking to them & worrying
them for "Bachsheesh" when they ought to be doing their
work . Dhusach & the laddie wouldn't be naughty
rude little things like that would they but would just say
"good morning soldiers" & go about their business. Tell
mum that Dida met Lt Sutherland a nice soldier boy that Dhusach
& the laddie saw in the train the other
day & spoke to. He is now with 7^th 
although he 
 

[* 2DRL|0513 *]

Miss V.I Elliott
21 Mitchell Street
Northcote
Victoria
Australia 

[* HE Elliot *] 
 

1/3/16
My dearest love,
I am afraid I have been
neglecting you these past few days but I
have been exceptionally busy Knocking
my new Boys into shape. It is nearly done
now & I am very happy with them. I have
received your letter dated the 24^th Jan written
just after you had been informed by M^r Roddick
of my cable. I have seen Jack just recently. I was
able to offer him a commission in the Machine
Gun Company here but his Brigadier - Gen
Gellibrand would not let Jack go as he
wanted his services himself & said he
was assured of a commission there shortly
It will be a beastly low down trick
if they dont give him a commission
now after all & just use that as an excuse.
– there is a lot of that being done at present
but if they do give him the commission except
of course that I could help him up higher
here it will be better that they should
give him a commission than ^for me
for although he thoroughly deserves it
yet there would be many who would
he ready to say it was done because he
was my brother-in-law and not of his
own merit. I am delighted to Know that
by asking for him I have directed the
General’s attention to him. It is often
this way when you seek out a good
man some one else wants him along.
I saw Bob. Smith the other day & told
him what I thought of him but he appealed
to me not to steal away his best men.
It is the way to get round me. If I find
the boys I have trained are appreciated