Letters from Harold Edward Elliott to his family January 1916 - June 1916 - Part 9

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you are satisfied with me dearie & love me millions
& millions. I love to think that you love me you dear
little sweet soul - that I myself & no other are your very
own man chosen out of all the world & that I have not
since we wedded disappointed you & that every year
you would still say "faure' to me again. You
would wouldn't you dear old Kate? - just all             [* Omit *]
the same in spite of all my funny old sorty
ways.  Little Sunshine lady knows & feels that I love
her the dear nice pet the little sweet mother of
my bairnies. Oh Katie are ^aren't you just dicklers glad
we had these dear little pets together they belong
so much to each of us & they love us both & are such
darlings themselves. Wont they tempt you to have some
more with me dearie love pet wife. I was interested
to hear of Henry Clarkson's approaching wedding
Mother in her last letter seemed to fear Rod was
going to wed Miss Hall soon & she said "Ill have
no sons then. They will all belong to someone
else." Poor old mum. I told her the wee ones
will like our place. It wasn't a bit of an
uninteresting letter you dear old rubbish so don't
you dare say it is again. I have that big
long old letter I wrote on the ship but it is
all out of date so you won't be interested
but I'll send it along some day. if only to
show that I thought of you every day         [* Omit *]
 

7
& talked to you & felt very loving to you all the
time. Tell me do you need to Know that
Sunshine Lady dear or will you believe it
without seeing the letter. Do you think I
cheated not sending it along ? As a matter  [* Omit *]
of fact also it got so big & fat that I
couldn't send ^fit it ^into an envelope at all also the censor on board
the ship might have wanted to read it &
that wouldn't do at all. Here they take my
word that there is nothing dangerous in the
letter & let it go forward. Young "Bob"
Johnston has got his Commission now
with the 59^th Battalion along with Charlie 
If you want to write to Charlie any more
his address will be 2^nd Lt C. Elliott
59^th Battalion 15^th Brigade, 5^th Division A.I.F.
I am very sorry to hear poor old ^Mr Trowbridge has
not been well. Give him my Kindest regards
His letter has not come along yet. I will be glad
to hear from him. I suppose he will be
Very lonely now. We march down to the Canal
the day after tomorrow Wednesday. It is about
57 miles & will be hot & dusty I think but
we have 3 days to do it in so we shall
be all right. I have a gee gee ^horse of course the
same old Black rogue. He is Very fat & full of
tricks & pranks. & Nearly has me off sometimes when
he shies at Camels & pieces of paper etc. Bye darling pet
Millions of love & Kisses for you & the pets & Nana & Baaby from Dida Don  
 

Egypt.
2/4/16
My darling Katie, 
I received by the last post
before we left Tel - el - Kebir a parcel from
you all with loving messages from my darlings Katie
Dear & Nana.  There was a sweater & a balaclava
& a little pocket with needles & thread & all
sorts of handy things upon it & a pair of socks
from my sunshine Lady darling. Thank you
dearie & everybody for your goodness &
loving Kindness. There was a toothbrush 
too. You  need not and me any more
socks or toothbrushes for quite a long
time. I have heaps of socks & three good
toothbrushes. You can sometimes send
me a tube of Euthymol paste if you like
It is hard to get & dear here. I dont need
any clothes of any Kind either darling
since I got my underwear that Mrs
Buckley so Kindly sent on from London.
We had to march to this place whose name
I must not tell you. It was very hot
108^o. & the men only had their water bottles
full with them. The first day I had an
awful lot of trouble. When the men felt 
tired they just stopped & wouldnt go on
i e. some of them did, the majority were all
right & you much should just have
 

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see & heard your Dida Don When I had
the 7^th I had to swear for 1. I found with
^some of the sackless blighters they have given me
for Battalion Commanders I had to
swear for 3. But I Kept them moving
on & we did our 15 miles of desert.
Some men fainted & other got knocked up &
blistered feet. so we sent about 100 out of
the 4000 or so ba back to the Railway & came on
without them. The next day we were much
improved. Men did not till they fell
quite exhausted fall out on the march
& only halted when commanded to do so
We did our 16 miles & at the end were
stepping out bravely. We only had about 30
who Knocked up that day. The next day
we finished our journey without losing
a man. Out of the 146 who fell out on
the whole journey & had to come on by train
only 4 were bad enough to be sent to
Hospital. The other were all well
enough to rejoin us here on arrival
The 14^th Brigade which is one of the
new Brigades also unger under General
Irving started two days before & had a
Very bad time indeed. I hear that
many of them nearly died & dozens of 
 

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Ambulance waggons had to be sent out for them
And General Irving got a scandalous sorting ^serious reprimand
up over it. He used to ^try to be very important at
Tel el Kebir & ^reprimand sort me up for things that
I reckon he had nothing to do with ^- happenings in my
Brigade. He ^considered as being Senior to me [[like ?]] he was a sort of Divisional General
until General M^cCay came back. We
are under the latter again now. Well
General M^cCay was delighted the with 
the way we ^the 15^th marched in & congratulated
me several times. Well that was all
right. We marched into camp with
only a water bottle full of water each
& we were promised a full supply by 6
o’clock at night but none came & we
warned General M^cCay & he Kept saying
the water was coming & it didn't come
& the men were getting very angry &
finally I got angry & said that if
the water could not be sent I would
march all my men back to where there
was water because they would mutiny
if Kept in the Desert like this without
water. & they told me to see the Engineers
who had charge of arrangements for water
& do what I could. I saw him about
11 oclock & he assured me the water 
 

would be out at 5.30 next morning.
I was up at 5. next morning &
when the water didn't come through at
5.30 I got on my horse & galloped up
to the Engineer in Chief Col Carey an
Englishman ^Canadian & talked to him quite some.
Now, I said, it is a question of you can't
or you won't. If you can't you are not
fit for your job if you won't then its a
matter for a firing party for you. He
protested it was not his fault that it
was the Canal Coy's fault who wouldn't
give him enough water. Well I said if
that is so we'll have a firing party for
the Canal Coy So I posted off to see
the man in charge & talked to him
quite Some & suggested if there was
any more failures of the Kind I would
cheerfully supply a firing party to
deal with him. He got quite
busy then & said that by the time
I got back to Camp the water would be
there for me. He was in his Pyjamas
All this time. He was friendly enough
but didn't say "good morning" when
I went away in reply to my "good morning" 
 

so I guessed he had it in for me & so I
was quite prepared when General M^cCay
sent for me to see him at 10 oclock
this morning to sort me again
Katie I’m having the fun of my life sorting
people & getting sorted but. The latter goes
off me like ^water off a Duck's Back because I
Know I am right but what does hurt
is my inability in spite of all I do to get 
rid of useless officers who are a danger
to the ones under them. This is cruel. If they
(the men call them the 'eads) believed in their men ^themselves I 
would not growl for I might ^conceivably be mistaken but
to know that they unofficially agree with all
I say officially - yet sort me officially for
saying it officially - it is worse than the
limit. It is what I heard one of our boys
call on the Peninsula the A.B.T.
When asked what he meant by that he
said Well its worse than the limit. its the
"abslute blanky terminus" only he didnt
say blanky.
Well Katie dear darling love we all hope
to be sent on in a few weeks to France to
meet the other boys again but there is nothing
definite yet. Millions of love & tishes for you
& the dear wee pets from Dida Don. 
 

Egypt
8^th April 1916
My dear loving sweetheart
I have your letter
dated the 5^th April March. It is lovely  
to get one so late. – It just arrived
today - & to Know that you & all my loves ^my dear ones
are well & happy. I had a letter from
Geordie too & one from Baaby with
wee Dhusachs letter in it. - the dear
wee mite. I am glad people like the ^our
wee laddie & poor old Mr Trowbridge
must have been pleased when he told
him he loved him big. He must be Very
lonely & sad. Do you Know if his
Malcolm's business went to our
office or to someone else. I had
a letter today from a Mrs Taylor
at Albert Park. Her brother was 
Corporal Wright. He was Killed in
Lone Pine throwing Bombs out of a
trench so as to protect the other men
One went off & blew his head off. I
have written telling her all about it
& said you would like to meet her
as you like to see all my boys
people. I enclose her letter dearie
so you can see she is nice. I am
 

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so glad you let me know about
the Silk you dear old pet love
I'll see you get some soon. I wish
I could reward you enough you
dear old sweet love for all your
goodness. I am still feeling a bit
sad at the idea of my boys going
into action with some of these new
Colonels. Particularly old Field. You
cannot believe that he could be
such an old fool as he is & so
conceited & with such swelled head
that you can teach him nothing
at all. It is cruel. Since you
want that old fat letter so much
I will send it along quite soon
It will be all old news now my sweetheart
love but it will show you my thoughts   [* Omit *]
were with you always every day.
Now I've not one teemy timy bit of
new to tell because I wrote a letter
to you just a couple of days ago.
We are expecting to get away to France
shortly. Millions of love & Kisses
to you & the dear wee pet loves from
Dida Don. 
 

14^th April 1916
Egypt.
My dearest Katie, love,
I had just closed up
your ^my last letter to you when I got the letter with
all the snap shots of the wee pets. There is one
that I am very much in love with i e the one
with Gaga & the laddie standing with their
backs to the Summer house. The laddie in
particular looks such a dear wee merry rogue that
I want to Kiss him every time I look at it. The
little lady is a bit stiff & her smile more or less
forced but she looks a dear little pet too. I look
at it about 10 times a day to cheer myself up
a bit & I need it too these days. General
Birdwood got home upon me for sorting up
him & his Staff in that letter I sent to General
White of which I sent you a copy. All
the other Brigadiers have been made Brigadier
General as from the 1^st March except me
& so they are all above me ^now although as
Colonel they were under me & here is the
joke of it all. At present I am the only
one of them that has proved he can command
a Brigade in the Field. I told you about
General Irving's Brigade last time well
the other Brigades are in the 4^th Division
under General Cox & I would say nothing