Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, July - October 1916 - Part 1

France   3/7/16
My dearest Katie,
Here we have been a week in
France & no chance to send a letter yet
We have to have a new censor here &
it is to be much more strict than in

Egypt & he is not appointed yet. On

arrival in France I got two letters from

you which you had addressed to the

1^st Inf. Brigade & of course they came on

here. Tell the laddie that I got his message about

shooting with his little Turkish rifle & tell him

he is a good boy to do that & learn to protect

mum & Dear & nana & Dhurach from the horrid

old Germans. We are billetted in a lovely

little village some distance behind the

firing line though near enough to hear

the guns. There was a terrific bombardment

about dusk last night. At times it

seemed to make the house tremble.

I have a lovely big room in a Doctor's

house. It There is a big double bed. I expect

it was their best bed room. The Dr is away

at the war & his son also. The latter is

fighting at that dreadful place Verdun

The good lady madam is the dearest

old soul you xx could wish. There is

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a Miss ∧also- their name is Brunet. who
is about 20 years old. She is such a qui^ete    
little mouse quite different from your
idea of the French girls might be - I must
say she is different to many others I see
about who are quite as ready as any
I ever saw to chase the boys but she is
Very shy. I think she must be very
fond of her brother & father because she
seems so sad looking at times. Perhaps
with this Verdun Battle going on & always
hearing the sound of the guns she cannot get
the idea out of her mind that any moment
they may be dashed to pieces. I like her all the
better for being that way. Perhaps she has a young
man away at the war too. I asked her one
day & she said you she hadn't but the
only French word I know for sweetheart
mean an engaged sweetheart one who has become
betrothed as they call it & formally engaged
given the ring & so on but she may
have a best boy all the some mayn't
she. Her own brother & father are very good
They write nearly every day & that is a great
blessing to them. There is another daughter
a girl about 13 or 14 who will be very very 

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pretty when the grows up. She is very
very fair with wavy hair blue eyes & very
clear pink skin. Next door there is a
wee tiny dot of a girlie about 2 years
old & she also is such a dear little wax
doll of a girlie with fair ^wavy hair & big blue eyes
I saw her this morning in a church.
procession & she was ^very nicely tog togged dressed

up in white with ribbons in her hair & afterwards
her mummy brought her in to our place &
when I gave her a franc the sat on my knee
when her mother told her she gave me a kiss.
& said "Merce Monsieur" which means "Thank you
Sir." a such a dear little baby voice like a little
grey bird. I wish I could ^have shown her to you
She was like & little girlie in a picture ive seen
somewhere. The weather at present is perfect
& the country ^around is something glorious. so
wonderfully fertile & the people are very kind
& nice. I think some of the English soldiers
who came here were not ^very nice. I think they
seemed to think all French Girls & women were
Brummies. At any rate when we were
placing the men in the different houses I
was always very careful to tell then that
if the men ever annoyed them in the 

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least to come & tell me at once & I would
punish them very severely & one lady
nearly cried & said thank you very, very
much indeed. She is the wife of the Schoolmaster
in the Village & has rather a nice house. Her
husband is away at the war & she seemed sad
to have to take the men into her house & quite
brightened up after I spoke to her. It is wonderful
how some of the girls have learned to speak English
mostly those who are fond of the soldiers.
& walk with them or are serving in the shops
They speak splendidly - but our the little lady
here knows hardly a word of English. I have
tried to persuade her to try but she seems
too shy or something. & I don't like to seem to
worry her by asking her again. I have persuaded
her mother to try good & we can get along quite
good well. I with my broken French & she with

her broken English. You would die ^laughing to hear
us but we can manage to get hold of
nearly every word of each others meaning
but sometimes we get stuck & we have
to get out the family dictionary to find
out what the other is talking about
There is another rather pretty girl here
Her father is Mayor of the Village & they have 

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have a beautiful house. She has a wonderful
collection of trophies Shells swords German
officers helmets etc sent to her by officers
who were quartered here from time to time
& then went on to the front. I think she

is must be a bit of a flirt myself. She writes every
week to a Capt Holmes a new South Wales
Officer a nephew of General Holmes who was
here awhile back but is now in the Trenches
She has a nice complexion without much
color but is pretty fat. She has however
Very pretty teeth & a rather nice smile
which she knows how to use shor so as
to show her pretty teeth. I showed her my
photos & she says she will take one of me
to send to you & she is going to ask a
friend of theirs an English woman who
has married a Frenchman and lives nearby
to come & have lunch at their place
with me. - Most important person me
now Katie - Le General de Brigade - they
call me or their French. My account
would not be complete if I forgot to tell
you of Madame the lady who keeps this
Village Estaminet or Pub. Katie you'd die
^with laughing if you heard her. She must have been 

Very pretty in her youth & is still very
nice looking - the sort of woman Mrs
Malcolm might als be ^when about 40 years
old. Wonderfully energetic & strong
Worker & talks ^all the time about 16 to the dozen
Very clean & neat & smiling always
And just like the old Scotch Women
& Irish women she says the most ^astonishing awful
things to you as if they were nothing at
all. She has four children - She said
that q was quite enough but as the
Germans have Killed so many she
supposes She'll have to start again
after the war to make up a few.
We had our meals there for a few days
before we settled where we were going to stop.
She had a look at me (I am fat as ever
now) & said to the Interpreter. "Wouldn't
we (pointing to me behind my back/ & herself)
make a fine pair in bed together & she
waved her hand up & down to show how
the bed would go.
He told me what she said when she
went out & when I saw her next
I told the interpreter to say I was very
offended at what she had said about

me. She said to me she had said no
such thin. This in English. Then she
rounded on him in French & it was funny
to watch her. She told him she couldn't
say a thing to him xxxx lest he must go
& blather all round the Village ^"Your tongue runs like a bell clapper" she said A few
days afterwards our parsons arrived & I
sent them over to have their dinner there. She
spotted they were parsons & tried to take a rise
out of them so she didn't let on she knew
but found out that they knew French a bit
- After talking a bit she pulled her chair
up by one of them & asked him didn't she
think she had a very fine figure. &
asked him to fee how hard she was. She
had previously fixed up for some of the other
officers to be able to look through a little
window & see the fun.
There was is another "trick" of a girl - who
came to get a permit to sell the chocolate
to the boys. We didn't want to give it to her
but she begged for it. She wanted the money badly
she said because "English Kapitan" had
left her a "souvenir" & pointed to herself & sure
enough there was a bairnie upon the way
so we gave her the pass & she tells all the
boys they must buy chocolate from her because 

of the English Kapitan's souvenir. & in spite of 
it all she seems bright & happy & the boys
seem to like her & treat her just as nicely
as if she was were the best. I am very pleased
because I think some of these girls have been
badly used. One I heard about (& that is the funny
thing the good ladies here are the same as at
home & take care everybody hears of them) was
a very nice pretty young lady & was going to
marry an English lieutenant here & it turned
out he was married already in England & now
she has a wee baby boy for a souvenir &
no husband at all. The Interpreter man
says that the Indians when they were here
learned to speak English very well indeed &
some of them very very handsome fine looking men
& the girls were quite fascinated & he says he
knows one Village where there are now five little
Indians - through girls being foolish & xxxxdy.
We expect to go into the trenches very soon
now to relieve some of the first Division
& perhaps we may see Jack or some of the
others pretty soon.
Eric Walker came to see me yesterday
He is looking Very well. I am going to
try if I can fix him with a commission 

He seems very diffident & shy about taking
a commission just like poor Ken way
was. He said he would like to be in a
fight first to see how he felt & if he
would be all right before taking it on
I told him not to worry we all felt pretty
much scared when a whopping big shell
goes bang in your ear & smashes men up
Give "Dida's love back again to the dear wee
laddie & tell him Dida was pleased with his
little message that he wrote in the letter.
I saw in the "Punch" an account of Henry Clarkson's
wedding. Do you ever see Tom Pitman now.
he should be over here the Sperrik. He could
easily get to be an officer a commission. I had a letter
from Violet. She is well & is a nurse at a
Hospital to fill her time until Johnny gets
leave. She met our cousin Mrs Edwards.
Another Cousin Mrs Carter that I went to
see while at Weymouth. is very sad poor lady.
Her eldest son who was a Lieutenant in the navy
was with Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot on the
War ship "Defence" in the North Sea Battle
They fought the ship wonderfully bravely
but were blown to pieces & the ship &
everybody on board of her went down
together not a soul being saved but they

made the Germans pay the full price
He left a wife & three little children one of
whom had just arrived & in just one or two
days (he had got leave) he was coming home
to see the wee pet thing. His mother & brothers who
came home from India on leave went up by
the train to Edinburgh to meet him when
he should come ashore & the poor things when
they got to Edinburgh got the papers with
the news of the Battle & that the Defence
had gone down. It was very sad wasn't
it. I had a letter from Capt Barter. He is
very well & wanted your address to send to his
mother who wants to call on you but hasn't
your address. It appears I forgot to put it
in my letter. Wasn't I a gawk. Well
darling I must stop now or this letter wont
to near the envelope at all.
Millions of love & kisses my dear old
darling pet from Dida
P.S. Violet & Mrs Edwards met at a
flower show in London by appointment
& had a good time together