Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, November 1916 - December 1916 - Part 4

2
at home with such deeds unpunished
I don't know. I heard tonight but
hope it is not correct that Brig Genl
Glasfurd one of our Australian
Generals was killed. I saw him
just a few days ago on my way
back here. He had there billett
last before us & slept in the bed I
am using. The last, if the report be
true, that he ever occupied. General
Forsyth is going home shortly. He
is in England now. Perhaps you
will see him. His health has given
way a great deal.
I think I spelt the name of the old
Marquis who owns this place wrongly
in my last letter. The real way is
Chevigné. He says you (I showed
him your photo) & I must come
& stay here after the war & he will
drive us in his car all over the
Battlefields. I told him that the
bed he had given me was the most
comfortable I had had since I 

3
left home & he promptly offered to give
me the same one on my return.
He is such a nice old chap. He
seems every lonely with his lady away
& is delighted if I drop in &
have a cup of coffee with him &
listen to him talking. His people are
all soldiers. He showed me a book
about one of the wars the French had
in Algiers in which one of his nephews
was killed. It had this boys picture
in it & an account of his death.
It appears this boy was out scouting
with some of his men & a ^the niggers
ambushed them & ^one threw a spear
which went through his body.
As the withdrawal of the blade
would probably result in him bleeding
to death at once he would not
allow his men to take it out but
remained directing the operations
conti for four hours. Then as
help was not coming he directed
his men to retire & leave him to 

be captured & so make good their
escape, But this the men refused
to do for if ^he were captured the nigs would
torture him horribly. So when he
found the men would not leave
without him he drew his revolver &
shot himself dead. The  French
Govt had his body or skeleton brought
back to France for Burial although
he was only a Captain. The old man's
heir his nephew Count William
was killed at Verdun just the other
day & he has already lost 11 other
relatives killed in the war. So you
can imagine how sad it is for him
to be living all alone thinking of these
things. But he says we will win
yet. There is no doubt that the
French are a great ^& brave people. It
is wonderful. Practically everybody
is in mourning for some relative
or other & the women do the plowing
& sowing. Sometimes they ask us
if our boys will help them to dig 

their potatoes & sugar beet & other
roots while we are resting & the
boys are always glad to help them.
It is still not as nice as at
the first village we were in on
coming to France But I hear there
is a nice lady in charge of Bert
Layh's Billet. She is a widow poor
lady her husband having been Killed
in the war & is said to be worth
₤100,000. She has a lovely house
so its just as well Mrs Layh
has got ^well Bertie hooked up. She
speaks English. Young Gull he
(is a Major now) told her he was
coming back after the war to
hang his hat up there & she said
she'd be quite willing. She is quite
gay with them. They got a party
of Australian Nurses who have been
sent to the French hospital near
to come out on Sunday & the lady
gave them all afternoon tea. 

We've got to go back & the silly old
trenches & mud in a couple of days
I don't like it a bit after being so
comfy comfortable here. The worst of being too
comfortable is that the mud & wet &
slush seems all the worse when you
have to face it again. At least one has
a good rest & my cold is nearly almost quite
gone away.
I got the Girlie of my interpreter man some
time ago to send me up from Paris
where she lives some patterns of Silk
now fashionable in Paris & I am now
sending her the money for two pieces of
taffeta Silk one Black & one Blue
for you  & one Black for Baaby Belle also
two scarfs for each of you which
the lady says are 'très chic" so I
hope you will like then my darling
old pet. No more presents for

a long time now. I'm going to help
my dear old lady to save up
good. Some Villain stole two
my nice woolen Khaki shirts 

that I brought to England leaving me
with only one & so I had to send into
the nearest French town & buy another
There was a very pretty little muff
that old Bert Layh showed me that
would have been lovely for the dear
little lady & I was much tempted
It was only about 30/- too. I wish I
could buy such a heap of pretty things 

back, oh did I tell you that my
cousin Charlie got wed  to his
sweetheart while he was home.
greatly to his people's disgust,
because he has no home & nothing
but his pay & that will end of course
with the war. But he would not
take any notice but just got wed
He is still far from well & is
down at the Base on Salisbury
Plain. Young Russell Goode &
Eric Walker are still away in
hospital. Ronald Dickon is very 

bad with rheumatism too, & has gone
away I think to England. The Doctor
thinks be may be sent back to
Australia. I am sending you some
pictures of the mud. The little carts
with perambulator wheels are for carrying
machine guns about in. As you can
imagine life is just too choice in these
conditions. It is not as if it were just
about the camp lines as at Broadmeadows
for the whole countryside for miles is
all camps & horselines  & always
mud mud mud everywhere.
I hope to see Jacky boy as we go
back again but we may not. As
far as I know he & Geordie are all
right so far. I think I should have
heard had they been damaged.
15^th Nov: There was a tremendous Bombardment
last night & early this morning up
there at the Front. I suppose there was
some new attack on.
Now dear old Lady I must stop or
I will make this letter so fat 

it will never go into an envelope at
all. But you will know that my thoughts
are always with you & the wee darling
pets. Can the little lady read writing
at all yet. Katie? Poor little lady I
feel sorry that she has to go to school. She
is such a shy little soul that she will
feel very miserable for a long time there
There is a kind of artificial cave
about a mile or so from here. It
is said to have been built in the
old days ^as a place of refuge in war. It has over 300 rooms
hollowed out of the chalk & will
hold 3000 people. It has fireplace
with chimneys opening for purposes
of concealment into chimneys of
houses built above ground. I have not
been out myself but Bert Layh & others
had been out to see it.
Bye now darling love & God Bless
& keep you all.
Heaps of love & kisses from Dida Don 

France
24/11/16
My Dearest Katie,
I have been 
neglecting you you poor old darling
of late but we moved into a new
part of line awhile back & I have been
terribly busy organizing our defences
in this area. It is not quite so muddy
now but rain is threatening so it will
be pretty bad again soon I guess
If we had a weeks warm weather
we could start an offensive again
We are working very hard putting
our defences into a working reasonable
state. The shell fire is pretty hot
at times. We lose most men
during reliefs. Once into the trenches
they do not suffer so much from
fire. We have no real communication
trenches yet however & in changing
over & from carrying food & water
to the front line we get constantly
shelled in the open. We hope to get
communication trenches dug shortly
when things will be better in this