Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, November 1916 - December 1916 - Part 9

                       10

He has had his foot amputated and is to go home to

Australia. I have fixed up Capt Akeroyd I think.

He wrote to me & said he hated to have to go home. His

right arm is about 2 or 3 inches shorter than the

other. The Doctors fixed hm up immediately though & made

a new elbow joint for him & I hear it act all right & is

not stiff as we all expected. There is of course the other injury

Well I wrote & asked the people over there at the training

Camp (telling them he was a good soldier) to try & get

him a job of work over there so he needn't go home & I hear

he is now fixed up very nicely & is just delighted & talks

about coming back to join us. This is the sort of man

of man I like. Yes it was poor old ^little Scurry all right that

I meant, I hope his poor mother wont be dreadfully

shocked. I am trying hard to get him his full Captaincy

(The Tempory Captaincy ceased on being sent to

Hospital) but Genl M^cCoy seems inclined to hold it up.

Still I mostly get things I want in the end. I will find out

if either of the Andersons name was "Douglas" & let you know.

I haven't heard of Young Scurry for some time. I fear

his recovery will be slow. Part of the missile is embedded

in his head behind the eye & it may cause great trouble to him.

Isn't the der wee Dhunach the dearest little "Smooger" 

in all the world. Fancy her saying that whatever I sent would

be just the best in all the world. It is beastly about

                                    11

the Referendum failure. It is hard to understand why so

many of the Boys have voted against conscription

although the ^a majority of 12,000 was for it. There

was no general reason & many silly ones. One

of those Labor villains M^cGrath the member for

Ballarat East fr enlisted with a tremendous

flourish of trumpets & came out. When he got

to England he found his feet getting cold so got himself

a lovely cosy job in the Base Post Office in London &

did all in his power to persuade the boys to vote

against Conscription - of course he is "Irish" & agin

England really & I believe only joined to cause trouble. I

hear there has been dozens of wires over him already.

He ought to be bundled out here to me. I'd see that he did his

term in the trenches all right & did a raid or two into

the Bargain. I will try & see Bray. We have had so

many sick though lately that that he may not be with

us any more. Certainly if Fergeys ^Florys parcels come to

hand I'll see he gets one. I am glad to have heard of him

& hope he is still going strong. I will let you know

next letter. The 60th are not in the line at present

they had a dreadful doing the last time we came

in & so I've given them odd jobs to do in rear

to get them cheered up a bit. Another turn in the trenches

would have just about settled them completely

                                  12

Duigan was away. There was a silly fool of a fellow

named Tuckey a Major in charge of them. I knew

he was no good & tried to kick ^get rid of him out in Egypt

but no one would help me & he took charge whilst

Duigan was away. He simply stayed ^in his Dugout

& let the men take care of themselves. He left one of

his me up in the trenches who was ill & didn't take

any steps to get him down until I found out & wired

him. He says he didn't know about it but he ought to

have known & would have known had he kept any

decent discipline but he let everybody do exactly as they

liked - said that conditions were so dreadful that

the men could not do this that or the other - when he

was asked why this, that or the other step had not been

taken to save the men. I've not finished with him yet

& he may yet get the sack over it. He is very anxious now

to get home ^over to England & get a job there as his wife has just 

come home but, if I can ^make it out he will go neck & crop for a

more utterly useless officer in the face of the least difficulty i

have never yet met. He has not an idea of his own that is of

more value than one of the Laddie's as to running things. Well

darling lovey sweet pet. It will be bad luck If I run on to page 13

you know so I must finish up on this page. Many many thanks

dear for you sweet long letters. Kiss the dear wee mites for me

& tell the, Dida loves them good. Col Stewart gave me one of his

Xmas cards - I am sending it to the wee Dhunach. If I get anything I will send it to the wee laddie boy so wont feel neglected. Millions of love & kisses to you from Dida Don.

                                       France

                                        18/12/17

My darling Katie,

                     I've just finished a xxxx ^long

fat letter to Barby ^Belle. I didn't realize it

was so fat till I came to seal it up.

It was this way. I had just about finished

her etter yesterday & would have finished off

& sealed it up while it was still a decent

size but the Dr. came along & I had to stop

writing because he put me to bed. Then today

feeling better I got up again & I started to finish

it off & wrote just about as much more before I

stopped. Yours was a pretty fat one too but I

had got it off safe before the Dr Carma came

& I posted it or got my boy to do so straight

away as I heard an Australian mail was

going soon. I've just found out that I

could have waited until tonight as it

does not leave the Corps P.O. until tomorrow

morning. I got your two xxx ^little letters

& the photos all right. As I thought it

would ^ the card they were just a wee bit late. It is often

that way. When there is a big mail they

dont wait until all are sorted but juts

send off every night all they have sorted

up to the time the postman leaves the office

                                 2

No more news cept ^except 

that our guns are making

a dickens of a row

I expect there is they are

"strafeing" old Fritz

for his cheek shelling

me just now, Your ^I am

old man us ^an important

person this time & if

Fritz is cheeky to him ^me

I can ask for all sorts

of Gens to talk severely  to

him about it. I could bust

my sides sometimes. It seems

so funny that it is 

me who is ^that important 

as all that and all

these men about do this &

that & work their lines

hourly for all sorts of things

& in all sorts of ways 

simply because I tell them to.

Just me, your old man

who loves you: I can only

ask you to keep on praying

hard that I am always

prove to have the wisdom &

courage worthy of the station on

which I have been called. If

I succeed I shall freely admit it was

not by my arm alone.

                     3

I was glad to see your dear old sweet face ^get the photos

again. You look pretty thin & white though dearie

pet But the same dear old sunshine lady

Do you think you would ever come to England

xx? What excitement it would be to think of

seeing you after all this long time, I would just

start counting the days till you sent me a

wire to say you were in England. I could I am sure

get a weeks leave nearly anytime I asked for

it unless there some big stunt on or if the

Brigade was actually in the front line. But we

would not be longer than a month in the front

line at a time how & if there was a fight we

would be brought out much sooner. So it nee

not troyble you that you might have to wait for

months before seeing your old man ^me. Johnnie Avery

is only a Captain & very small potatoes under

your old man now. Although we are in the line

now Genl McCoy who has been pretty seedy

of late has gone off on a months holiday

In point of fact there is nothing of importance

on just now & until this blessed mud

clears away it is very hard to see how

we can make any advances as men get

                               4

actually stuck in the mud & have to

be hauled out & frequently come home

bare footed as their boots get so deep

in the gluey mud that the laces broke

or had to be cut to avoid breaking

the man's legs. I heard of one case where

a man ^an officer actually had his back broken. He got

stuck like that & they put a rope round

him & hauled him out -it was the only thins

to do short of fear leaving him there to die.

They got him out at last but his back was

broken with the strain on the rope. I 

dont know whether he died later but I

suppose he would. I am glad you go the

dear wel canary back for Dhunach. It

was nice of the people to bring it back when

they found it wasn't theirs. Aren't you a

dear good caring lady. I will promise to

send you at least £50 before June 1 darling.

I will send it just as soon as I can

the first fifty that is because it is just

scandalous ^appalling how money does burn ^fly

away in London & if I get leave over

there it is sure to run into £20 or £30 even

                      5

for a little trip. One cannot go to Birmingham

for only a few days & hotels are very expensive

& tips for this that & the other. The Taxi

Cab drivers are very indignant if you

give them their legal fare by the taximeter

& some "snort" even at 6d over the fare & seem

to thing think a shilling is hardly

enough - They say petrol is so dear now

that they can hardly make a living & their fare

tables haven't been raised & living is rising

so high. I suppose the poor wretches do have

a hard time. Give my love to poor Henry

Trowbridge if he is still living. I am sorry

he is so bad. Does the wee laddie still love

him. Isn't funny to ^our wee boy is so

attached to him. What doe Dhunach think of him?

Oh. Col. Duigan has just sent young Bray to

me. He looks very well indeed. He says

he didn't get any letters for a long time

but they are coming along all right now.

Tell his people he looks splendid his

cheeks are as rosy as the laddies. It 

is simply wonderful how some of these

boys keep their health. He says his

                                 6

father is caretaker of the Northcote

Town "all". He seems quite a nice

boy though he drops his "H's" a  bit. It 

is such a pity people are cot careful

to teach their laddies to speak correctly.

It keeps them back a lot as it stamps

them at once as badly educated & puts me

off trying them in responsible positions.

I will however send the boy to an instructional

school when I get a chance to see if he

shapes at all well. I like to do something

however small for anyone if I get to know

anything about them. It seems like doing

it for one's own in a way. But all the same

I am none the less severe on them if they

play up or xxx turn them down if they

are ^prove not fit for any position reconn I

put them in to. When I put a man into a

job I always expect him to carry the job 

out well.

Page 7 omitted

                        8

sure as they were standing there one

would be shelled soon & made them

get under cover. I proved quite right

Yesterday we got shelled like fury &

mud was flying all over the place

Our kitchen was missed by about a

foot & about a dozen others came

all round us. None of my people at the

Head Quarters were actually hit tho some

got a scare. However some boys of the 60^th

who were doing a job of work nearly got hit.

Then last night just as I was having the

loveliest sleep in all the world - the Dr

had given a sleeping draught the 

silly old fool started & dropped one just

by my door & woke me up about 1'oclock

& except for snatches of sleep dozes filled

me with nightmares I got no more all night.

This was almost the first sleep I had got

for three nights - the blow up slight though it

was the other day had put my sleeping

apparatus out of gear & just as I dozed

off every time I would give a sort of nervous

jump & wake up. I got a bit scared after