Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, January 1917 - April 1917 - Part 15

right to the end of the war. That is why
poor old McCay who is pretty ill
indeed ^still has begged to be given a command
in England rather than go home now.
This has been done & if he can regain
any decent health he is just the
Very man for the job for with all his
faults he is a brilliantly clever man
& a fine soldier. Of course I want
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It does take a terrible time for
cables to reach us here but not quite
as long as letters. What I cannot
understand is why it should take our
Cables to you so long to reach you. You
know the one I sent in answer to your
Depot Xmas Greetings that was
published in The Age. I sent that off

before Xmas. I think they are
delayed by the people in London.
for some reason or just through
sheer carelessness. They have such
heaps of little gawky girls  Happiest looking
at the headquarters now aged from
15 to 18 or 20 & about half of them
are quite "pick ups" from the way
they look ^round at you. You are almost afraid
to go near the place. In the beginning a
lot of them were real brummies. It was
said that the man who engaged them went
for good looks only. whether they were
suitable or not. Bye now dearie Kit
We may be into a fight again pretty
soon. I hope the weather fines up
soon. The sufferings of the wounded
are something frightful in weather like
this. Millions of love & tishes dear sweet
lady for you & the Bairnies from your Very own
Dida Don. 

[*Pages 1, 2, 3 omitted*]
France
25.4.17.
up all night. I enclose you a letter
from Mrs Kate Blannin Ferguson of
Mount Martha. She had twin sons in
the 7^th both Killed at Gallipoli
I'snt she a brave good lady. I am
answering her letter I put the
envelope in as well (on account of the
funny old way she addressed it) for you
to see. I also enclose a copy of the
Notice I sent out to Battalions embodying
the letter. If I had tried to read it
to the old 7^th I'd have sure enough
broken down.
We are having a very restful
time. Drill in mornings & football
& cricket in the afternoon. The
days have been bright & sunny
but with a bitter cold wind. We are
all getting Sunburnt.
Yesterday being Anzac Day we
had sports all day. The 57^th won
the Championship of the Brigade
Soon we are to have Divisional Sports
& I think the 15^th will win again
in spite of all our losses  

I had a word with the head Dr Mo M O
yesterday at our Sports & asked
him to work it for Geordie to
come to my Brigade as I wanted him
for the Sports. And he promised to
send him over. Geordie will become
Very well known with a lot of people
who may hereafter be of use to him in
my Brigade Alan Doig & a lot of
other boys & Eric Walker & others are
with me so he will be much
more amongst friends & I may
be able to help him a little.
General Birdwood said he would
come to the Sports for half an hour
but when he came he stopped
right to the Very end & seemed
very pleased with the boys. He even
acted as Judge for a race for the
Anzacs ie only those who were at
the landing could Start.
I enclose my ribbon which we
wore as for last year. red for the
landing & Blue for having been to the
Peninsula at all. In the evening 

I went to Divisional H.Q.rs to Dinner
We had gents a swanking feed "spread". I
enclose the Menu. "Did you say there
was a War on? It is very quiet & peaceful
away back here out of it all & the
men are commencing to look just
splendid
This is all the news Katie love
Eric Walker Len Stillman (Mrs Roberts
nephew) Ronald Dickson who has come
back) & Bob Johnston (Jimmy's brother
& who is also just back from Hospital)
Col Layh Stewart Denehy & Marshall
are all fine & look just splendid. He
have got quite fat & Bert Layh
is looking quite "tubby" now. I am
getting Capt De Karin to come back
to me. He is in England. Also I think
Hopkinson my old Q.M. & perhaps
Bobby Weddell  

France
28/4/17
Dear Loving Kit,
I have a few minutes to Spare
dearest one so must write a few
more lines to you. I had a little fun
Foge Flory the other day. By her account
Rory has a splendid crop 6000
bags or so & as this will be worth
from 15/- to 20/- a bag or the prices
riding he will be making heaps
of money in spite of scarcity of
labor wars etc. Tell Baaby she was
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She didn't. Whatever in all the world would
we have done without our Baaby. I
got this nice notepaper & the parcel
all right but ^neither John Gelpin's turrne
huts nor Mrs Horne's prize work
have ever reached me at all. I
wonder who bagged them. One of
the boys that I gave one of Foge's Florys Mutual
Store parcels to wrote & thanked
Foge ^her for sending it to him. She
seemed quite pleased about getting 

the letter. I am glad. What a pity I
got sick that time darling I would
have had another £30 quidlets about
ready for you by now but in England
money just runs away with itself
I'll have to take lessons in Saving from
my Sunshine lady. Katie dear old Genl
Tivey seems to be getting very jealous of me
I've noticed lately that he is Toadying very
much to the our Divisional General. When
the Div General makes any suggestion Tivey
nearly tumbles over himself getting up to
say he thoroughly supports it - & if by
any chance I should disagree he
is more emphatic in appeasing than
ever. Only yesterday the Genl was sorting
us about our men not saluting
by Motor Car & said they would
have to be punished for not doing it
I got up & defended my boys &
said I totally disagreed with
punishing them that it was more
forgetfulness than anything else
& it seemed to me pushing things a
bit to punish men who fight like 

ours for such a thing & that anyhow
more could be done by persuading
them that it was a proper thing to do
by way of showing respect to the Div
Commander than punishing them
which would tend to make them hate
him coming amongst them. Old
Tivey hopped up his face fairly
beaming & told how he had issued
orders & how he had punished them
for not saluting & he totally disagreed
with me etc etc.
The joke of it all was that the Div Commander
saw my point & agreed with me
against Tivey at the end & old Tivey
didn't know what way to take it.
The old fool you know skited so much
about taking Baupaume for which there
was no real fight at all that it became
a joke & even Genl Birdwood jokes him
about it & calls him "Lord Tivey" of
Baupaume & then immediately after
it my boys had some real hard
fighting & took 13 different towns 

& the Brigade was congratulated by
all the Generals up to the C. in. C.
& this has hurt old Tivey very much
& made me I am afraid another
enemy. It is all very very petty
& miserable. It will break Tivey's
heart I think if I get made a
Major General before him & I suppose
Mrs Tivey will be offended too. But
we must just go on dearie pet &
do our best. But there is one consolation
for once in her life Foge has praised me
although she is under a delusion that
I am G. C. M. G. which is Guard Cross
of St. Michael & St George - one of the
highest Honors Decorations you can get
& mostly reserved for Field Marshalls
& such like. You tell her that it is only
plain C.M.G. not nearly such a swank
one. Its not a bit of use advising
me to be "canny & like old Bob
Smith. If I get annoyed I guess
I'm like Foge in one respect. I
just tell them all even Genl Birdwood
what I think about it all. I have
no patience with anything that risks men's lives unnecessarily 

29/4/17
It's just the loveliest day
that ever was today over here. It is
so peaceful & the boys seem so
happy & well & bright. We are just
going to have a church parade
as it is Sunday. I enclose a letter
that came from Mrs Merrylees
lately. I should like you to call
& see her sister. Their people

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Alas Mrs Merrylees has been very kind
to me & her sister down at Plymouth
was also
Bye dearie lovie Kitt. Millions &
Milions of love & tishes from your
very own Dida Don