Letters from William George Blaskett to his family, 1915-1916 - Part 12

I dont suppose he had as a matter of fact
only it sounded big, in his opinion, to say so.
"Sammy" showed me his paybook, and it is
quite free from entries of detention &c. so he
must have been going pretty right. He was over on
the Peninsula from the landing till about a
month before the evacuation, When he was invalided
to Egypt with dysentery. He is looking splendid now.
I met Madigan here once, but am not cultivating
his acquaintance. I think Egypt will settle him.
You know this place either ruins you. or goes
a long way towards making you. Thank Heaven,
and also thanks to you, its doing the latter for

me.

Yesterday Tom Smith & I were in charge of the
canteen, but fortunately there was no beer in, so we
had no trouble. Fancy a good T.T. like me being
chucker out in a pub. Shows what variety there is
in a soldiers life.
Now dear Mother, I must close for the simple
reason I have nothing more to say, with love to
you all from your ever loving son
Willy
P.S. I have such a nice little french diary & the 28^th May is the
day of St. William. Rather a propos, what? He must
have been a decent chap. The name implies goodness
(Loud coughs from Modge)

11/16^th
Zeitoun
4.3.16.
My dearest Mother,
This weeks mail has been a good one
On Wednesday, one from Modge and one from Roy.
Thursday one from you & one from dad, and on
Saturday two from you, one from dad, and a very
nice one from W Lloyd, in reply to one of mine.
It is a great treat to get news of home.
Am sorry to hear that it is such beastly weather in
S.A. now, though I dont think it can be worse than
it is here at present. The weather has taken a sudden
change and now it is hot as ____ .
I notice what you said about my
watch. Please dont send it. This country would
spoil any watch. I am doing without one. The other
beastly thing has been cleaned twice already, & a
third time would cut out the value of the watch.
We are leaving here for the 48^th Battn.
next Thursday. By a very good stroke of luck Jim
is going to that as well. Of course, it might be
altered again before, but I hardly think it will.
All the S.A boys are going to the
48^th as far as we know at present. and the WA
boys to the 16^th for which we are very thankful

as the
as we havent had much of a deal
here. Still, they cant "down" us, altogether.
When you are enquiring about my
extra duty pay ask about Bill's. The following
are the particulars
No. 3316 Sgt EB William Stewart, 11/16^th Inf.
allotment of 4/6^d per day extra duty pay
to Savings Bank of South Australia.
I am writing Charlie in a few days
in answer to his letter, and am rousing
at him about his writing. Mind you
keep on to him.
Now I must close with love to all
from you loving son
Willy
P.S.  I am sending Charlie one or two little things

St. Patrick's Day
Dear Mother
Just a few lines to let
you know I'm still in the land of the
living. I'm not allowed to tell you
anything else, it seems. I wrote you
a letter last week & the censor returned
it saying there was too much information
in it. I cant make out yet what
information there was in it, he could
object to. Still, to make sure I'm
not putting any address on this, only the
date.
I received your letters of 30^th Jan
& 9^th Feb all safe, also 2 from Charlie
& one from Olive Ward, who said you

2
had been to see Harold's mother & you
cheered them up so. "Fellow feeling, eh?"
Well, more power to your elbow, Irish.
You mentioned you had sent 2 parcels.
These are not to hand yet, but I suppose
I'll get them sometime.  I got one from
Olive W. with 2 Hdkchfs in. Good of
her, wasnt it. Am writing to her this
mail. I also had a letter from Arthur
Gould. He said he wasnt too well.
I have been pretty lucky for mail
lately, though I was very unlucky at
first. How's the poultry farm? I
note about the new breeds of chickens.
Couldn't you think of some more
polite name?  I think Charlie will be
doing quite right if he pulls out
from the Union, over that strike.

3
It's a pity they couldnt put a few of us
lads into Broken Hill, all at once. I'd
guarantee there wouldnt be another strike
there for some while. The strikers would
be severely struck.
Now I must close, with fondest
love to all at Home
From your ever loving son

Willy
PS. I didn't think last St Pat's day I
should be where I am now. Still, its all
in the game I suppose. Erin go bragh

A' Coy
48^th Batt
12^th Brigde
8 4 16
My dearest Mother,
I wrote to you last week
saying I had not received any parcels from
you for some time. Well, the next day, I was
told there was one for me at the 16^th Batt. & so I
went across and got it. I was delighted with it,
when I saw it; it was a huge affair, & I 
hurried back and opened it. Imagine my
disappointment on discovering that it was about
2 months overdue & the cake ^in it was mouldy.
It was the one you sent on
Jan 2^nd & I got it on April 2nd. Only 3
months, to do a months trip. Still, the papers
& books were very acceptable, as you can guess.
Also, the soap, though we dont get much water
to wash in. In fact, we're lucky if we get any
at all. Please dont send any more cake
unless you can send it in an airtight tin

2
I like to get cakes, but it is only waste of
money to send them, if I don't get them in good
condition. I was very pleased indeed to meet
my old friend D'Arcy again. Hope to see
him again sometime. It is very warm here now.
Had a letter from Ernie a few days ago. He is
at Alexandria now. Isn't it hard luck. I could
have gone to see him at any time from Zietoun
but now no one is allowed leave of any sort from
where we are, not even officers. He has been at Alex
since Jan & is quite well. I have written to him
a good many times but he cant have got
my letters. As I cant go & see him I did the
next best thing. Wrote. I told him I would
send him some money if he was short. 1/- a
day isnt much in Alex. & I can spare
a few shillings, as I have a credit of some
pounds in my paybook, & we cant spend

3
any money here. Percy is in France now.
Lucky. beggar. Still, I dont think it will be
very long now before my ambitions are realised, & I'm
up against the "women & children-killers." Lets hope
so anyway. Bill & I are more than ever
anxious to try ourselves against them.
Now I think I must close, with fondest
love to you all from your ever loving son
Willy

A' Coy
48th Bn
12^th Brigade
18-4-16
Dear Modge,
Just a line to remind you
that "I'm 21 today", and its a cow of a day.
Got to drill all day and go on
outpost tonight. I see those chaps in
Sydney are mutinying because they have
to do 7 hours a day. Wouldn't I like
to be doing 7 hours a day in Mitcham
now. Believe me, its better than being in
Egypt.  Yesterday's programme was:-
Reveille 5. am.       NCO's lecture 3 - 4
Parade 6 to 8         Parade 4 - 6
Breakfast 8.            Silent night
Parade 9 - 11           march  7.30 - 9
NCO's lecture 11 - 12
Dinner 12.30