Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 1 - Part 4 of 12

12/
Thursday 11:11:15

Had a good run yesterday, did 330 miles. The
wind dropped considerably & today is simply
glorious. The men have all got smiling faces.
Most of the Officers were innoculated yesterday
against typhoid. As I had never been done before
I only had a mild dose of about 5,000,000 dead
germs squirted into my left breast. It was not
long before it started to stir me up. Got very
sleepy after dinner & turned in early, slept like
a top & felt ever so much better this morning.
My chest is still stiff & sore, but the effect of it
should have disappeared in a couple of days.
Have to get twice as big a dose in about 8 days
time. Some of the chaps were pretty bad, so I
came out of it well. Vaccination is not giving me
any trouble today. Have taken in 4 places, but
the sores are not at all savage looking. The Sports
start this afternoon with the boxing tournament.
The different units have teams in for Bayonet Drill,
Physical Jerks, Rifle Exercises, Rapid Firing &
Loading. & a Tug of War. Our Tug of War
team should take some shifting, 12 big strong men
all about 13 stone of a nice even lot. The watch
is going OK again. Gave it 24 hours spell & it is
keeping perfect time again. The hot moist weather
must have affected it, or else, as someone suggested
it just went gay & wanted to lead a fast life.
Lunch time now. More later on.

13/
Later

No Parade was sounded after lunch & the
first rounds of the Boxing Tournament was held.
There were some pretty murderous scraps, but as
soon as a man was found to be outclassed the
scrap was stopped. I had some good revolver
practice over the side of the Boat this afternoon,
& shot pretty well. The service revolvers are very
good & I think when I get on land & have some
practice, that I'll put up some hot shooting. The
only thing no good with the issue stuff is are the
Binoculars. They are no good & I'm afraid
I'll have to buy a pair to suit my eyes before I
get anywhere near any scrapping. The pain from
the innoculation has almost gone this afternoon,
just a bit sore close to where the puncture was
made. Did not have a game of cricket however.
We are getting pretty hot at cricket now, the
tall chaps are at a disadvantage in Bowling, as
the overhead covering is only about 7' 6" high.
Wonder how you & Johnnie are getting along &
I can't know for such a long time yet. We have not
had a death on board yet, which is very good
considering we have about 2000 swaddies aboard
many of whom knew absolutely nothing about the sea
& they sleep out all over the place in preference to being down 

14/

in the crowded troop decks. Have a few cases of
pneumonia, but only one serious case. Measles were
a bit prevalent, but even that seems to be dying down
I am looking awfully fit. They all reckon I look
miles better than when I sailed. No one is allowed to
get down in the dumps if it can be avoided. If a
man is found looking over the side by himself (I
am referring to the Officers) he is immediately
assailed with cries of "Come Back" & he has to
come no matter how far away he is. & it is a deuce of
a way to Moonee Ponds from here & getting further
every minute. We will probably cross the line
tomorrow, but Father Neptune is not coming aboard.
There would probably be too many accidents as the
Chaps would make the pace too warm. No more
now old Dearie. Will probably finish this tomorrow.
If this was not a dry ship I would dig up old
Claridge & buy him a drink & incidentally have one
myself, but dry ginger ale becomes monotonous
as a daily beverage. Good bye till tomorrow Pettie
& Johnnie--
13/11/15. 
Had too strenuous a day yesterday to write,
& by night time had worked up a bit of a headache.
Had Parades all the morning & it was fairly
warm as the fine weather has come back to us

15/

In the afternoon we had the first go at
the Sports Meeting & it was a strenuous
time. Have 6 Hospital Cases so far over
it, & the programme is not nearly completed.
The first event was the obstacle race. The Chief
Officer had seen to the obstacles. I was starter
& only saw 1/2 of the race. About 5 yards from
the starting point there was a big big net
stretched about 3 ft from the ground, & he had
to go over this. Well, when 6 men jumped into
it the thing threw them all over the place &
kept them struggling. The next obstacle was a
spar about 4 ' off the ground they had to go over
Then Life Buoys about 3 ' from the ground to go
through, next a rope net with small holes to be
climbed through. That was all I could see, on
the other side of the boat deck there were 2 wind sails
to crawl through, one liberally powdered with flour
& the other with soot & to finish up another
big net stretched tightly across the deck to
be crawled under. The chap that won deserved
the prize. He is in the Hospital with a knocked
up foot. They had a potato race, Quoit Match,
Scratch Pulling. Pillow Fight on a Spar, & a
tug of War. 10 men aside from each Unit.

16/

The Tug of War created the most interest,
as every one wanted to see their own Unit win.
Our chaps got beaten easily in the Tug of War,
but we won the Scratch Pull & filled the 1^st
four places in the Obstacle Race & have a man
left in for the Final of the Potato Race. I had
a go with Claridge in the Pillow Fight & managed
to hit him a clout & knocked him off, much to
my joy. As he challenged me in front of the
whole mob & the men are very keen in seeing
their own Officers win. Lovely weather again
today. We crossed the line at 10 past 11 this
morning & we are now in the Northern Hemisphere.
Don't see any difference so far. Got a horrible
shock when I got my Laundry Bill today. 3/6½.
Everything was very cheap, except the little short
pants. They put them in as trousers, & charged
me 1/- for the pair I had in. No more for me, I'll
wash them myself said the little red hen. Well
Dearie Woman, I'll end this lot as 8 sheets is
enough to go in one letter & I'll start a further
edition tomorrow & perhaps write to some of the
others also. Good Bye old sweetheart. Hope I
can catch a Mail quickly when we reach
Suez. With all my Love Darling Wife to you &
Johnnie. Your ever loving Husband
Cecil 

No. 3

On Active Service
Abroad

AIF
Passed by Censor

Mrs. C.R. Mills
C/- Mrs Wragge
Gowrie
Ardmillan Road
Moonee Ponds
Victoria.
Aust
 

From Lt. CR Mills
C/ 23rd Batt.
A.I.F.

Lt. CR Mills
C/ 23 Batt
A.I.F.

At Sea
16:11:15.
Dear Old Fair,
Have not written to you the last
couple of days but I got some other letters off my
chest. Well how are you & Johnnie since I wrote
on Sunday. Weather still keeps pretty decent. There
has been a nice breeze the last couple of days & out
on the deck it is lovely. Had a rotten job yesterday.
Had to report to the O.C. of the Ship at 9.30 am &
make up the pay for all the soldiers on the Ship.
They all get 1/- per day & we paid them up to 22:11:15,
the day we may disembark if we go to Suez as we
expect. I made up the pay alright, but the old
man's cash that was left was £19 odd short, so I
had to go through it all again & check it & then try
& see where his difference was. Besides all the
Govt money he has he also takes the Canteen money
& locks it up for Safe Custody & is consequently
responsible for it, & that is where the discrepancy
appears to me to be. He has been giving change to the
Canteen man & mixing the whole lot up together. I
could not find the difference yesterday & I had to
have another go today & count it all over again & still
no result, so will have to butt into it again tomorrow
as the O.C. has adopted me as his accountant. It is a
pity he did not take me from the start

2

I also got vaccinated again yesterday. The first
go only took slightly & the AAMC Colonel wanted
me to be done again. He tore it into me yesterday
& made 4 more lovely punctures & I suppose the
whole lot will now come up together. Went on as
Orderly Officer from 6 to 10 PM last night & 6 to 10
this morning, so I'll only have one more turn as
Double O on this ship I hope. Its a rotten job
superintending the meals & rushing round every where.
This afternoon we had the first part of the
Military Sports. Started off with Physical Jerks.
Our chaps dead heated for first place & in the
second go we lost. Then our Rifle Exercise Team
won the next event straight out. We should have
the remaining events tomorrow & if we can only win
the Bayonet Fighting, we will be a very proud
Unit indeed. The Sisters Race was held this
afternoon also. Each sister picked an officer to
run for her. We had to draw the name of a Song
out of a hat, run up to where the sisters all stood
in a row holding a dry biscuit each. Had to swallow
the biscuit & whistle the tune until the song was
recognized, then the Sister had to write the name down
on a card & we had to bolt back with it & make
sure there was no biscuit in our mouth. I had to
whistle Stop Your Tickling Jock. My pal Claridge
won & I came second. I ran or whistled or whatever
you liked to call it for the Matron & she was quite sulky
because I did not come first but it is not too easy to eat a
dry biscuit in a hurry & then whistle a tune.

3/

Am enclosing you a couple of snaps that Sister Timmins
took & I was also taken with Claridge last Sunday &
if they are any good I'll get a copy for you. as they
will be printed before we get to Suez. The poor old
Censor is having a rotten time again, letters tearing
in by the thousand. The mail has now closed for the
troops, so we will all get onto them & get them
through as soon as possible. Thursday 18/11/15
We passed Cape Gardafui yesterday afternoon, so
we are now in the Gulf of Aden. It was very nice
to see the African Coast, as one gets sick of being
out of sight of land for such a long time. We will
sight land again this afternoon & then see it pretty
well all the way for the remainder of the journey.
The beautiful blue of the Indian Ocean has gone & the
sea is quite pale looking in comparison. We are in
shallow water once more. The Sports were finished
yesterday. We got second in the Bayonet Fighting.
So out of the 3 Military Team events, we got one
1st & two seconds so we came out well. The Tug of
War excited great interest, the 22nd Batt won
that without being extended. I think they could pull
any 10 men picked from the whole of ship. They were a
grand team. It warmed up suddenly last night, the
breeze dropped, & today is pretty sultry also.