Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 1 - Part 6 of 12

6/
my pals when suddenly a Sergeant said Good
Day Mr Mills, looked round & it was young Arthur
Aucher one of the Bank Chaps from Sydney, then
he had a Lt named Norris with him who was
also a Scottish man, but I had not previously
met him. We yarned for a couple of minutes, when
Cyril Docker blew in with Jack Needon. Docker
looks awfully well & had a large sized helmet on.
He did not recognise me with my moustache & got
a terrible shock, but had heard that I was on my
way. Aucher & Norris were in a Convalescent Hosp.
 or Aucher who had been there since the landing, got
plugged with a shrapnel through the arm about
6 weeks ago & was now pretty well recovered, the
other chap had malaria. Under ordinary circs
it will be about 2 months before we go away from
here, as there are two lots of Reinforcements for our
Battallion still here. They are well ahead of things
now as regards men & can give every one a fair
training before they go off. There is a scheme worked
out here for Action in Egypt, so there is a remote
possibility that there may be something doing with
the Turks round the Canal, Id sooner be in that than
go to the Trenches in Gallipoli. I was Asst Orderly
[after? from?] today, & when I was down at the Cooks Lines
watching the Tucker being dealt out, who should blow
along but Ginger Holder. He looks remarkably well, & has

7/
quite lost his Beery look. He has certainly
lost weight, but he looks wonderfully well. He
reckons the Beer is no good over here, with the
small amount of money the Privates get they cannot
do much damage here. No Private can draw more
than 2/- a day & that does not go far in Cairo
The mess is not costing very much, about 2/- a day
so I'll have about 3/-. a day after paying my
Batman & buying tobacco. The Officers all say
that it does not matter how much money one has,
that Pay Day is always a God Send. I will have to
be very careful & I may have to use that letter of
Credit I arranged to be sent after me, as there are
certain things one really should have such as a
proper sleeping bag & mattress, but they can be
bought very reasonably. I've got my blankets out
tonight thank Goodness. The last 2 nights I only
had two blankets  & by about 5 in the morning it
was gets very cold. It's still quite warm as soon
as the sun comes out however. The days are fairly
warm & there is a lovely cloud of dust round the
men when they are marching. One swallows a
deuce of a lot of sand in a day. Its in the food for
every meal, it grits on ones teeth. We are all supposed
to get an attack of I'll be back in a minute, but
so far Im just the thing. Perhaps now the cool
weather has come, & the flies are not so plentiful, we
new fellows may escape it. I hope so, as the Latrine
is about 300 yards away & I'd wear my boots out.

8/
The Officers here seem very decent chaps taking
them right through & are all keen on putting
the new fellows into the way of things.
Well Dearie I want to go to bed early
tonight & try to catch up my arrears of sleep.
as I'm a bit short still. The cane stretchers
are jolly hard, but I'll soon get used to sthem,
anyhow they are not expensive, only cost 2/6.
It's a month by the Calendar since I left you
Girleen, one month nearer to the time I will
return to you & Johnnie. How is the little
Pet getting on? I think of him also each
night & picture you giving him is his mummy [[nat]] or [[nah]] 
& his bath. I wonder is there another boy in
the whole world as good as ours? I don't
think there can be. I'm not going to write
you long letters in future, but as I write a
letter will post it, so that you will get more
of them. Then it will not matter so much if
t one does not reach you, as if the whole
letter went astray. This is a disjointed sort
of letter, as there are continued interruptions
& 1/2 a doz chaps are playing cards & kicking
up the very deuce of a row. I know you do not
want me to go into detailed descriptions of things

9/
as I guess you would sooner I just yapped on
about things in general & myself in particular.
Well Darling I hope this reaches you safely &
before Christmas time & I do hope Ill be home
with you again long before next Christmas, never
to be parted from you again as long as I live
except for very short periods. Petty I do hope you
are keeping well & not worrying your Dear old
Heart out over me, as there is nothing for you
to worry about yet & will not be for sometime to
come. Wish all my love to you & our boy.
Your ever loving Husband
Cecil

No 4    Active Service Abroad

A.I.F.
Passed by Censor [AS?]

A.I.FORCES POSTAGE FREE

Mrs C.B. Mills                                                           
c/- Mrs Wragge
"Gowrie"
Ardmillan Road
Moonee Ponds
Victoria
Australia

Lt. C.B. Mills
64/23 Battn

No 5/
On Active Service
FRANCE 3rd TRAINING Battalion 

Mrs CB. Mills
C/- Dr A Burne
"Kinellan"
Dalley St
Waverley
New South Wales
Australia

Lt C.B. 
6/23rd Batt

Zeitoun
2nd Decr 1915.

Hulloo old Pettie
No parade this afternoon
on a/c of having a night march
this evening, & for once there is room at
the table in the mess room to rightwrite. Every
night the whole mob get onto cards as soon
as dinner is over & all the space is taken up.
They are whales on Patience, (your sort) &
nearly all hands play it on every possible
occasion. Well I am getting over my
tired feeling. The first few days I was
tired & sleepy the whole time. Everyone
complains about it for a start. Only had
a very mild attack of Back in a
Minute, came on last Monday night, after
a very dirty day. By jove when there is a
bit of a wind on the desert, it is worse
than the Mt. Alexander Road on a dusty day.
We had to knock off Parade, we were all
eating pecks of dust. We are all settling
down to the Camp Routine & the men are
not doing badly at all. We have no rifles

2/
yet & that is pretty rotten. There is a wild
rumour afloat that all the Officers that are
here at present, are not to go to the Front but
under some new scheme, are to train all
The Reinforcements as they arrive. We
have 20000 Australian Troops here now.
Some men belonging to our Battallion
came back to Camp last night from Lemnos.
They had got that far on their way back to
Gallipoli, from where they had been invalided
& were not required back there, so things must
be fairly quiet at the D'ardanelles. I had
a nice afternoon in Cairo last Sunday.
Pullen & myself went in quietly by
train & after having our boots cleaned
always the first operation, cost 1/2 Piastre,
we got a Garry & went for a very nice
drive across the Nile to Ghezireh. The
Nile has numerous bridges across it, with
Electric Trams running over them all. It
is so strange to see the most up to date
contrivances being used along with the most
antiquated. Just imagine a big motor car
Fire Engine tearing along through a narrow