Thomas Whyte Collection - Wallet 1 - Part 6 of 14

Adelaide Y.M.C.A. Army Department

(12)

some letters at Aden. It will be 
quite exciting. How I long for a letter.

I have read the ones I received at 
Fremantle quite half a dozen times.

[*Monday.*] Socotra was on our left at daylight this 
morning. It must be a good way distance away 
& have some high mountains, we can just 
see them in the light blue distance. I have 
managed to find out something about it. 
In 1834 the East India Company occupied it 
then a formal British Protectorate was established 
in 1886. In return for a small subsidy the 
Sheikh pledges not to cede the island to any 
foreign power. The area is 1400 Sq miles & 
inhabited by about 12000 Arabs. It is 150 miles 
from Cape Gar Guardafui & about 500 from 
Aden The industries are mainly pastoral 
but I think lot of indigo comes from 
there.
We were in had the second typoid inoculation 
the other day. There was no after effect 
this time. I suppose we will be vaccinated 
in the Red Sea. I suppose you wonder 
what part of the anatomy that is.

[* I am enclosing 
a post card of the 
Ascanius. I had a dozen 
printed very cheaply on board 
so that accounts for the shoddiness 
I sent the others to acquaintances all 
over the place.*]

ADELAIDE Y.

(13)

It is hard for me know what will be of 
interest to you. I don't want to bore you 
with a lot of uninteresting details, so tell 
me exactly what you want to hear.

[*?day*] I am on guard to-day. It is the first time 
[[?for around 3]] weeks. My sixpenny sore had 
its advantages. I am sorry to say it has 
healed. This morning I saw a most perfect 
sunrise. There was every shade & colour 
The deepest vermillion it is possible to imagine 
to the lightest pink and all shades of blue.

And all caused by our Mophetville Staple 
diet. What a moral.

I am quite excited I haven't blown my nose 
for about a month. Just think of it. I have 
never experienced anything like that before. 
No cold & no dust is the reason I suppose. 
There is nothing more I can think of to 
tell you except to wish to merriest 
of Christmases and the happiest of New Years.
I will be kissing you for all I am worth 
on Christmas morning, your time, from 7 till 
8 o'clock  Good night Darling

Your every loving boy

Tom

[*Give them all 
my love & 
best wishes etc.*]

1

Letter No 5

Mena Camp
Cairo
Friday. Dec 18.14

My Darling Angel,

It is difficult to imagine 
hat Christmas is only a week 
off. I can hardly realise that 
it is December even. Out tent 
is going to have a gay time. We 
have put in 10 p.t. (2/1[[?]]) each 
for a real blow out of Turkey 
Plum Pudding etc. in addition 
to any special rations we will 
get. Everything is getting along 
famously. We have a tent to about 
15 which serves to keep our kit 
in & to sit round of an evening.

As we prefer to sleep outside there 
is not much inconvenience.
The food is much better than 
at Morphettville. Our 6 a day mess 
allowance goes to buy Salmon, Sardines, 
Milk, Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Herrings 
in Sauce, etc. quite enough for 
a comp good meal a day.

2

The routine is much more 
interesting, Breakfast at 7 
Reveille at 6, early morning parade 
6.30 breakfast 7.30 parade 8.45 
then we march a couple of miles 
into the desert & do battalion drill, 
company drill, semaphore signalling, 
entrenching, bayonet fighting, 
ceremonial drill, general field work 
& extended order drill. Sham fights 
& shooting will come on later I 
expect. We take our lunch with 
us & start back at 2 or 3 o'clock 
doing battalion work on the way.
We are dismissed about 3_∧^{or 4} o'clock.

Every eight days the company gets 
from 2 till 10 leave. Our turn comes 
again to-morrow. At 5 we have 
dinner except  & then the rest of 
the evening to ourselves except 
when on guard or piquet work 
which happens about once a week

I am getting as hard as nails.

I could sleep on a barbed wire 
fence. The desert is very hilly

[*40 at Egypt*]

8 GENERALS AT 
FUNERAL

Eight generals will act 
as pall-bearers tomorrow at 
the military funeral of 
Major - General C. H. 
Brand.
They are Lt.-Gen. Sir 
Sydney Rowell, Maj.-Gen. 
C. H. Simpson, Maj.-Gen. 
J. S. Whitelaw, Maj.-Gen. 
S. H. Porter, Maj.-Gen. S.

F. Legge, Maj.-Gen. R. J. 
H. Risson, Maj.-Gen. B. M. 
Morris, Maj.-Gen. E. J. 
Milford.
The insignia bearer, who 
will carry Gen. Brand's decorations, 
will be Major G. 
C. Batchelor, who served 
on General Brand's staff in 
the First World War.

[*3rd Aug 61. Aged 87*]

[PHOTOGRAPH]

3

all sand, stones & rock but 
not bad to march on. I cant 
help remarking on the change of in 
our officers since the be embarkation 
B4 & the others are still strict 
but much more in reason & 
far easier to get on with. The 
other companies say the same 
of theirs. Perhaps it is because 
they have more bosses too. You see 
the Colonel has the Brigadier to 
boss him now & he also has 
to obey orders from divisional 
headquarters. The brigadier, Col. 
McClaggant the brigade major, Major 
Brand, have impressed us very 
much, the little we have seen 
of them. The men would do anything 
for Major Brand. He is a wonder. 

Up at 5.30 & doing Grand Rounds 
at midnight, strict to a degree, 
but so reasonable & gentlemanly 
about it all.
They are erecting great mess 
rooms for us all. It looks as

4

as if there will be plenty of room.
The nights are fairly cold & about 
every other morning there is 
a mist which clears up quickly

Fruit is fairly cheap  I have bought 
good sized sweet oranges 4 for 
a half piastre, Dates 1 piastre a pound 
figs & apples about Adelaide prices 
& water melons of 16 pounds 5 piastres.
We have only got a third of 
our back pay so far which 
keeps us from sneaking into 
Cairo oftener than that we would 
like to. We are only to get 2/- 
a day while in Egypt.
After being on guard we do not 
go out with the parade but have 
the morning on quartermasters 
fatigue, getting stores from the 
depot. As they are not working 
our horses yet, we use native 
trollies & camels with a soldier 
in charge of each one. It is 
great fun. We have picked up 
a few arab Arabic words &

5

with the help of a few forcible 
Australian expressions manage 
to keep the niggers from going 
too slowly. It is good fun riding 
the camels back. The afternoon 
we have to ourselves. I was on 
this Wednesday so a couple of 
us went into Cairo on a couple 
some passes we had secured 
the previous evening on guard.

We didn't have much money 
but managed to enjoy ourselves.
I saw a most wonderful of  wardrobe 
at a Greek art & curio dealer's.
It belonged to the late Khedives father 
the Johnny who bankrupted the 
country. It is beautifully carved 
in Arabic stile & inlaide with 
ivory It is all in movable bits fastened 
with wood. This is to prevent warping 
through the extremes of temperature 
in this country. The price is £200.
There were all sorts of china 
Japanese art & Arabian art, everything 
of the very best work & all expensive

6

You would have gone mad if 
you had been there. The Greek 
was very interesting He was well 
educated & had been through 
the Balkan war. His father had 
the shop before him. The Khedive 
& all the princes, Lord Kitchener, 
& lots of European and Eastern 
potentates were customers of 
his. There are lots of curio 
shops where they sell mummies, 
scarabs & everything connected 
with ancient Egypt. 
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities 
is a wonderful place I believe, 
but I haven't had time to go 
through it yet. I even haven't 
climbed the Pyramids. I may 
go up next Sunday. Everywhere 
I go I can't help thinking how 
much I want you to be here 
to see it all with me. We will 
have to manage to visit Egypt 
to-gether somehow.
The sunrises & sunsets are