Letters of Athol Cluny McPherson, January to March 1915 - Part 2

1

Ciaro

Egypt 7/1/15

My Dear Father

I was delighted to receive both yours

& Mothers letters last night, it was the first mail

that came direct to here, the letters only took

a month, yours was written on the 10^th of Dec &

was delivered last night, the 6^th January, so that

isnt bad, it will be alright if they all come as 

quickly as that. I think I told Mother 

in one of my letters to address all letters to 

England, but Ive come to the conclusion 

since, that it would be better to address them

here, if we do go on to France, they will 

be sent on after us & wouldnt be so very

old, nothing like they would if they were

sent from here to England. Yes as you 

say this is a very a interesting place to

live, with all the old Pxxx Rxxx Ruins to 

see. We never stopped in Alexandria

so I dont know much about it, but 

there is plenty to see here, without going 

there, these Pyramids are wonderful

structures & there are scores of ancient 

graves round about it, to climb 

2

to the top of the great Pyramid, takes 

about twenty minutes, you go straight up

on the Corner, you can go up one side & down 

the other, I can tell you, a person wants a 

fairly steady head to climb it, it looks

a tremendous height to look down, when

you are only half way it looks a fair

drop. One of the guides told me that a

fellow went up to the top one time & was 

afraid to start down again, so four of 

the guides (Arabs) had to blind fold him & 

carry him to the bottom, he gave them each 

two pounds when he got [[?there]]. My leg 

is about right now although I havent being

out on the march yet, it was what the 

Dr called a "Ceptic" leg, I think it is Ceptic

Poison, although I dont know what the meaning

of Ceptic is, when I went to see the Dr, there

was only his Corporal in the room & he 

gave me a bit of a start by saying he 

thought it was poisoned, it was an 

enormous size, swelled from the knee

to the ankle, but it is right down now

 3

What a great victory the Tu Russians

got over the Turks, an Army Corps to surrender

in a body is a great number & there seems

to be every prospect of them forcing another

to surrender. I don't fancy Turkey will

last very long, I wish they would send

us to meet the dogs at Jerusalem, I would 

like to see it & it would be alright to

have a go at the Turks as well, by all

accounts there are about 70,000 there

we could give them some lead to xxxx

swallow. I dont agree Kitchener

when he says the war will last three years

I dont expect to see the Germans see

this spring out, Kitchener may have some

reason for saying that, it may be to try

& get volunteers, he's to late. We are

having very windy & dusty weather here 

now, everything gets very sandy, as it blows

off the desert. I was glad to hear by

Mothers letter that the crop turned out

as well if not better than you anticipated,

it is marvelleous to think that

4

you got any crop at all, Im anxious

to hear what your rain record was

for the year, I think it must have

beaten the record of the 1902 drought

unless you had a lot of rain last month

I saw by an Australasian that one of

the fellows got in camp last night, that

you had over an inch towards the end

of November, but of course it would be

too late to do the crops any good, but it

might have given water in the dam.

I was glad to hear you had plenty of hay

& that the horses were looking well, its a

bit different to the xxx other drought, where

we had no hay. I often wish I was

a Free Mason out here, I believe nearly

all of these officers belong to them & a

person would be bound to find some

friends in Ciaro, if he belonged to

them. Well Father Dear I think this is

about all the news I have so must close

I'll try to write to Mother by the same 

mail, I wrote to "Jook" yesterday

& it will go by the same mail

5

as this. We hope to get weekly

mail how now from Australia,

Must close now, with heaps of love

to all at home, & Kind regards to all

Horsham friends including old "Rush"

Mr & Mrs Billy Millar. With heaps

of love to yourself.

I remain

Yr loving Son

Athol C. McPherson

[* PS my address

C Coy now that two are joined

together there are only four instead of

eight, each Coy has about 240 instead of half

A C McP *]

Mena Camp

Ciaro Egypt

Jan 10th. 15

My Dearest Mother

As the mail closes for Australia today I must

send you a few lines, as there is talk of the letters being

Censored after tomorrow, or we may be stopped writing letters

altogether & only get a P.C to let you know whether I am

alright or not. I only hope it isnt true, I dont mind the

letters being read as long as Im sure that you get them

alright, we get so many reports that we dont know

what to believe I was glad to get both

yours & Fathers letters on Tuesday, it is a treat

to get letters in a far off place like this, infact

a cheer generally goes up when a mail comes into

the camp  I was down to the 8th Battalion

last night & meet Harold Smith, Weston Pleakley, Lyn

Wallace, Gil Arnott & Davis, it was a real treat

to have a yarn about Horsham again, Harold

was "crook" with a very bad cold, he was reading

a letter he got from "old Ah" in it he said they

were stuffing slightly better than a bag off more

of their crop & all the rain that it had on

it was an inch & 29 points, it seems marvelleous

to think of a crop growing with such a little

rain, it almost proves that they could grow

wheat now without any, provided there

was enough have moisture to bring it up

It just shows what working the land will

do, I was glad the crop turned out as well

at home as they expected. Harold also

told me that Roar old Cavoll was dad dead

it was the first I heard of it, no doubt it is

mentioned in one of your letters that has gone

to England. I was knocking about the

lines yesterday & a fellow came up & started

yarning to me, I was telling him about the

letters being kept back at Horsham, he asked

me if I knew a fellow named Symons there, he

was a brother of his to the one in the Bank

in Horsham & is in what used to be the

T Coy, he is a very decent sort of fellow, he

told me Mrs Symons was a bonzer gold player

We saw by the Egyptian paper that all news

papers were stopped coming out of Australia

what next will they be doing, Moloney told

me that the Federal Govt had doubled the

land tax, that ought to be very handy

in a drought like this. I was sorry to

hear the Liberals lost the Dundas seat, it

seems to be about the only gain the Labourites

got, what a knock the Labourites got

in West Australia at the last election

I was very glad to hear that your exzema

was on the way to getting alright at last

it should be a good reference to Miss Martins

Dickie was a bit lucky to get a billet

straight off he reel like he seems to

have done. Jook & Alley should

do well out of there fowls this year

eggs should be a good price, with everything

so dear, fat sheep ought to be a good

price this year , but I suppose they

are hard to find in the Wimmera

I saw a paper that this was a good

season up at Gilgandra, wont "Cricky" skite

it should give him a lift, but it might

be the old cry with him - "mines all a bit

late this year". I hope you are able to

read this, I lent my pen to a fellow &

as he is out some where I cant get it. I

think this is about all I have to say, so

must close. With Kind Regards to the Bevs

Grays, Rathys, old Charlie & all Horsham

friends & love to Marion & Kind Regards to

Miss Jenkins. Goodbye with heaps of love

to all at home & Dick when you

write I'll try & write to him next mail

if we arent limited to cards

I remain always

Yr loving Son

Athol

[* PS Your last letter

was dated the 16th Dec

just a month ago & I got in on

Wednesday

A C McP *]

 

Mena Camp

Ciaro

Sat Jan 16th. 15

My Dearest Mother

As the mail closes tomorrow I must

send you a few lines to let you know that

I am well. I was pleased to get yours

& Jooks letters during the week & to know

that you were all well. I also got about

half a dozen letters sent back from England

& in one of them, you told me about

Poor old Poss getting a spill off "Snowy"

he must have come a bit of a "cropper"

It was very good of "Take in where-ever

you go" to drive him out in his motor

It was lucky he wasnt hurt. I was

back in Hospital last week with

my leg, I told you in my last about

having it poisoned, well they sent me

out of the Hospital & our own Battalion

Dr was treating me, but he didnt do

it any good & sent me back, Im glad

to say it is all right now & is almost

healed up & Im out on duty again

I'll be a bit more careful next

time I get anything wrong like

that, I just went to the Dr in xxxx

time

2

Anything like that seems to be more

likely to get bad in this climate than

Australia. When I was in the NZ

young Horkin "Take it wherever you goes"

Nephew was one of the orderly's & but I didnt

know until he went out, but I mean

to hunt  hunt him up one of these days

I was next to a fellow in the Hospital

that knew Miss Hoggarth, Mr Stevens, &

Mr Johns (the Inspector) he couldnt remember

Miss Jenkins, but but said he probably 

knew her as he said he was a terror to

forget names, he was a school teacher & xxx

to teached in Kew School for a while, his

name is Fred Noonan (not a Paddy though)

he also knows Miss Price. He seems a very

nice fellow & I went up to see him xxx

the night before last in the Hospital

he is suffering from "crook eyes" but is

nearly right again. He said he knew

that King that Miss Hoggarth & Miss

Jenkins Jenkins spoke of, so I'll get

him to come with me to hunt him

up, Its grand to meet any-body like that

out here I was glad you had

such a fine fall of rain, although