Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 2

before them & will get as much as they
could wish for. Tell your Father that the
latest addition to my force is a contingent
of 500 Maoris. What they will be worth
it is hard to say. Brown people & generally
fat. It is very curious that the Australian
absolutely refuses to look at a native
of any sort & will not allow one even
to enter the country. While the Maori

is treated absolutely as an equal. Some
of them live in the same companies as
our men - get the same pay - feed with them
& are one of them. All are Christians.
Yesterday they gave us a Maori war
dance - a most curious affair, it
made them look most weird &

one could quite see Canabalism

through their skins - the awful faces
& gesticulations they made - you could
almost imagine them tearing bodies

to pieces & eating them. But when not

dancing they are most mild looking
creatures & give one this idea of being

soft. They have nice voices & speak English
with no accent. I have the small
Ceylon Planters Contingent with me
also, but most of them have been given
Commissions in the new Army.
The last officer to join me is Capt.
Evans, husband of the red haired lady

at Simler. He has come with my

signal Company which has now

been temporarily bagged by Sir 

Ian Hamilton, till his own arrives.

I have just taken a day's holiday

& ran up the river to see Luxor. I

took Carruthers with me. We got

there early one morning & at once started

off on donkeys to see the "Tombs of the

Kings" across the river. Wonderful

things they are, though one cannot

help thinking they must have been a

very doleful race, when a man

apparently as soon as he became

King, started building his own

tomb & went on embellishing it &

enlarging it till he died!

Apparently the great thing was to

make it impossible for the tomb

[*3 DRL 3379*]

2) ever to be opened, & those in the 

Pyramids were sealed up with 

tremendous care by huge blocks of

granite & all marks at the entrance

hidden. In these ones, you go first

up a regular frontier valley at the head

of which are the tombs including

Ramases II - the Pharaoh of the [[Nile?]].

In each case they burrowed a tunnel 

in the side of the hill then cut a 

series of chambers in the rock - passages

connecting each generally all sloping

downwards till you come to the tomb.

Some had mummies in them, but nearly

all are empty. The walls though are

covered with carvings & pictures, the

of some of which look absolutely
new now after 3000 years. There is a
real sameness about them - nearly all

being processions, boats, prisoners,
libations, sacrifices, fighting etc. It
is the wonderful labour which has been
done & the carvings which are things to
be seen. The Mummie is placed in a huge
granite coffin which must weigh tons
& one of the great marvels is how it was
ever got there. Then when the funeral was
over a bit of the hill was knocked down
over the entrance & all trace of it lost. It
seems rather a waste of all the labour
taken! Robbers in years gone by started
finding & opening them, but  I fancy there
must be many more yet to be found, but
it's an expensive job. As well as the tombs 

we saw the Great Temples of Luxor and
[[Cartore?]]. Huge things they are with masses
of enormous columns & figures most of which
are in ruins - the grandeur  of the conception
of the enormous work done fill one with
wonder. One really wanted 2 or 3 days
there, while we only had 9 hours; but got
through a good deal in that time & nearly
ran our French Egyptologist who showed
us round to death. I have just been to
such a nice Church service with one of my
comrades. They are supposed to have one
combined service for Church of England,
Presbyterians & Methodists which was
agreed to by them & laid down in Australia.
But to this the C of E man refuses to
come! The other two happen to be first
rate men & the Scotchman has given us 

some A.1. sermons. Today I stopped to
Communion there, a thing I have never
before done at a Scotch service, but he was

so keen on all denominations joining
that I did so, & a very nice simple earnest

service it was. They presented me with

a very nice small bible - or rather New Testament.

I have to leave all my Mounted

Brigades - I now have four of them - behind
me for the present as the country up there
is quite unsuitable for mounted men. They
are fearfully sick at being left., but I tell
them there is lots of time for them yet.
I'm so glad you got to Clifton for Chris'

confirmation. You must tell me about

Lady [[C?]], Miss [[Denner?]] & Mrs Fremantle.
Goodbye my own little one. All my

love to you always. Ever your very loving old 
[*3 DRL 3376 (15)*] Will.
 

[* Must close. All my love

to you

always

dear heart.

Ever your

very loving

Will.*]

11 April 15
S.S. "MINNEWASKA".
My own darling Jenny Jane.
Here am I  on still another
steamer this time - and such a nice one
too - over 14,000 tons, and I have not only
a nice Cabin, but a small sitting room
thrown in - a sort of American millionaire’s
suite. I don't suppose I shall ever again
travel in such luxury - and certainly once
I get off this ship, it will be a case of
real [[pigging?]] it, I fancy, with practically
nothing more than one can take ashore
on one's back for a considerable time.
Later on though I daresay we will
getting back here to go on - but that 

must depend entirely on how things go
on land - once we can effect a landing!
I went down to Alexandria from Cairo
a few days before the troops to see Sir Ian.
While there Onslow & I stayed with a brother
& sister-in-law of Carruthers (he is a Brig-General 

now.) Very nice people: he is bigger &
a good deal stouter than our Carruthers &
is Manager of the big Anglo-Egyptian Bank.
She is a very nice woman too - nice looking
but at times painfully deaf, which makes
conversation very trying though at times she
suddenly seems to hear. The place reminds
one very much of Bombay - the English people
live right away at what might be Malaher
Hill without the hill. Houses facing out
(like my old Father's did) to the sea on a
bay of their own, & in the early morning I

went down straight from the house,
as we did at Thurlestone & had a lovely
swim with the waves breaking over one
as there was a bit of a storm on. I
don't know that it is a place one would
much care for, though it has huge advantages 
over Bombay, in that it is only 5 days
from home & it is never really hot. They
keep such stupid office hours though. 10-12.30 -
then a break & siesta French fashion (&

old Egypt is very French) till 3.30 - and
work again till about 6.30. We have a
big native hospital there at present
for men from France en route to India. A
hospital ship had just taken a lot off
so only 150 were there when I went to
see them - nearly all wounded but
doing well. It was rather nice to 

be greeted occasionally by  beaming

smiles & to find this was from men of 

the 58th or 59th who recognised me 

from Kebat days & seemed really glad

to see one again - though all were quite
pleased to find a 'General Sahib' having

a talk to them in a strange land in
their ones own language. I am rather glad
that I now have attached to my Army Corps

the two Native Mountain Batteries from the

Canal - & I am shortly to be joined by Genl.
Cox’s Brigade to complete my numbers
as I have had to leave all my
mounted troops (4 Brigades)
behind in Cairo for the present.
I would much rather have 

3)

S.S. "MINNEWASKA".

had the Frontier Brigade, but
Younghusband commands it, & he is
senior to my two Divisional commanders.
Also I do not want him. Lady
McMahon & Col. Trench were in Alexandria
for a day while I was there looking at a
lovely house he has taken for the Summer.
She was so very nice, but I am afraid
she is very ill. I told you I thought
she  was looking so much better - but she
told me that as a matter of fact she
felt so frail she really only carried
on from day to day & daren't attempt to
make plans or think of the future. Irene
is still in bed but better. Lady Mac 

said she had heard such nice things
generally  about Nancy from Simler last year.
With this force I find Major Wynter
who was in Kebat - he now commands a
Territorial Mountain Battery. I think he told
me he had left his wife & the small boy at
Weymouth. Genl. Hunter-Weston has that
Division - and a very good one it is, being
comprised almost entirely of Regts from
India & it has capital artillery. I had
some Cairo photos sent you - will you
please keep them for our books. Chris
would I know like to see them, as he
asked me to bring some home, & I
didnt want to drag these about with
me. By the bye I got a letter last week
from the old Khansamah asking if we
had entirely forgotten him:  he was 

in work at Dehli but said he would
try for a job in Simler soon, as he
wasn't for standing the heat of Delhi later
on! You might send him a line to Edie.
Has Chris been to a dentist lately? If not
do please write & see that he goes to one
directly he goes back to school, as I am
sure it is so very important for children
to be seen regularly by a dentist - it
may just keep their teeth right for life.
I got the two snapshots of Judith in the car

all right - but how she seems to have grown
even in these few months & looks quite a pert
young lady sitting up in the car instead of an
infant, indeed I hardly recognised her.
& I have no idea who the others are except
Nanny.
We have just been having two very nice