Photostat copies of letters from Charles Albert Barnes to his mother, 1914-1915 - Part 4

13.
They too are jolly nice folk, & are always
putting themselves out to entertain us, that
is on the few occasions we are able to see them.
Saturday 29^th
Having a general clean up today, not going
out.
I think I'll finish this off  Hope
everyone is well & Ma dont worry.
My best love to all
Yr affec Son
Charlie
To continue the Johnson tale. He died the other day & Selby

one of our officers engaged to the other girl got married
on the day after funeral. Peculiar Spasms some
birds have.

Jack will you please pay to Secy Naval &
Military Club £1-11-6 for me. Noble is Secy, I
think. Hope 89A is progressing
I posted some photos of the Regiment home the other
day taken on Cheops. Hope they arrive.

25
Mena
27^th Feby 15
My dear Mother & all,
I sent a batch away today
which I hope reaches you safely
We are very busy now preparing
to leave tomorrow. Dont quite
know how I'm going to get my gear
all fixed but with Jone's help hope it
will be alright. We are all very
excited at the idea of leaving Egypt.
I wonder where we are going to.
Sunday 28^th
Up early this morning striking tents
&c. Did I mention in my last that I've
sent a suit case to Uncle Jack asking
him to look after it for me & if anything
happens to me I've asked him to send it
out to you I have also asked Aunt
Mary to get the clothes out sometimes &
air them I spose thats right isn't it?
Theres a fearful sand storm blowing
so we are having an enjoyable day
We are marching out to Cairo tonight
& entrain straight away for Alexandria
& then What Ho! for the ship & perhaps 
France. T Im feeling funky allr
already.
Only our Brigade is going now with a
few details in the shape of A.S.C Australians
& Ammunition Column & as we are

taking a tremendous lot of ammunition
it looks a bit like business.

I think my Birthday tomorrow is

going to be fairly busy.
I've got a new horse. Exchanged an
one with the W.A. Battery & have now got

a bonny little mare. I hope she is as

good as she looks & Brownie says
she is. Went over & had lunch with
them today They are a bit disappointed

at not going with us. Will write more

tomorrow.
Monday 1^st March

Left Mena at 8 p.m. last night & marched
to Cairo Got in at ½ past eleven & camped

down with my Company in the
Barrack yard at Kais-el-Nil 
Barracks until 2.30 this morning.
Entrained & left Cairo at 3.30 &
reached Alexandria at 8.30. Found
it raining like blazes. We wer stuck
up in the station yard while the
train in front unloaded on both

ship, & I find that the Regiment is

going on the Suffolk except myself

with half my Company who go on
a boat called the G Nizam. Well

after waiting for an hour or so.

26

we got off & wandered about looking

for our boat At length espied her
up at the timber wharf over 2 miles
away We said good bye to the
Suffolk & made off for our ship
Arrived in time to get aboard for
lunch which meal was most
excellent as we were all very
peckish. Beside ourselves there are
a lot of transport details of the
9^th 10^th 12^th & our own Battalion
also a section of Brigade
Ammunition Columns & some
Medical Corpses. We have about
350 horses on board including our
own so I'll be able to see that mine
is looked after properly.
Our accomodation is very good
two in a cabin, the saloon is very
small tho there is but little deck
space so it doesnt look as if we will
have much drill. The men are a bit
26
crowded & have no hammocks or
rather they have ho them but there
are no hooks to hang them by so
they will have to sleep on their deck
which is still covered with
cocoanut matting. The cooking
facilities are not good either for the
men but we will be able to improve
that. At present they have to use some
open galleys on deck. I
Major Roberts of our Battalion is in
Command of the troops on board &
I am Second. I have Jackson Darnell
Strickland & Newman with me so we
have a littl happy party, there are
about a dozen other officers, transports
&c & a Dr of the 3^rd Field Ambulance
Capt Buchanan.
We have been loading up horses
all day & have taken on some live
sheep for consumption on board.
The horse business is rather amusing
There are several jibs & when they
play up a bit theres a general scatter
of men.
There's a great deal of shipping in
the harbour including most of the
German prizes which we saw here

when we first landed. Went for a
bit of a stroll up the town but
didn't have time to see much.
Coming thro from Cairo last night
Croly made an ass of himself by
slipping onto a step that wasn't
there. Consequence He's got a bad
knee now & will not be able to
use his leg for a bit. Another misfortune
Capt Leane coming in from Mena
to Cairo had a spill somehow or
other & his knee is busted up pretty
badly Water on knee &c
Well I'm going to turn if in as Im
fairly tired. My birthday hasn't been
a great social success.
Tuesday 2^nd
We finished loading at 1 p.m. &
immediately put to sea under
sealed orders. With us on the
Ionian with Brigade Head
Knowlers & the ^9^th & 10^th Battalion.
Devanha with 12^th, Suffolk
with 11^th & details of Engineers &
A.S.C. & the Molda with Medical
Units & Field bakery of A.S.C.
27
When we got well away from
Port the orders whe were opened
& no we were not surprised to
find that we are bound for
Lemnos an Island near near
the Dardanelles as it does look
now as if we are going to see
some fighting. The idea appears
to be that we collect at Lemnos
& then go on into the straights &
land under cover of the battleships
fire. This evening we could see
in the distance the P&O mail
steamer outward bound for
Australia. Spose it will be some
time yet before we go that way.
Have had a fairly strenuous
day getting baggage &c stowed
away & the men made as
comfortable as possible.
Its fairly rough & most of the men
& Officers are already down to it

27
They all want to see me ill but
at present there's no sign of it. Strick
is not well neither is Maj Roberts nor
Priestly.  250 Knots to noon.
Wednesday 3^rd
Olives Birthday Many happy
Returns Peg. Nothing startling
in morning but this afternoon
passed Rhodes Island quite
close, celebrated for the Colossus
of olden days which used to stand
across from the main island on
to a small one but fell over into
the sea. The island looks fairly
bare not much vegetation
We are now well in the among
the islands passing Psara, Khios,
Mytilene &c 273 Knots to noon.
Came up with the HMS Minerva
in the evening who signalled Sland
Straight on for Mudros harbour in
Lemnos.  We overhauled the Molda
last night.
Sighted Lemnos at 1 pm & could see
two snow capped mountains on

other islands.
Arrived at Mudros Bay &
anchored 5 pm. Its a beautiful
harbour completely landlocked
& large enough to hold the British
Navy. There are numberless villages
all round among the hills &
which are just beginning to show
green after the winter. The bay is
studded with little islands &

the entrance to the harbour is
very narrow between high
hills. We found the Suffolk &
Devanha had arrived & there
are 5 or 6 of our warships &
several collins & 2 submarines.
Also a few French warships &

collins
Friday 5^th
The Molda & Ionian have both
arrived also one or two more
transports with marines on
board. Its very cold tho a
strong wind coming off
28
Samothrace a very high snow
capped mountain about 30 miles
away.
Saturday 6^th
Instructions to land the horses
while the ships are in this Port.

So we have been at it all day Its

getting up a bit rough owing to the

continual wind I wish it would
warm up a bit.
Today a boat came alongside from
the Cawdor Castle one of the
Marines transports & someone
called out "If any W.A. Officers are
on board tell them Lt Cheetham
would like them to come over to
lunch tomorrow". You will
probably remember hearing of
Cheetham. He was a Sergeant
Major in W.A. & taught recruit
drill Major Roberts too knows
him well

28
Sunday 7^th
Still unloading horses. Went to
lunch on the Cawdor Castle &
had an excellent time Met a
Capt Hatton fine fellow he is,
was out in Sydney for a while
Cheetham is very proud of himself
getting a commission & I hear is doing
well Several more transports
arrived with British & French, it
looks as if a large force is to collect
here.
I've been appointed a Censor & its
a darned nuisance too  Have to go

through every letter & post card
We have a good deal of work to do
& the ships, boats are kept busy, manned
by our own men.
Monday 8^th
Took the mare ashore today. Just
wasn't it a treat not to have sand
after Egypt Its been a bit wet & the
roads are rather muddy  We
went to Mudros & had a look thro
the villages no streets just narrow
alley ways paved with rough cobble
stones. Theres rather a fine Greek

Church right overlooking
the township. The people are
cleanly & the women have rather
peculiar styles of clothing as
indeed have the men also
who have as were sort of divided
skirt hitched up to the knees
Climbed a high hill overlooking
the bay & had lunch up there then
came back thro Mudros & on
to the ship at 3 p.m. Saw some of
our fellows from the Suffolk
who were also ashore.

Along the roads such as they are
one every now & then comes to a
fountain erected to some Saint
or other. The sheep are running
little jokers & are kept tethered
generally, rather an unusual
scheme.
The Brigadier & several other
officers came aboard & told us
the war news from Dardanelles
They dont seem to be having a
very rosy time of it up there.
29
Tuesday 9^th 
Still loading horses we are
stuck up continually as there are
not enough lighters & tugs to keep us
going. Went ashore again on a
Battalion scheme Went thro another

village forget its name & all the
people gathered around to inspect
S Two of the other battalions have
their bands out & these highly pleased
the local inhabitants. When we
got back to the ship found that
6 more transports had come in
& two more battleships The Queen
Elizabeth one of the very latest &
the Lord Nelson.
Today we shifted anchorage
close in shore to make room for
other ships. Capt [[Peel?]] of ours is
ill, understand there's an abscess
somewhere in his head. Hope its
not going to be serious

29

10^th
Very rough wind again today &
quite a high sea Strick went
off to ashore in it & the skipper
saw a boat which he thought

was ours very near the rocks
Accordingly we found a crew
the Skipper as coxswain, Lee,
Smith, the Padre and myself as
stroke with the 3^rd mate as

extra hand. We had a hard
job to get to the boat & found it
was one of the Ionians which
are painted same as ours Everything
fixed up & away we went again
making for our ship. The storm
had fairly broken on us by this
time & when we got back to the
Nizam I think we had, all of
us, quite enough. I know I had.
A Lieut Thomson of the Intelligence
Corps came aboard this morning
& tonight lectured on Turkey & its
army and customs. Most interesting
& decidely instructive. Brennan