Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1914-1915, Part 10 of 27

[*Mother 
This letter, or portion thereof, is of a private tone & I would  
ask you not to read it, or show it  
to any body but yourself & Mab.  
Destroy it when read please. Norman*]
  
Mena Camp, 
Cairo, Egypt. 
24th March ‘15 .

Dearest Mother & all at Home
Just a line to let you know  
that I received another of your & Mabs welcome letters  
yesterday & am very pleased to know that you are all  
well & I can assure you that I have never enjoyed better  
health in all my life & I am in much better condition than  
when I was in Melbourne on account of the work & also  
walking through the loose sand, to say nothing of the plain  
food as well. I have a splendid little horse to ride now 
& he is considered to be one of the fastest horses in the Battery. 
His name is “Horace” (Horry, for short.) Nearly all the  
boys have trained their horses to lie down for them, &  
some can even crawl through their legs whilst they  
lie still. We are still a busy lot & are capable of  
doing all kinds of work including building rafts for  
floating Guns & Wagons across rivers, Etc. We expect to  
leave here shortly for the Dardanelles, & the latest we  
have heard is, that General Sir Ian Hamilton has arrived  
at Alexandria & is to take charge of the Allied Forces which   
consists of French Cavalry & Infantry, Indian Troops & Australian  
& New Zealand Army Corps (about 150,000 all told) to start  
operations in Turkey, so we are in the highest spirits. 

Page 2 
A lot of the French Troops have already arrived in Alexand- 
ria & our people are being shifted to there by degrees, so  
we should soon be enjoying ourselves in the thick of  
the “brawl”. To day, I was sent for by Col Johnson  
& offered the job of Sergeant Major in a Unit in the 2nd  
Contingent, but at the same time, he asked me not to  
accept it, as promotion in the Battery would come  
soon enough to me, so I declined the Promotion on  
his advice. I do not think it was selfish on his part,  
but he wants to keep us all together & does not  
think he should train N.C.Os for other Units, because  
what we have learnt about Gunnery Etc, would be  
of no use to us whatever in the other Units. He  
told me that he was surprised of the progress I had made  
since I had given up the Trumpets. I am perfectly  
satisfied with my present rank & position & Major  
Phillips told Col Johnson that “he did not want to  
lose me”, so I have every reason to be pleased with  
myself.  
I am pleased to read that the House is nearly  
paid for, & is, I hope, by now. If you should be in  
any difficulty about Rates or Taxes, you have my  
permission to use any money of mine for the purpose,  
& don’t think it will make me short when I return  
for I have no intentions, whatever, of looking for  
any other 

[*Private & Confidential Page (Destroy after reading)*]
Page 3 
home or entering in the bonds of matrimony. I have  
quite made up my mind on this score, so you can rely  
on this statement of mine. I have never given any  
girl any encouragement in this line whatever, but  
the girl Cutler is, I am afraid, making it rather  
warm by writing every week to me & I have found it  
necessary to gradually cease writing to her in order to  
convince her that I am still of the same mind as  
when I told her, shortly before I left Melbourne, that I  
wanted her to look elsewhere. She is a very decent  
little girl & all that sort of thing & I have a certain  
amount of admiration for her but nothing else what 
ever, so I hope, Mother & Mab that you will not  
encourage her to come to the house to any extent,  
because I know that she is a girl that needs little or  
no encouragement, altho’ she does it inoffensively  
enough, to try and form a stronger acquaintance. The  
other girl, Nellie Wheeler, I have only written to once  
or twice, & I have only got one letter from her & that  
was addressed to King Georges Sound, so you will  
see by this, that there is “nothing doing” here. Mr, Mrs  
& Ruby Davidson have been very good to me & send  
me a letter occasionly & in one, was a gold “Swastika”  
about the size of a sovereign, asking me to wear it inside  
my jacket as a token of Good Luck, so I have

[*(also confidential)*] 
Page 4 
attached it to the cord of my Identity Disc, so it has to stay 
 there now, as it is a crime to remove these Discs now. 
I can also assure you that there is “nothing doing”  
here also, as they have too much "boodle" for me.  
I haven’t sent any photos of mine to the girl Cutler 
& I hope you haven’t given her one of those I sent to you.  
I hope you will not be bored by all this stuff & 
nonsense, but I want you to know what my intentions  
are & how I am situated in these little matters & 
I know that it will “relieve your feelings as well as mine”. 
I know that when I return that my wages at the  
Mint would still be 48/- a week & the price of living  
will be very high for many months after the war is  
over, altho there is no reason why it should be so,  
except that the Tradesmen have that excuse for putting  
up the price of everything & therefore we must all look  
towards a fairly stiff pull for a while anyhow. So  
just have the little bed in the corner of the “boys”  
room & a tin of Cove Oysters & some fried ony Onions  
for supper on the first night I return. 
I am glad to say that Jack Hall is better & 
is now out of Hospital & working like a Tojan to make  
up for lost time; He sends his kind regards to all at home.  

Page 5 
All the other boys are well. Braithwaite is still the  
same old Harry & is generally late getting up in the  
morning & late to meals. He tells us it was just the  
same at Home with him.  
Fred Conradi is still the same sterling Fred  
& is always doing odd jobs for everybody in the Battery.  
Adams has got bad news from home as his 
Father is playing up & is on the booze & this has made  
the poor kid as miserable as a “bandycoot”. 
Dowsett still gets the “nasties” & makes every  
one feel uncomfortable at times. He is down in the  
dumps because of one his Staff mates has been sent  
home unfit for service & this chaps wife is staying  
with Mrs Dowsett, so I suppose he thinks this chap  
will be taking Mrs Dowsett out for walks. 
The 8th & 9th & 10th Light Horse & other units have  
arrived here & are beginning to settle down. They are a  
fine lot of chaps.  
Well Mother &  Mab, I've bored you this week  
quite enough with all this rot, but promise that it  
will be different next week so with fondest love  
to all & an extra ration for yourselves.  
I remain  
Your loving son & brother 
Norman 
[*Love to Floss*]
[* We are going to hear the
Bishop of Jerusalem preach next week*]

Mena Camp, 
Cairo, Egypt. 
27th March 1915. 
  
Dearest Mother & all at Home, 
Another line to let you know  
that I am still in the best of health & am having the best  
of good times, altho’ getting a little tired of Egypt, or I  
should say, Mena Camp & the Desert. The flies & mosquitoes  
are most troublesome now:  They are the most persistent pests  
one could possibly conceive; Food on the table looks simply  
disgusting through the flies & we simply have to go down to the Sergeants  
Canteen & get some Ham Sandwiches & a Soft drink & say  
nasty things about Egypt. We have had all kinds of rumours 
as to our departure & we have been packted up all ready to  
move off at an hours notice, but always at the last ten or 
fifteen minutes, down comes an order cancelling previous  
orders & so we go on day after day expecting a move  
which which  never seems to come. It has had a sort of  
depressing effect on the chaps in the Batteries as they are  
getting very stale in their work & it can’t be wondered at  
either, because there is no more monotonous place in the  
whole world as the Sahara Desert. We start off in the  
morning at 9am & the poor horses have to drag the heavy  
guns & wagons through the loose sand into the Desert  
about 4 or 5 miles & to make matters worse, the poor Gunners

Page 2 
have to get off the vehicles & walk the whole way & in the  
face of that the Section Officers (who ride out) rouse the very  
deuce out of them for not keeping up with the guns.  By  
the time we get out to the manoeuvre ground, the horses are  
in a lather & have done more than an ordinary days  
work.  Once we are out there, we do practically nothing,  
as officers generally have a “Pow wow” (lecture & a whisky) &  
we leave there about 2.30 & get back to camp at 4pm  
& this cuts us down to 2 meals per day, so you can  
see why we are getting tired of the place.  
To-day, however, we had a variety or a change rather.  
Private Pickles of the 1st Field Ambulance died at Mena House  
of Pneumonia after 5 days sickness through sleeping out  
whilst drunk & the usual thing developed, so yesterday  
we were detailed to supply a gun carriage & team & as  
myself & subsection were told off of for the duty, I will give  
you a short description of the Parade. First we had to  
fix the coffin board on to the top of my gun & shield (this  
was made by the Engineers when we first got here & is in 
use nearly every day, so this will tell you how many deaths  
are taking place) we all got polished up & hooked in  
& proceeded to Giza tram terminus & the special tram arrived  
at 11.am (50 minutes late) with the coffin, band & firing party  
& the rest of the Ambulance people. The first car held 

Page 3 
the coffin (covered with flowers & Union Jack, Hat & belt) 
& the second trailer contained the Firing Party & Band &  
the third trailer held the rest of his company. Before  
this arrived, I might state that whilst we were waiting  
at Giza, all the niggers for miles around congregated  
about the gun carriage in idle curiosity, telling each  
other in their own lingo all about the gun & what a  
jabbering there was too & the smell of them was not of  
Roses, nor yet Violets & I cant say that I could identify  
migniontte about it, however whilst their jabbering was  
at its highest, two native policemen arrived on the scene 
armed with canes, & they proceeded to lay about them  
right & left & some of the niggers stopped it over the  
ears & neck & other exposed portions of their anatomy  
& the squealing was to be heard for a hundred yards  
off. One nigger who was selling beer & other drinks had  
his tray snatched from him & dashed to the grounds, so  
that glass was scattered in all directions. He tried
to remonstrate with the policeman but before he had  
uttered two syllables he was thrashed unmercifully  
& then tripped up & sent sprawling into a dirty ditch.  
Whilst all this confusion was at its highest, the tram  
arrived & everything then went nice & quiet. The firing  
party & band formed up in front of us & the rest of 

Page 4 
his company. He came from New South Wales & the  
band was one of Sydneys best & we started off to the  
strains of Chopins Funeral March. It is very difficult  
to get our horses to walk so slowly, but my capable  
drivers were quite equal to the occasion & the traces 
were nice & tight all the way. Handels Dead March  
ame next & then we quickened till about ½ a mile  
from the Cemetery & then Chopins again. Unlike a  
military funeral in Melbourne, the band goes to the  
graveside as well & they played “Lead Kindly Light 
& "Nearer my God to Thee” very impressively. The  
cemetry was for English speaking people & a portion  
of it is reserved for the Military Forces. Whilst the  
service was on, a plague of locusts was in the  
cemetry & there was not millions or billions, but  
trillions of them & we could not see the walls of  
the cemetry & when we were returning to Camp,  
they were everywhere. It was a unique spectacle. 
Most of the hospitals here are run by the London  
Territorials now & have taken over from the Australians  
so this looks like as if we won’t be here for long.  
I am making a lot of bad mistakes in spelling
& ommissions in this letter but as I am writing in  
the mess room, there is every noise conceivable & 

Page 5 
arguments (political & otherwise) prevail & I have  
to knock off to “bog” in myself & the consequence is,  
I hardly know what I am writing at times.  
Charlie Sheldrake (who Mab knows) is a great Labour  
man & can get up an argument in any time.  
Jack Hall is out of Hospital again, I am glad  
to say, after his attack of Influenza. 
All the other boys are well, but Dowsett is beginning  
to go mad again & is not happy unless he has some body 
up before the Major. 
We are clipping our horses now & I am quite an 
experienced  hand at the game.  
I am sending along a couple of Post Cards of Tommy  
Goodall & Mrs Moon which will swell the collection.  
I will send along some more of the gun being floated  
over the canal & some others next week.  
I hope you got the reserved (another argument) registered parcel also  
the Souvenir of Egypt which I sent to you a fortnight  
ago. Well Mother dear, I’ve had my little “say” this  
week so will close with the best of love to you all  
at home & kindest regards to all enquirers.  
I remain 
Your loving Son 
Norman. 
[*Excuse the writing as the
 noise is maddening*]