Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1914-1915, Part 21 of 27

Lemnos 
24th September 1915
 
Dearest Mother & all at home, 
Just a few lines to 
let you know that I am enjoying a fortnights 
holiday here at present, & I can tell you I am 
beginning to feel something like my old self 
again, thank goodness, for I was feeling that 
run down, that I had to decline promotion to the 
rank of Sergeant Major in the Ammunition Column, as 
I felt so crook, but I am feeling grand again now 
& improving every day. We had a little difficulty in 
getting here & had to wade across portion of the bay in 
order to reach the rest camp, so what with being 
24 hours without anything to eat, and having our kits to 
carry & a good way to walk, we were pretty well good 
for nothing when we got here, but we have been treated 
splendidly ever since, & good" tucker", & no drill, except 
an hours marching in the morning, then we are off  
for the rest of the day, & go off to the different 
Greek Villages & visit the warships, etc etc & as the 
weather is fine, you can see we are thoroughly 
enjoying ourselves. The Greeks are peculiar people 
being content to live a quiet life, in houses

2/ 
built of unshaped stones or mud bricks. They 
are a clean healthy living people & very quiet, 
but appear to have no ambition to improve 
their mode of living, or get on in any way. 
The women folk are always spinning cotton & 
such like, dat  as their domestic duties don't take 
1/2 an hour a day & the men seem to have an 
easy life. 
There are all kinds of troops here, French, 
British, Senegalese, Zouaves, Australians & other kinds, as 
well as a lot of Turkish prisoners, who are a very 
contented looking lot, & are well cared for. 
There are any amount of British & French 
warships of all sorts here, & when they to get 
through the narrows, something is sure to happen. 
The new monitors are torpedo proof & have 
14 inch guns, so we are expecting great things 
of them. 
You will be surprised to learn that I 
have broken the pledge & have drunk a 
half bottle of stout one night. I was feeling  
pretty crook & one of my friends in the  
Medical unit came & doctored me up & made  
me drink it, but oh, what a horrid taste 
it has. Never again. Each man gets

1 DRL 266 
Let Constable Watson know that  
I'm doing alright