Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1916 - Part 1 of 28

Ward "M"
County of London War Hospital. 
Epsom, Surrey.
England Jan 12^th

Dearest Mother & all at Home.
Just a few lines to let
you know that I am quite well and am able to get
about again, and have been able to walk down to
Epsom town twice since I got up, and am getting
stronger each day. I am thinking to take a run
up to London in the 'bus one day next week, if the
weather keeps fine.
Epsom is not much of a town, &
the business places are small, & the prices of goods of
all kinds are exhorbitant. The butchers shops
are very nice & clean, & the meat in good condition,
but like the other places, the price is very high.
Liver seems to be a favourite dish
as most of the shops made a great show of that
delicacy, & the women folk can be heard discussing
the quality of this shop, compared with the one across
the road. Buttock steak was marked at 10' per lb, &
fore quarter chops at 8½ per lb. Rump steak was
very scarce & cost 2/- per lb; so this will give you
an idea of the price in England.
Fish is in great abundance & yet
the price is high as well, & rabbits are 2/- per pair. 

Page 2.
The houses are very old, & all look very damp, and
they are all in terraces, & on looking along every
street, there as nothing but terraces. Rows upon rows
of them, and very ugly too. No verandahs on any
one, & every house looks the same, both the front &
the back, & it is hard to tell which is the front. They
are all double story, however small they are, but
still by what I could see of the inside, the rooms
were spotlessly clean.
Each house has its little bit of
garden, & most of them are trying to cultivate a few
vegetables, such as cabbages, cauliflowers etc, & some
are very successful in this little enterprise.
Children are very clean & well
clothed, but I thought they seemed rather old fashioned
in their talk & ways, & yet if there is a waterhole about
the place, one will always find youngsters up to
their ankles in water & mud, sailing bits of plank
etc.
Women folk seem comfortably
dressed & are very clean, even if very poor, but are
blessed with that peculiar habit of blocking up the
foot paths with their prams, & indulging in that
awful gossip with women folk of their acquaintance. 

Page 3.
Girls, or “flappers“ as they are more familiarly known
as, are rather good looking, & stylishly dressed, and
all seem to have very red, & in some instances, blue
noses, due, no doubt to the cold weather, but they are
not nearly so robust looking as our Australian
girls, and they have little, or no idea of what the
Australian girl is like.
Of course, our boys tell them
all sorts of yarns of how our girls don’t go to work
until 10 am, & knock off at 4 o'clock, or thereabouts, &
this makes them mad with envy, & when they ask as
to what wages our girls get, the reply is" Oh, from
£2 to £3 per week, & no work on Saturdays". There
you see their eyes and mouths open. And if we talk of
the Ranges & Mountains & Fern Gullies etc, they get
quite romantic.
The men are very ordinary & just
go about their business in a very unconcerned way,
and if it were not for the numbers of soldiers to be
seen in the streets, it would be very hard to believe
that England was involved in her greatest war.
One never hears the war discussed
by the people, or even by the soldiers. Some people
never see a daily paper & do not bother to inquire. 

Page 4.
Bycp. Bicycles are in great evidence here, and ladies,
girls, men & boys, of all ages and descriptions are to be
seen flying about everywhere. Motor cars of all kinds
tear about at great speed, & even traction engines are to
be seen in no small numbers. The roads are wonderfully
good, and as level as a billiard table. There are still,
of course, fashionable people who still have their carriage
and pair, & they always look smart & stylish, and I
always take great notice of them.
The Policemen seem to
me to be very funny creatures, & they don't look nearly
as businesslike as our “Johns”, altho’ I do not doubt
their efficiency in any way, & they are very obliging.
The Australians are
thought a great deal of here, & people who come to see
us in hospital, are unstinted in their kindness to us.
Of course, a few of our
chaps in London play up at times, due no doubt, to the
good name we have got at Anzac, but most of these
“rowdies “ have never been near Gallipoli, but have
taken ill in Egypt, or Lemnos, & sent to England.
We are a o  very flash
crowd & have all had new tailor-made uniforms made at
the local tailors, and new felt hats, too. “Some swank eh" 

Page 5.
Well, “finish Gallipoli”, eh, & a good job too; A lasting
example of British bungling which is enough to make
those poor chaps who fell there, turn in their graves.
Anyhow we expect to get a chance out in the open
now, so I expect we'll be sent out Mesopotamia way.
In all the convalescent camps here, they are all
learning Light Horse drill, so that's a good sign. I
hope to rejoin my battery after my 6 weeks furlough,
but if not, then I'll try & get in the Light Horse.
I wasn't at all keen on going back to Anzac, but
now I am anxious for another “go”.
I have sent some Post Cards, & am sending a little
box of chocolate to Rupert (hoping he is a good boy), and a
small package of letters, & things I got at Xmas time.
Now Mother dear, don't worry about me, because
I'm doing fine, and am going for a “Cooks “ tour all over
England & I hope, Scotland, on my furlough. I will have
about ₤35 to do it on, as well as pay for my board at
Gravesend, so hope to have a good time, & I only wish that
you could come too. (all the Ellsworth family in fact).
Give my kindest regards to all relations & kind
enquirers, & to dear Mab, Chas, George, Rupert & Floss, my
very fondest love, & not forgetting your dear self,
from your loving son,
Norman. 

No mail from Melbourne since
I left Anzac, Sept 25^th, 1915.
N.

1DRL 266 

Jan. 12^th 1915

Ward "M"
County of London War Hospital
Epsom, Surrey.
England.
January 17^th 

Dearest Mother & all at Home.
Just a few lines
to let you know that I am feeling fine, & am
now my old self again, and yesterday the
Dr put me on to Ordinary Diet, & I am now
allowed to take all the exercise I like.
On Saturday, I
hope to take a run up to London, if the weather
keeps fine, & it looks as if it will; and it will
be a nice trip for me.
We learnt yesterday, that
our stool has to be tested 4 times, with 10 days
between each test, & if it shews negative results,
then we go into a convalescent camp for 1 month,
and after that, 6 weeks furlough, & then we go
before a medical board, who determines if we
are fit for Duty: Light Duty, or unfit, so it
will be some time yet before I can get back to
the front.
If the Board passes me as Light
Duties, then I have already been promised a job 

Page 2.
at the Base Records office in London, with the
rank of Sergeant Major at 12/6 per day, & 4/- per day living
allowance, the work is to visit the various
Australian Hospitals & fix up the Office duties.
The job doesn’t appeal to me much, & I hope
to get back with the Battery now, but it all
depends on the decision of the Board. Our old
Q.M.S. has a good job in this Office too, & so
have several of our boys.
It is easy to get a Commission
in the British Artillery here, & they are
rushing our boys, & several have got it, & one
of our Bombardiers has got his Commission in the
Royal Flying Corps, but in the Artillery, the
pay of a Lieutenant is only 7/6 per day, so it is
no good to me. If I can't get back to the 4^th
Battery, I am trying to get with Lieut Colonel
Cohens brigade (2^nd Artillery Division). Captain
Biddle has command of the 4^th now, & he is a fine
chap, & he gave Yardley another chance, when
no body else would look at him. Major Phillips
our old O.C. is in England, but will not even
recognise any of our boys in the streets, so this
will show you what sort of a "dog" he is.
I have been able to get down to Epsom 

Page 3.
every alternate day, & I attend the concerts &
plays in our big concert hall, & there is something
on nearly every night for the Anzacs, as they call us.
On Sunday mornings, I go to service in the
Chapel, the organ recital in the afternoon, & in
the night, I go in to Church in Epsom, so
this is good behaviour for your boy, isn’t it?
I met the Nurse who attended me in the
Heliopolis hospital when I had bad eyes; She is
Nursing in this place, & comes up & spends the
evenings with me, when there is no concert.
The English Nursing sisters do not like
our girls wearing the Red cape, but our girls
wont take them off. I am sending a few of
the letters & cards I got at Xmas, along with this
letter, just to let you see how I fared, also a
copy of the letter in the “Age” of the landing of the
first gun, which cousin Lucy typed for me.
Now Mother dear, I must close, as I’ve
no more news. Hoping you are all well & having
a good time & with fondest love to dear Mab,
Chas, George, Rupert, & Floss, & to all relations,
and a special “whack “ for your dear self
I remain
Your loving son
Norman

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