Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1916 - Part 15 of 28

(from him 
Tell Mick Knapp that I have 
not forgotten him, altho’ Ive not heard 

Australian Base Depot.
Westham, Weymouth.
Dorset, England.
June 11^th 1916. 

My Dearest Mother & all at Home,
I am pleased to be  
able to tell you that I am still in perfect health, &  
am simply itching to be back on duty again, & I  
do hope that it will not be long before I am
allowed to do so.
We Enterics have the work of the
world to try & get away with a Draft to France,
& we only get the same answer each time we ask,  
& that is "Wait for the next one", but it is always
the same when the "next one" goes. 
I have passed
the remainder of my tests, the pathological report
shewing "Negative" so I have been innoculated
again, & am fit to go thro' anything again
now, & the sooner the better, & I'll be satisfied
that I am doing "my bit" again.
Yardley is
here in this camp with a "cold footed" job, but 

Page 2.
I am going to try & drag him back to France with
me, as he has a very bad name amongst the
boys, & it is right up to him to clear it, & there
is only one way to do that, & it won't be my
fault, & want of trying on my part, to get him
to prove that he is not the "cold footed" yob that
he is made out to be.
Of course he has been painted
blacker than he really is, but still he'll have to do
something big before he can get back into peoples
estimation of former days. Up to now, I made him
promise me that he will come with me to France,
& he has done so, & it remains to be seen whether
he will stick to his word of not. — If not, —
then I'll know what to think of him.
Do not
let his people know anything of this. Mum, because
every man is entitled to a second chance, altho'
Vin has had several, still "it is never too late to
mend" as the old proverb says.
This week, I have
met several of my old gunners, & all say that
they are going wherever I go, so you see that I 

Page 3 
still have the confidence of my splendid boys, & it's
great consolation to me to know this, & I hope
that their confidence will not have been misplaced,  
& that is one of the reasons why I am
anxious to get back to the front again.
Up to the
present, I have never done anything conspicious,  
altho' I have always tried to do my duty,
but if ever the opportunity comes for me to do
anything out of the ordinary, I hope that I'll
not be found wanting, altho' it takes one all
his time to do his duty at times like this.
I have
had several letters from Major Biddle, (the O.C. 4^th Battery)
& he says that he would like to get me back, but that
he is afraid that I am to go into the New Division at
Salisbury, & that I will be sure to get promotion
there, but some of my mates in the Battery in France
tell me not to try & get back to the 4^th B'ty, as things
are very unhappy there over bad promotions, so
just what to do at present, is a little confusing
to me, but so long as I get with some of the
old boys again, I'll be perfectly happy. 

Page 4.  
This last week has had some sensations what
with our brilliant Naval Victory, & the terrible
loss to the nation thro' the loss of Kitchener, but
we must never be down hearted, & we must be all
the more determined to see it thro' to a finish &
with victory all on our side, & it must be our
greatest ambition to send as many Germans as
possible to Hell, in as short a space of time as
possible, (providing "old Nick" will have them
there, & I believe even he has his limits,) but so
long as they get out of this world, it really doesn't
matter very much where they go to. 
The wonderful
successes of the Russians should be a grand
stimulant to any one who is "down in the dumps", &
I really believe that their efforts will be the
beginning of a gigantic offensive of all the Allies,
which has, for the time being, been prevented owing
to the German attacks on Verdun which has cost
them collossal casualties.
I had the pleasure of
speaking yesterday to a sailor on the destroyer
"Spitfire" which was behind the "Tipperary" in 

Page 5.    
great North Sea battle, & his story was awfully
fascinating & interesting?. His graphic description
of his boats attack on a big Battleship at
night, in which his boat raced up to within
75 yards at top speed, & slipped a torpedo into
The Hun boat, despite the fact, that the
Germans swung their 4 twelve inch guns on
to them at point blank & fired, & only one of
the shots hit & that carried away the bridge; —
he said that the explosion of their torpedo
opened up the Hun boat clean in half, & the
two halves just sank out of sight, & in fact
his whole story was truly wonderful.
He said,
that the sight of Jellicoes battleships coming
into it at top speed would never be forgotten,
& even when the "Iron Duke" was in action, the
line of battleships extended as far as the
horizon, & if daylight had only stayed 4 hours
longer, they would have touched the whole
German fleet off. His reason that the Destroyers
lost so heavily was, that they did not fire at
the German Destroyers, but dashed at, & rammed them.
"Some fight. eh" ?

Page 6.    
He told us that the "Warspite" was in her glory,
& altho' standing up to the concentrated fire of no
fewer than 5 boats, as well as submarine attacks, she
was hitting tremendously with her 15 inch guns, &
if the "Queen Lizzie" had only been there too, that
they could have accounted for the whole fleet.
His
boat was actually along side the "Queen Mary" when
she went down, & said That the "Queen Marys" last
salvo got home on a German boat who promptly
went to the bottom, & then the "Zeppelin" came down
too all on fire, so the Destroyer finished her off
too.
All this is stale news to you of course, but I wish
that I could describe it to you like the way this
sailor described it to us.
Last night, we saw a
big fleet of battleships & destroyers come in to
Weymouth from Patrol duty, & they did look
fine too. — they stayed for the night.
I am not
liking Weymouth too well, altho' a seaside place,
but we are neither Artillery, Light Horse or Infantry 

Page 7.  
& therefore we don't know what our duty is, & the
sooner I can get with an Artillery unit, the
happier I'll be.
I met a couple of South Yarra boys
yesterday, young Bowers from Fawkner St, & a
chap named McCauley (boot maker) in Toorak Rd,
& also young Little from Davis St, so the world
is small isn't it. 
All are well at Gravesend, &
send their love. I am having my photo taken
in compliance with wishes from Gravesend,  so
will send one with this letter, if they are done
in time.
I do hope that you all are as well
as I am. Give my affection to all relations
& friends, & my fondest love to all the family
& accept an extra ration for yourself
from
Your loving son
Norman.
PS.
I have had no letters
from Australia for over
3 weeks/
Norm/ 

I see that Revd C. E. Perry has got kicked out of his Church
at Camberwell for being too near Roman ideas / & has now
gone to New Zealand/ 

Australian Base Depot. 
Westham, Weymouth, Dorset.
England. June 18^th.  

Dearest Mother & all at Home,  
Many thanks for your
most welcome letters dated 2^nd & 7^th May, & for the
very kind expressions contained therein for my
birthday, which was certainly spent in far better
conditions than my last birthday. — yes I
am getting a real old batchelor now, & my bones
are beginning to scream like a wheel on a rusty
axle now, but I have plenty of dash & kick left in
me yet, thank goodness, & altho' my enclosed photo'
indicates a boy of about 18, yet I am painfully
concious of being over 30, but it has not begun to
worry me yet.
I received 2 letters from Mother; 1 from
Mab; 1 from Charl, & 1 from one of the Mint "boys", &
this is the first Australian mail that I have had
for 4 weeks, & I was most thankful to get it, also
there was 1 from Rupert which I was glad to get,
& to know that he is getting on so well, & hope
that he will always continue to do so. 

Page 2.  
The letter from the chap at the Mint described the
process of the silver coinage, etc, in compliance
with my former requests, & he tells me that none
of the "hands" are allowed to enlist, as they are
all wanted on "Urgent Commonwealth Duty". — 
They are very busy, & have had no leave at
all for 2 years, & their wages have not gone up
a single 1^d, & what with the price of living,
the 8/- per day married men are severely feeling
the pinch, so there is not much encouragement
for a man to hurry back to work, altho' I am
longing to see you all again of course.
In Charles
letter, he states that "there are several girls in the 
Mutual store reckoning on getting me", — I am afraid
that there is "nothing doing" in this respect whilst
wages are so low, & living so high.
The girls over
here are still madly in love with Australians, &
the enclosed letter will give you a little idea
what we have to put up with. The young
lady who wrote me this letter, as you can see, is
no dunce, & she is very talented in both Pianoforte,
Singing, & Painting; — having 3 certificates in each
work, & is a really nice looking, & a very well
dressed young lady, & one whom I am proud to know. 

Page 3.  
Her father is one of the senior Foremen in the Woolwich
Arsenal, & has tons of money, & altho' I knew this
young lady a fortnight, she seems to have "done
her block" over me for no reason at all, & I wrote
& told her so, & explained that I could not see anything
in me to appeal to her after so short an acquaintance
& this is her answer.
Now please do not think that
I have encouraged this girl, because I have not,
I only met her 4 times altogether, & she knows
exactly how I am situated, but I suppose
that she had to "blow off a little steam" some how,
& this is how she did it.
Mind you, as I said
before, I am very proud of her acquaintance, & I
told her that I would always remember her
kind sentiments towards me, & she does not
expect anything else, & I ask you to kindly
destroy her epistle after you have read it, but
please do not let any one outside of our family,
read, of know of it. I have simply sent it
to you to let you see how the Australian
boys are being rushed in England. 
As far as
I am concerned, the Australian girls will always
do me, but I have quite given up the idea of 

Page 4.  
getting married, until the Mint pays a living
wage, & I expect that that will be when I am
about 50 years of age. I always tell our boys
here, who contemplate matrimony, to "play the
game" with our girls as home, & not to forget them,
but really, our average girl will have to know
more of domestic affairs to compete with the
girls here. — There are very few girls here who
can't cook a decent dinner, & do a bit of sewing. 
Well, to change the subject; I am now in
Class "A" (fit for Active Service) & am going to Salisbury  
Plains next week. I was innoculated
again last week, & am fit for anything now,
& the sooner the better. All my tests have
proved "negative", so you can see that I am
quite free from Enteric germs. 
Weymouth is just
the same old hole, & will be glad to get out of it.
I hope you are all well. Give my kind
affection to all relations & my love to all the
family & accept the same from
Your loving son
Norman.
  
P.S. Thanks for the offer of money which
I am not in need of.
Norm.