Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1916 - Part 21 of 28

N^o 1 Battery. 
Australian Artillery Training Depot. 
Bulford; Salisbury.
Wills; England . 
August 5^th 1917⁶. 
  
My Dearest Mother, & all at Home, 
I am just 
longing for news from home.  -  I cannot  
get a letter of any description since I  
came to Salisbury from Weymouth, and  
altho' there is a Post and Telegraph Office, & 
all that sort of thing here, yet I cannot  
get my mail, & I know that there must  
be a pile of it somewhere, & I have been  
into our Headquarters in London, & told  
them to re-address all Mail to me, or to 
Harriet Coles house in Gravesend, - & 
I have also written to the Dead Letter  
Office, to ask them to search for my back 
Mail, but I have not even got an acknowledgement 
of my letter, so I suppose  
I shall have to write to them again. 
The  
most annoying thing about it is "that  
the authorities know exactly where I 

2 
am, & can put their hands on me instantly 
if they wanted me urgently for the front",  
& yet they don't seem to care about 
sending my letters on to me. (or it seems  
so to me) so you can well imagine my  
feelings about the whole affair. 
The only 
letters that I have had from you since  
I went into camp at Weymouth are the  
two that I got whilst I was at Gravesend 
recently, and which I acknowledged in 
my letter of last week to you, but please  
do not think, that I am inferring that  
you have not written to me, because I  
know that you have; - and others have  
written as well, as there is only the Postal  
Authorities to blame, so I want you in 
the future, if you will, to address all  
my mail to C/o Miss. H. Cole, 28 Cobham St 
Gravesend, Kent, & I will always let 
her know where I am, & she has kindly  
promised to readdress it on to me, so  
this should rectify these irregularities. 
Now 
for another complaint (oh: yes Mum, I 

3 
am very "liverish" this morning). I cannot,  
for the life of me, get away with a  
Draft to France. - I have tried all 
this week, & it is always the same old 
answer. "No Sergeants wanted in this 
Draft", & so I have got to stick on in 
this place, & I am simply itching to get 
back to my place with the guns again, 
but I hope to get away shortly, & when  
I do, I will take it out of the Germans 
for all this delay. 
A Staff Officer from 
the 3^rd Australian Division, (just arrived 
from Australia, & stationed at Lark Hill) 
came over to our Depot, & interviewed all 
the 1^st Division Sergeants, & asked us to  
transfer over to the new Division as Instructors, 
with the rank of Battery Sergeant Major,  
but I told him that I preferred to get away  
with the first Draft to France to rejoin 
my old Unit if possible, & he told me  
that he did not like my chance of getting  
away, as there were no vacancies for 
Sergeants, & he then asked me, as a  
favour, to transfer over, & he would see  

4 
that I would be put in Major Churchus' 
Battery (29^th), so I told him that I would  
think it over, but in the meantime, If I  
got a chance to go to France, I would  
lose no time in doing so, as I do not know  
where I really am going to, but I do  
hope I can rejoin the old boys again. 
I  
have been able to keep myself up-to-date 
in Artillery work, thro' the curtesy of the  
"Tommy" Instructors , & also with the 
latest books on Artillery work that I  
have purchased in London, so that I  
am not backward in my work, & I am  
instructing some of the junior N.C.O^s who  
are with me, every day, in some new  
formula work, & also in the use of the  
various new instruments connected with  
measuring angles, etc, which simply 
pervades Artillery work, & gunnery. 
Time 
hangs very heavy on ones hands here, as  
there is nowhere to go, except to sit down 
on the banks of the beautiful Avon river 
& read, & sleep but one gets tired of even this. 

5. 
This Staff Officer told me that if I came over,  
a Commission would eventually follow, but I  
told him that this was quite out of the question 
owing to education in the first place, & expense  
in the second, & it is practically useless to try 
& keep up the rank with out these two necessaries 
A man nowadays requires a University  
education to keep up with the times, especially  
in Gunnery, which is mostly mathematics, &  
Trigonometry, & the class, of man coming forward 
now to fill the Commissioned Ranks, are mostly  
students and Teachers, & such like, & consequently 
they can work out difficult angles, etc, in  
their heads, whilst we poor wretches are  
struggling with sheets of foolscap & lead-pencils, 
etc & going thro' the tortures of  
mental confusion of trying to divide 5.7% into 
179 3/10^ths & all that kind of thing, but when  
it comes to handling the gun & sights etc,  
I put them all in the shade, but they  
will soon pick up my work, but I  
will not soon pick up theirs, but for  
all that, I have improved my knowledge 
of Artillery work out of all reason, & am  
far ahead of myself when in Egypt. 

6 
Everything seems to be going well at the  
Front, & Russia is rapidly moving on, both 
towards Constantinople, & towards Germany,  
& before many months have passed, both  
these things will be accomplished facts. 
On  
our front, our Guns are lined up wheel to  
wheel, & there are no fewer than 8 rows of 
them, & all of calibres, & the supply of  
ammunition is good & plenty, & the bombardment 
goes on night and day, & this must  
go on, as the only way to beat them (the  
Germans) is by smashing them, & everything 
& places of theirs, by artillery fire, so I  
think, taking everything into consideration 
& providing the Salonica people do  
something soon, that the war will be 
over by next July. - Everybody  
here is more than confident now. 
The  
latest Zeppelin raid was a farce, & only  
a few horses were killed, so if they  
cannot do more damage than that,  
it is not worth the while or expense &
risk to carry those raids on. 

7 
This afternoon, I am going to a big military  
sports carnival, in which Cavalry; Horses &  
Field Artillery, & other units are taking 
part in, as I hope to see something  
good.
I have not seen any relations of  
ours in the new contingents from Austr 
yet, but I expect to run across them  
some day.
I have not learned from May  
Tilton, of Jack, for months, despite  
the fact that I have written to both  
several times, - still I expect that  
both have got more to do than write 
letters, still, I would like to hear  
from them.
I am very anxious to know  
how Amy & Marion Ellsworth are. -  
I often think of them both. - It surprised 
me greatly to hear of Amys illness, but  
I hope that she has fully recovered by  
now. 
To-morrow will be the anniversary  
of our attack on Lone Pine; & 971, where  
so many of our brave boys went down, 

Sunday August 6^th 1916 (Anniversy of "Lone Pine" & 971) 
7
Well Mother, I went to the sports yesterday  
afternoon, & enjoyed them very much, & saw 
some very fine horsemanship, & skill at arms. 
I am enclosing the programmes & this will  
show you the variety of events which was  
included in the show. - The Australians 
& New Zealanders excelled in riding, & in the 
tug of war, the New Zealand team simply 
staggered the crowd by their great physiques 
& when the "Tommy" team came up to contest 
the event, they looked like a lot of  
weaklings in comparison, altho' they were 
a fair average build team, but when the 
word 'go' went the New Zealanders simply  
walked away with them, as if there was  
absolutely no resistance whatsoever. 
For  
the rest of the show, most of the events  
were well contested, but these shows of  
course have their humourous side, & these 
are the opportunities where the N.C.O's & 
men get a bit of their own back on the  
Officers & Officials in the Arena.
For  
instance, our Officer in the jumping event 

8 
(Mounted on an out-of-date hunter, very  
stiff in the legs) when going thro' his  
turn, each time it came to the hurdle,  
would leap a great height into the air,  
& the officer, (being an indifferent rider,) 
left the saddle, & the caustic remarks 
that were hurled at him by the crowd,  
were very funny. - One old Sergeant 
Major near me, called out "Nah them 
Sir, this is a [[goompin?]], not a flying", 
& this remark fairly brought down the house. 
Retorts of course, were out of the question, 
so the barrackers had things quite their 
own way, but the competitors took it all 
in good part.
During the afternoon an Aeroplane 
gave us a very impromptu performance 
which delighted us immensely. 
Aeroplanes are in such numbers out here, 
that one never notices them, but we knew  
& heard that one was flying over us some 
where, when all of a sudden, his engine 
stopped: - instantly all eyes were turned  
upwards, & we saw this aeroplanely coming  
down in beautiful spiral pir circles 

9 
& volplaning in an extraordinary manner 
& when within 200 feet of our course, he 
suddenly started his engine again, &  
soared upwards. It was a delightful  
exhibition & we were delighted with  
his sporting action of this impromptu 
item.
I heard last night, that it is very  
likely that I will be sent over to Lark  
Hill, to transfer into the 3^rd Division, so  
if this happens, I will cable you to this  
effect. -- Bill Moon has also been  
asked to go over too, so that I'll not  
be alone. 
I am sending this letter by  
the Mail going via America, as the 
Mediterranean is full of German S- 
marines at present, & Mail boats seem 
to have  some particular Charm which  
fascinates U boats, so I'll try and  
send each week by this route, - if  
not, then I'll take the risk, because I  
want to drop you a line each week, 
if it is only a page, to let you know 
that I am still in the best of health. 

10 
You mentioned in your letter that Marie 
Harris had made me a pair of mittens, &  
a pair of knee caps. - It is awfully  
kind of her, but I am so well off for  
mufflers; scarfs; mittens; & gloves that  
I am not in need of them at present 
anyway, but I want you to thank her  
very much for them. Poor old Julia, too,  
also made me a lot of things like these, 
but what I do want, is socks & singlets,  
as these are very scarce. -  Money, 
I have sufficient for my present needs,  
so rest yourself on that point. 
Now, Mum, 
I think I have finished for this week, so  
will draw to a conclusion, hoping 
that you are all in the best of health. 
Give my love to dear Mab; Charlie; 
George; Rupert; Floss; Aunts, Uncles, & 
cousins, & my kindest regards to all  
friends & enquirers, & my best love  
to your dear self, 
Believe me,  
Your loving Son, 
Norman.