Letters of John William Axtens, 1917 - 1918 - Part 1

Machine Gun 
managed to get 
trying, mal 

Th
Liverpool.
8.5.17
My dear Mother,           
Arrived here O.K. yesterday
to find ∼ not to my surprise ∼ that
our sailing had been cancelled. There
is some doubt as to how they’re
going to send me away, as all reinforcements
to the 8^th M. G. C. are now
sent from S. Australia. and District Headquarters
have said that I must go with 
reinforcements to my own unit ; so there
you are, where are you? I went over to
“Strathairlie” last night and saw Geoff.
I was to go over tonight again, but
had to wire this morning saying
I couldn’t go, as we had a night 
march on. I had a letter from Reg
Webb’s young brother, Sid yesterday,
saying that he was to come into
camp yesterday, but haven’t seen him
yet. I met another of the Rabaul

Machine Gun boys today; he has just
managed to get accepted after a lot of
trying, malaria being the cause.
There are a lot of troops leaving tomorrow
including N. Zealanders. We had 
have been selected for the noble job
of lining the streets. O, my country!
what I have suffered for you!
I expect it will be Seymour for me
in a short time but I’ll write 
as soon as I know anything. Please
give Madeline my address, she is
going to send me some snaps.
Love to yourself,
Dad and the kids,
Your Son
Jack.
Machine Gun Coy.}
Technical Battalion}
Liverpool.}
P.S. I gave Aunty Mill the order
for the Caracul coats. Did
they get there O.K.? J.w.a.

Liverpool
21.5.17.
My dear Mother,
Your card arrived this
afternoon and the socks a few days ago;
thank you very much for them, they’re 
great. The W. E. W. party were due to leave
this morning about 8.30! I’ll bet it was 
a good deal later than that though. Geoff is 
going with them, and he & Gordon are managing
the driving. Tomorrow I have the 
cheerful job of going to a Military Funeral
as we are supplying the firing party & 
pall bearers. Thursday is Empire Day & 
I expect there will be some turnout from
here. There is to be a concert and demonstration
in the Town Hall at night. No news of 
going away yet, but am hoping on. I saw
Bob Cadden today ∼ he looks very bad, has
something wrong with his heart I think.
You or Dad met his wife didn’t you?
I’m glad you met Ella Gilbert, she is

a fine girl. Ern Bishop’s wife is to leave England on
about June 7. I heard that poor Ern died
of gas poisoning. No more news at present.
Love to Dad and all the kids and much for 
yourself,
Your Son
Jack.

Technical Battn.

Liverpool

28.5.17

My dear Mother,

This is to wish you “Many 
Happy Returns” and to give you my fondest 
love. I hope it arrives in time. I could not 
think what to get you so I’m enclosing a 
note for you to buy yourself something 
with. Don’t forget ∼ it’s got to be spent and 
let me know what you get please.

Your letter enclosing the photo of the kids 
arrived a few days ago. Lola is the only one 
who looks as she is, and Phylis wouldn’t 
be bad except for the eyes. I am very glad the 
business is improving so well and sincerely 
hope it keeps on. You will be glad to hear 
that I have my second star. I find that 
I’ve been entitled to it since November 1^st 
last. I had a letter from Madeline enclosing 
some snaps. It arrived today having 
been posted on the 19^th. Some postal service! 

Did the “Strathairlie” party arrive O.K.?

I heard that they were seen in Mosman 
at 9.30 so conclude the 8.30 start was 
a myth. I suppose you’ve had Uncle Charlie 
over as well. Elsie Holden wrote me this 
mail, dated 30.3.17 she writes a good letter 
and seems to go on without any effort. 

I’m enclosing a bit of verse written by 
one of the officers here; it was inspired 
by the extract from a prayer, quoted at 
the top. I think it’s very good. I spent the 
weekend at Mosman ∼ went round to Uncle 
Herbert’s on Sunday afternoon.

Our crowd is being put through their 
final musketry this week and next, so 
our departure for Seymour ought to take 
place soon. Did you hear from Ray? 

Will write again soon. Love to yourself, 
Dad and the kids.

Your Son

Jack.

Technical Battn

Liverpool.

31.5.17

My dear Mother,

Your letter and the one 
enclosed of Ray’s came yesterday. I have 
left it with Auntie Flo. I was over at 
Ross’s last night to a send off to Nurse 
Hickson, Mrs Ross’ sister. There were 
several other nurses from the Coast 
Hospital whom I know. They are leaving 
on the Mooltan. I have found out 
today that I am to be allotted to the 
next reinforcements of the 30^th Battalion. 
This will mean that I won’t have to 
go to Seymour, but direct to England. 
As the reinforcement has not yet been 
formed I expect to be here a few weeks 
yet. I saw Uncle Charlie for a few minutes 
last night, and expect to see him 
again if I get this weekend off. Our 
company has been on range practices 
all this week so I’ve had a fairly 

easy time in charge of the butts. 
There was a bit of trouble at the 
Concentration Camp last night. There 
are a lot of Slavs, Hesygovinians 
and other odds and ends whose sympathies 
are with the Allies (so they say) and 
who have volunteered to fight with the 
Servians. They got into an argument 
with the German element there, and 
with the assistance of large bludgeons 
made things fairly lively 
among themselves. Today a sorting out 
process took place and some 150 men 
from Liverpool were on hand in case of 
trouble. The pro-Allies are to be given 
and opportunity to fight with the Servians 
and are to be shipped away soon.

Did you get the registered letter O.K.?

Love to yourself, Dad and the kids

Your Son

Jack.

P.S. The English letters were 
from Gwen Tombs & Elsie Holden.

No 2.

At Sea.

My dear Mother,

We’re now on our way to our second 
port of call, and though we’re not allowed to mention 
names of places, I guess you’ll have no 
trouble in locating them. We had three days 
in port and everyone had a good time; on Saturday 

I was in charge of the Racecourse 
picket and so didn’t have much opportunity 
of looking round. It rained most of the 
afternoon and made things pretty miserable. In 
the evening most of the officers met at the 
Durham Club and later went round to the 
Marine Hotel for dinner. The Marine is a 
beautiful place on the esplanade and provides 
a real good feed. We met some of the 
officers from the “B_∼", who were at Liverpool when 
I was there. Sid Webb, Reg’s young brother, is 
also on board her but I haven’t seen him yet.

On Sunday afternoon I went out to see Mr 
Henwood, whom I met coming out. No leave 
was granted on Monday and we sailed about 
2.30 pm. Had rather a rough time Monday

2.

night and yesterday ∼ the patients in the forward 
hospital had to be brought aft, and 
several rafts were washed overboard. To-day it 
is beautifully fine again and we can just 
see the coast, there is a smudge of smoke 
ahead which represents the B_∼  We 
hope to reach port again in a couple of 
days and expect to put in a week there. 
I think our crowd were about the best behaved 
troops who have been there for some 
time ∼ only three failed to embark again and 
they were from Bendigo gaol. I’ll send a 
cable when we arrive in England which 
we ought  to reach early in September. Tomorrow 
is the anniversary of my wound. 
It doesn’t seem like twelve months. I’ll 
write again Mother, before we sail again. 
Im sending you copies of the ship’s newspaper 
in another envelope. Fondest love 
to yourself, Dad and all the kids.

Your Son

Jack.