Letters from Robert Edmund Antill to his Parents, 1914-1915 -Part 13

P. S.  
Will you 
please tell Lizzie  
that I recieved the  
papers f safely they paire 
just arrived after some  
delay 

(1.) 
July 4th  15 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sunday Evening 
July 4^th 1915 
(39) 
  
Dear Mother & Father, 
What a plesant 
suprise I got this afternoon, why I received 
3 letters & a bundle of Daily Mirrors  9 
of them altogether, the letters were 
from Mr Raymont, Dolly, & Dad. The letter 
I recieved from Dolly was a very nice one 
& in it she mentioned our brave special 
constable Herman, not so bad, all for a start 
to put out an eighteen pound bomb. I think 
you had better send him over here to put 
out a few in our trenches which the xxxxxx 
throw at us. The letter from Mr. Rayment was quite 
a suprise & you must thank him very 
much for it from me as I dont think I can get 
any writing paper is so scarce here & it was 
full of interesting news & a long one too (6 
pages, but the one from Dad caped the lot 
a real beautie  well I can tell you I feel 
as happy to night as I have felt for a long

(2.) 
time with all these letters & papers. I must 
say I am very pleased to here that every 
one is so well at home & what another 
suprise Roley going to be married well 
I suppose by this time, he is married, 
tell him I wish him jolly good luck & I 
only hope that this new start in life will 
be a success for him & Effie & will you 
just tell them just to send along a few 
lines as to p how they are goin on as 
it is a long while since I heard from 
them. There is one thing in Dad's letter 
I dont quite understand he says it was  
hard luck for Uncle Walter to get 
poped off so quick surely he has not 
been killed. if it is so its terrible sad 
is not it & what will Auntie Alice do & her 
2 children too but I only hope I have  
read this part of the letter wrong but 
some how I don't think I have for it 
reads too plane does not it, in your 
next letter will you please tell me a 
little more about him the last time I heard

(3.) 
about him was the time when he was in 
the hospitial with a posined foot. The day 
before yesterday I got a letter from a young  
lady & when I opened it & read the head 
lines from Miss Lizzie Potts I had to think 
for a long while to try & think if I could 
remember who it was & I am blessed if I  
could  so at last I had to start & read it 
& as soon as she mentioned Mr. 
Carter's name 
it came to me at once in here letter she 
says she sent me plenty of papers but 
I did not recieve them because the time 
they came I was in the hospitial at 
Lemnos Island, the letter she sent was 
the first I had recieved since the 22 
April so you can see how welcome these 
letters were: By the way I think in the last 
letter I sent you I said in it that I was 
returning to the xxxxxx well I am here 
as you gess. I got here last Tuesday & 
am 
back in the trenches again  we have altered 
our xxxxxx xxxxx a bit & the 2 we have 
got now are as good a positions as you

(4) 
could wish for or could possibley get & if 
xxxxx with his xxxxxxx come the game 
a bit to thick we y just give them a taste of 
our lead & by jove dont they like it (I dont 
think) as soon as we open fire over they go 
like nine pins & those who are lucky enough to 
escape make themselves pretty scarce I 
can tell you, these machine guns are awful 
things when you come to think of it, well 
we call them nail drivers for every time 
we here one open fire we say " There she 
goes driving a few more nails in some poor 
beggars coffin" & by jove if she finds her 
mark she do it only too well, but still its 
just a treat to be behind one & firing it & 
to see that you are doing good work with 
it & then all of a sudden along comes one 
of the xxx shrapnel shells & bursts just 
in front of us & by jove down go our 
heads quick & lively as you can gess, 
but still its marvelous what escapes we have 
this morning. one of our fellows was having 
his hair cut & a sniper got on to them

(5.) 
& aimed at his head but he missed & 
the fellow who was cutting his hair 
stopped it through the hand as he was 
putting them clippers round his head  that 
was not a bad escape was it.I was just 
thinking we are runing the list up, Cousin 
Willie in The Royal Flying Corps, Effies brother 
Bob in the R.A.M.C,  Ralphie in the A.S.C & 
special constable Hamin & Uncle Walter but 
still I suppose his soldiering is over now, 
well any way I think we have done our bit 
for the old country & as Dad says I only 
hope I shall be able to get home to help 
him run up the flag when peace is proclaimed. 
Well I am very pleased to here that Dad has 
got plenty of work & his old standard 
still holds good quality before quantity as it 
has proved with those lose boards, what a 
take down for Holloway Brothers ah. Dad 
has also found another job, best of all to 
give Effie away but by jove it wont do for 
him to wear kilts, do as we do cut our 
trousers short above the knees & wear patties

(6.) 
it keeps your legs nice & cool but its not 
too nice when we have to get down on 
our hands & knees on the hard ground 
I can tell you we wish we had left them 
long, then you can just see us getting up 
with the skin off our knees & and plenty of grit 
& dirt in them too, its enough to make us say 
some thing sometimes. Well you know I reckon 
its hard luck,thats two weddings I have missed 
I said to myself when Sally was married I'll 
be home in time for Roley's but  I have not got 
there yet but I am stuck here like a mole 
living in the ground but still if they send 
me over a piece of cake I will be satisfied 
I wonder if that parcel of eateables is on the 
road. I hope it is for I can tell I am 
longing  for something a bit tastie you 
can just fancy what its like bully beef 
& biscuits & a piece of salt bacon for a 
change, by the way I hope I am not 
asking for too much but you see I am out here 
& am almost helpless. but still I shall 
be able to have my turn some day

 (7) 
that will be the time when we arrive 
xxxxx won't it Ill bet you we will 
make up for lost time. I will just try & 
tell you what I have often thought this was 
when I was in Australia as well as here it 
was this, that when I get home I will come down 
the Green Lanes & Ill buy a great lump 
of silver side, green peas, potatoes, & fruit ect 
ect & Ill lob home with as much as I can 
carry & Ill have a feed like I used to have 
when I was home for I can honestly say that 
all the time I have been away now, which 
is a good time & all the places I been 
is I have never had a feed like the one 
I used to get on a Sunday dinner time in 
the old house, by jove it almost makes me kick 
my self with envy to think of it now to day 
Sunday what did my dinner consist of, cold bully 
& a few boiled onions & for tea biscuits , hard ones , some 
ranck cheese & a dixie of tea  now if I had a few 
scrimps or some water cress what a difference 
it would of made but still its no good talk– 
ing about these things is it, but I tell 
you what you could do if you would not mind

(8.) 
please & that is put a few tins of milk 
in that parcel & Ill tell you an other 
thing I think it would be a good idea 
to request the parcel xxxxxxxxxx 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
xxxxxxxxxxxxx I might not get 
it at all because I know fellows who 
have had letters & parcels sent to them & 
they have never seen them yet & I dont think 
they ever will so I think that will be the safest 
way. Well I have just about got through 
these 8 pages & you can see how hard up I am 
for writing paper & envelopes as I am using 
the backs of of old letters to write upon it 
seams a bit thick does not it, so I dont 
think it would be a bad idea to send out 
a writing pad & some envelopes do you & 
then I could write a bit more often. By 
the way how is Sally getting on I not heard 
from f her for a good while, well I think I 
will now close as I have no more paper 
hoping one & all are well at home 
I remain 
Your loving son 
Bob.