Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1916 - Part 2

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in the profession that
the maker of Thomas'
splints was an ancestor.
It's funny that English
people love ancestry
& Australians don't care
very much. He was such
a jovial little man & I liked
him immensely, he remembers
you well & said to ask
you if you remember making
tea for him & another
young man who lived opposite.
We could not stay very
long as he had to run away
but I hope to go to Wardan
where he is at present about
1½ hours trip from here
tomorrow if possible & have
quite a long chat.
Yesterday afternoon Charley

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& I went into Cairo to meet
Buchanan who was in our year
& has been here since the
commencement of the war.
His mother & sister have recently
come over & are staying in
Cairo & we went with them
to look over an old mosque
& then to an afternoon tea at
the home of the Minister for the
Interior who holds an afternoon
tea every fortnight for military
folk. Good number of people
were there but it was rather
boring. Went to church
after packed full.
Hand tired best love for
all & a double share
to mother from
Her loving son
Wilf.
The cake was a beauty, the men
in the tent all send thanks. 

1
No I Aust. Gen. Hospital,
Heliopolis,
9.1.16.

My dear mother,
You will doubtless be very
surprised to see the old address on the letter
again unless you have heard before this by
other means & strange to say I'm here as
a patient though I can't describe myself
as sick. I developed a slight influenzal
attack the other day with a little temperature
& asked one of the men in the ambulance
to do my sick parade for me next
day, which he did, & then sent me
over here as he thought it much more
comfortable. However I was almost
well when I arrived here & have felt
a perfect fraud ever since, which is
only a period of two days, for I'm
as fat as can be since going

2
to Gallipoli, for the trousers I brought
from Sydney will hardly button round
my waist & everyone I meet here remarks
how fat I became at Anzac. Wesley & Parry
both did the same so we had a photo taken
the other day which I wl will send along to
you - it is cheap & nasty. About three days
ago I paid my promised visit to Cousin
John Evans at Wardan. I went by train
from here at 1.40 p.m, skirting the banks
of the Nile through beautiful irrigated land
for the first part of the trip & then turning
off into barren desert. The journey occupied
about 1½ hours & I alighted at a typical
"Gyppy" wayside station in the midst of
a barren plain of fine sand with a strong
breeze blowing the aforesaid sand into every
available crevice, & caught sight of
a British encampment a short distance
away partly smothered in sand. There
I directed my steps & after numerous
enquiries succeed in finding the required
tent & there was my cousin sor snoring
away peacefully in a tent which was as tightly 

3
closed in as possible to keep out the sand.
The poor beggar had lost all his kit &
had practically nothing in the tent save a
stretcher bed & he didn't look at all comfy.
Strictly between you & me, British people
can't look after themselves like the colonials,
it was notorious at Gallipoli how little the
British soldier knew of ordinary bush cooking
or rigging himself up a decent shelter & so on
- of course he has never had to do it at
home. An Australian batman would have
been ashamed to leave his masters' tent
as poorly fitted up as my cousin's man
had done. However we settled down to talk
& he told me lots & lots of things about the
family, wanted to know if you remembered
the big bowl of lollies in father's shop
which he used to feed on. He is such
a jolly chap & good company, told
me about Grandpa Evans at Bryngwran
Farm, what a clever & witty old chap 

4
he was & how he used to drink.
His wife whose maiden name was Anwy l
was one of the Welsh royal line, as
his sister had told me previously - very
humorous. One of father's sisters or rather
his only one married a clergyman named
Davies who has a good living at
Carnavon or Clanarvon or some such place
where he himself lived. Then there is
still a brother in Liverpool I think
he said & one at Bryngwran Farm.
He told me about his brother's committing
suicide, which I remember reading about
some years ago since when both his father &
mother have died. He says that his own
father was very severe & partly attributes
his brother's death to that. I had
afternoon tea with him & then went to
catch my train, under his escort
to the station as it was dark, &
the train being very late I did not
arrive in Cairo until about 9 pm.

5
I had grown hungry by this time so
I went & I had some refreshment
of a light kind. Then I was going
to the tram to come home when I
was tapped on the shoulder by one
of the younger generation from Prince
Alfred who had come over recently &
he persuaded me to help him escort
two of the nurses back to Ghezireh
Hospital whom he had with him
at the time. When we arrived there we
met more people we knew amg
among them Buchanan who was in
my year & Morgan who was in the
following year. Buchanan had
a motorbike & side car with him
& said he was coming to Heliopolis
& would drive me here. However
before leaving Ghezireh Hospital
we sighted a fire & must needs 

6 
go there at full speed on the motor
bike. It proved to be in one of the
river boats owned by Cooks which is
used for passenger traffic to Luxor.
There was another large boat tied
to it's outer side & quite a large number
of others tied along the wharves close to
it but lower down & a strong wind
was blowing the flames down on them
The fire brigade was very slow in
commencing work but eventually managed
to get some hoses going after much
gesticulating & talking among the niggers
who ran the show. By this time about 10 or
15 khaki-clad men had appeared on the
scene in addition to ourselves & our offer of
help which was at first refused was
eventually accepted & we got a small boat
& rowed out to the boat which was tied
up on the outside of the burning vessel & freed
her & tried to push her off. However
she caught fire before we could get
her well away & we beat a hasty 

7
retreat when the decks began to get hot.
Then we rowed downstream & freed several
other boats & with the aid of the tide got
them fairly well out of danger. It
was late by this time so Buchanan
& I after first taken Morgan home on the
bike went off to Heliopolis at great
speed & it is then I think I developed
my influenza as I had not carried
a coat to Wardan thinking I would
be home early, & the night air here
as you know is chilly. The next night
I had promised to go into dinner
with Buchanan & his mother & sister
though I was not keen on it, but he
would have been offended if I did
not go. Dinner at the abominable
hour of 8 p.m. at the boarding house
where they stay in Cairo kept by
two scotch ladies - not a bad
spread.  Afterwards went to 

8 
the picture show - my own inclinations
would have been for a good spee sleep but
could hardly excuse myself. Then supper
at Saults in Cairo & home at 12.30.
Very tired. Mrs Buchanan I met before
once or twice when I dined with them
in Sydney at Dulwich Hill one of
the straight-laced variety, does not
attract me greatly.  Daughter not
half bad, very closely watched by
mother - just as well in Cairo.
Buchanan wanted to entice me
into the trip to Luxor with himself
& people - but "not in these trousers"
(in vulgar parlance) - I would like to
go to Luxor but prefer to have a
free hand. It is a town right away
down in the centre of Egypt are on
the Nile & is very interesting is reached
by the railway Kitchener built to
Omdurman & is interesting historically