Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1916 - Part 6

quite a decent lot of food - bread & cheese 
sandwiches, bread & tongue, hard boiled eggs,
salmon, bully beef for a change, tomatoes &
fruit. We carry two "dixies” for making
tea - they are somewhat the shape of an old
thing you had in Cooma for boiling clothes in.
We take out a tablecloth & spread it under the
trees & so make matters quite enjoyeable.
This afternoon I decided to go for a ride instead
of waiting about for someone to be injured, so
left my regiment drilling & went for quite a
long run through the irrigated land. We have
had the opportunity while lunching of inspecting
the Cairo pumping plant which is situated
just at our lunching post & contains some
very fine machinery. Wesley & I have been into
the city a couple of times for afternoon tea at
Groppis which is our best place for such frivolities &
we meet there always numbers of people we know. I met no
less than eleven people the first afternoon - it is quite pleasant
to chat to them after being in camp for some time. Yesterday
we met Graham, saw some of our own officers there
& also Sister Lowe who was assistant matron at
Prince Alfred & left there with No TTT Aust Gen. Hospital
which was at Lemnos for a long time & has now
been established here in some old barracks

which are now being renovated. We
had another sports day here last Saturday
but the girls we invited did not come,
however we soon found a couple of
others we knew & entertained them at
afternoon tea. There are no indications of
our moving off yet & rumors of our
ultimate destination are as numerous &
as contradictory as ever. Must close now
for lack of news with best love to
all the family & a double share to
mother from
Her loving son
Wilf 

12. 2. 16 
My dear mother,
Another quiet & uneventful week
has passed by & we are still in our little camp by
the sea. We have had quite a number of visitors
this week, almost every meal we have had two or
thee extra & have had some merry meetings,
generally ending with a little game of bridge or
some old game such as Rickety Kate which a
number can play at the same time. During the
day we have been indulging in a little Ambulance
drill which has been interesting as I have never
done very much of it before. Beyond this, my dear
there is practically nothing to tell you as day
follows day with little change. One day however
I rode up to see Parry, who was in my year
& came came over with me in the same boat & is now
attached to another ambulance. We had
lunch together & a long talk over old times.
It was quite a pleasant ride along the beach
for 3 or 4 miles. Then yesterday afternoon, lo! &
behold! cousin John Evans & an officer from
his Ambulance came along to afternoon tea

and we had quite a roomfull as there were
two or three other people here. He looks very
well & likes El Arish. I am enclosing a
circular which was sent me from the
Sydney University Union - if you have any
spare photos of mine I would be glad
if you would send one along to them, but
please - no extract from letters. Today
we had a photo of the Ambulance taken
& I am sending my film up to Cairo
to be developed & hope to get a decent
picture from it. I am sending along
one or two photos I have taken with
my new camera & hope you like them.
One of the pictures you may recognize
or rather the chief figure in it, who is
myself. I really am very stuck for news my
dear & don't think I can fill any more pages
this time so will conclude there, with much
love & a hug from
Your loving son
Wilf. 

9^th L.H Regt.
Heliopolis,
16. 2. 16.
My dear mother,
I have just heard that
a mail is leaving tomorrow & I must send
you a few lines though my last letter will
probably not have left yet. I received two
of your letters at No 1 A.G.H. on enquiry
there for mail. They were dated Jan 7^th 
& Dec 31^st. If you had addressed them
to this regiment or ambulance they would
have found me much easier, you need never
have any scruples about addressing a letter to
the regiment even without any further particulars
as the military post office always knows
where the regiment is. The best address
is 9^th Light Horse Regiment, 3rd Light Horse Brigade,
Egypt, or if we moved from Egypt merely 
address it to the Regiment & Brigade as above 
& it will always find us. It is just as 
well to add the letters A.I.F. also though 
that is not absolutely necessary. You misunderstood 
my cable as regards address - when I said address 
Ambulance Egypt, I meant 3rd L.H.F. Amb. Egypt, 

however, the letter thus addressed
found me which is rather a tribute to the
postal officials as there are so many ambulances
in Egypt. Was glad to hear that you were
well & that Mab will probably be with you
at the present time & do hope that you will
have a trip away yourself soon. It is
just about a year since we were together
in Sydney - may we be together there again
before another year is my great desire
I commenced to write to you early tonight but
was interrupted & have not much time now as
reveille goes tomorrow at 4.30 a.m. for the
Brigade is going for a route march
(on horseback) to the Barage tomorrow
28 23 miles away & camping out at night
returning next day. It is now after nine
o'clock but I must try & send you some
word. I went into Cairo to church on
Sunday & spent the evening with the
Bryans. Mr Bryans brother from Alexandria
was there also & another gentleman & his
wife. They were all Welsh as usual &
made frequent references to parts of
Wales & spoke a few Welsh sentences.
Except for that I have been out little,

but just remember, that I went to No TTT
Aust. Gen. Hospital to dinner on Saturday night
with Sister Demestre who was at Prince
Alfred Hospital. She was one of the oldest
sisters there & one of the most unpopular
but she has rather improved out here. Wesley
& I were to go & dine with Sister Lowe who was
assistant matron at Prince Alfred but she had
been moved from No TTT A.G.H before the night
arrived & Sister Demestre insisted on us
going to dine with her. Wesley however had
an attack of influenza & I was left to face
the music alone. There were thousands of
Sisters there or so it appeared but I
was not very alarmed & spent rather an
interesting time. Several other Prince Alfred
girls were there & Sister Demestre had the
decency to bring along something younger
in the nurse line to talk to which was
pleasant of her. I have now a new nag
to ride, a fine ∧bay pony which reminds me of
Charley he is such a pet, loves sugar & such
like items. He is quiet & a fine hack & a
good substantial pony, just the thing for a
doc's horse. I still have the other old 

one too & the groom rides him. But I
had better close & trot off to bed my
dear with best love to all the family
& mother's usual share from
Your loving son
Wilf 

9^th Light Horse Regt.,
24. 2. 16.
My dear mother,
I forget whether I had received your
two letters when I wrote last, but think I had. Since
then I have had one from Harry & one from Ern & Alice
which were very welcome indeed. We are still jogging
along here but word has come to hand this week
that we are to move to. Gallipoli the Canal in a
few days time. I think the object is to get the troops
away from Cairo & to do a little patrol work down there
It will probably be fairly warm & sandy but on the
whole not such a bad place. I have been fairly busy
during the last day or two buying enamel plates & cups
for the mess & have found it rather a big task but it is
almost finished now. We are packing the things in a
nice wicker basket which I have bought & will
contain them very nicely. We I think I told you last
week that we were going to the Barage & we quite
enjoyed the trip. I had to appear at a court-
martial on the day that the others left, so. I stayed
until they some hours after their departure & followed
them with my groom. We had a much more pleasant

trip than we should have had with the
Brigade as we were able to go at our own
pace, where as the Brigade went along at
a very slow monotonous rate. We took lunch
with us & halted by the roadside under the
shade of a tree, watered our horses in a small
canal, bought them some greenstuff from a
native near by & made short work of our
own sandwiches & oranges. The ride was a
very pretty one, but very similar to those I have
so frequently described to you - level green fields
on either side intersected by small irrigation
canals, with cattle grazing in some places &
small herds of goats shepherded by children
to prevent them going on the young crops
occasional clumps of palms scattered over
the landscape & the inevitable mud villages.
We accomplished the 23 miles in less than
four hours & found that the Brigade had
only just fed & watered their horses & themselves
when we arrived. We went for a stroll round
the gardens after this, then I looked round
the lines to see that they were being kept properly
clean & finally had tea. After this we smoked
& talked & went to bed. The Colonel, Major
Barlow (a dear old chap who has left us to take