Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1918 - Part 13

Conflict:

First World War, 1914–18

Subject:

Documents and letters

Status:

Finalised

Accession number:

RCDIG0000963

Difficulty:

22.11.18.
My dear mother
I must settle down this morning &
try to write you a short letter as since our last operations
I have become rather irregular in my writing habits &
time tends to slip away without one realizing it. Many
thanks for the cake from the Civil Service which arrived
in very good order & was greatly appreciated. We
have now settled down to camp routine & have tents
once again so that we shall be reasonably comfortable
in spite of weather conditions. The weather which was
so unpropitious when I last wrote has now cleared
up & we have had a succession of glorious days.
Now that the war is to all intents & purposes finished,
I cannot take very much interest in things military
& am only anxious to get home again. I wrote
to Col Downes again putting up my case once
more & he said he would do his best for
me but could at present give no dates.
So I don't quite know how matters

stand at present, as I have nothing definite to
go on. Still I think a month or two now
ought to do it with any luck & if I see
the slightest chance I will rush it. Of
course everyone is wanting to get home now
& there is rather a rush on, but in any case
I think I should be well to the fore.
We are doing so little here at present that
I feel that I am just wasting time &
so am more anxious than ever.
Since I last wrote you I went for a fine trip
up to the hills of Lebanon from here. These huge
mountains rise sheer out of the plain to a height
of 10000 feet & from a distance look
absolutely barren. Their tops are covered
in snow too. But strange to say a
motor road has been constructed
right into the heart of them to a place
called Bisheeri & in order to scale
the heights it winds backwards &
forwards in immeasurable loops with

many sharp horseshoe bends. Instead of the
barren country one expects to see, there is a
rich land, & made rich solely by the
exertion of the inhabitants. The Lebanese
are almost all Christian & form a sharp
contrast to the Mohammedan peoples
in their general habits & industry & their superior
type of villages. Whole mountain sides
where one would hardly think a goat could
live, so steep & rocky are they, have
been terraced & cleared & the small
terraces thus made carefully plowed &
sown with crop. It is difficult to
gain any idea of it without seeing for
ones-self, these hundreds of terraces
supervening one on the other & converting a
barren hill side to a fertile land.
Innumerable villages most of them
pretty & clean & surrounded with
orchards and olive tree are dotted all
along the road. The view as one mounts

higher becomes truly magnificent, as
the whole of the coastal plain is spread
out at one's feet with the sea beyond
it. Near Bisheeri is the last remaining
group of cedar trees for which the Lebanon
was once so famous, but as we obtained
a good view of them from the road &
it is a steep walk of about 3 miles
to them I was quite content with the
distant view. We lunched at what
purports to be a hotel - Major Jackson
an oldish Scotsman on headquarters here
& I formed the party - & were charged a
ruinous price for a very modest lunch.
It is cooked in an adjacent room,
the only means of heating being two small
open braziers on which the pots are
placed. Consequently the meal even
for two took some time to prepare.
We came back along another route
round a tremendous gorge whose
steep rocky sides dropped precipitously
for hundreds of feet. The trip

altogether must have been about 100 miles
& I hardly think you would enjoy coming
round some of the steep hair pin
bends in a car, but it was on the
whole a delightful outing. Since then
we have been fairly quiet here not very
much to occupy ourselves with & plenty
of time to do it in. We are all hoping to
be moved back to Egypt but of
that there is no sign at present
& it almost looks as if we are
doomed for a winter here. However
I hope not for yours truly. With
any luck I hope to be away in a
couple of months at least.
No more this time my dear, lots of
love to all & mothers extra share
from
Her loving son
Wilf.

Lieber's Code used

My dear mother,
No less than five letters arrived from you this
mail & of course I was delighted. You spoke of your
pleasure to hear that I am coming home & I only hope
that you will not he too disappointed at ~~not~~ my
not being with you for Xmas. I hope however to
spend Xmas on the water with any luck at all.
I told you in my last, that I had seen Col
Downes about it or rather written to him & that he
has asked permission to send me on transport
duty at an early date, probably the next hospital
transport which leaves. I have had a couple
of letters from Jack lately & he seemed to be
well & having a good time near Jerusalem.
I am very glad that he, like myself, was
lucky enough to dodge malaria when
so many others around us developed the
disease, as it is rather a nuisance in after
life to have recurring attacks of fever.
Just at present I am detached from

Division for a few days to one of the
Ambulances - the 4^th this time. All the medicos
in the Ambulance practically had been
ill & the man in charge was away at
Cairo buying Xmas things for the men. At
the time we could send no one else to the
Ambulance so I came over for a few
days to take charge until the real C.O.
returned from Cairo. It is rather an
enjoyeable change running a unit again
but I expect to be back with Divisional
Headquarters again within a few days &
after that hope to receive my marching
orders to Australia. You understand I
suppose that one of the chief causes of
my delay in coming home was the last
operation on this front, when I could hardly
be spared. We have had more rain
again today, it commenced last night
or rather in the early hours of the morning
& my tent came down with a rush just
as I had lit a lamp and struggled into

DEUTSCHE PALASTINA-BANK
BERLIN-HAMBURG
ALEXANDRETTE-BEIRUT-DAMASKUS-HAIFA-JAFFA-JERUSALEM-TRIPOLI (SYRIEN)
Agenturen: Nablus—Nazareth.
Aktienkapital: Mark 20 000 000.—; Reserven: Mark 3500 000.—
Telegramm-Adresse:
Patestinbank. Tripoli,
Lieber’s Code used. (Syrien)

my boots & overcoat. So I was compelled
to crawl out from the collapsed tent
into the downpour & the next thing I saw
was another collapsed tent next door, which
had sheltered two new officers who had
only arrived on the previous day & had
up till then thought campaigning quite a
fine life. I stood in the rain grinning
- couldn't help it & then dodged down
to see how the patients were faring.
One big marquee came down & the men
had to be hauled from under it & put in
another, another sick officer's tent was
on the verge of collapsing when I
with the aid of an orderly managed
to save it just in time. Meantime I
was drenched to the skin, but fortunately
day was breaking & I woke my orderly &

rescued some clothes from under the tent &
succeeded in finding a dry shirt & pair of
trousers & a cardigan jacket. In these
I am now attired & am gaily writing to
you in the mess tent which fortunately
survived the storm, with a little help from me
in the matter of driving in tent pegs.
I was sorry my dear to hear that indigestion
is still worrying you & hope that you will
go & consult someone if it continues
to do so, such as Rennie or Mills.
Now that the war is practically finished we
are acting here as the army of occupation
to keep order in the country. Our chief work
is trying to provide amusements for the men
& we are giving them football matches,
touring parties to the old ruins at Baalbek,
swimming parties to the sea & in addition
educational schemes are being commenced
to try & give men some opportunity of
picking up trades before their return.

DEUTSCHE PALASTINA BANK
BERLIN-HAMBURG
ALEXANDRETTE-BEIRUT-DAMASKUS-HAIFA-JAFFA-JERUSALEM-TRIPOLI (SYRIEN)
Agenturen: Nablus—Nazareth.
Aktienkapital: Mark 20 000 000.—; Reserven: Mark 3500 000.—
Telegramm-Adresse:
Palestinbank. Tripoli,
Lieber's Code used. (Syrien)

The trouble is that the horses take up so much
of the men's time & attention that they do not
have too much spare for other things.
Since I came here I've been quite busy
as there is quite a lot to do in running even
a unit like an Ambulance. Something or
other is always cropping up to do.
I'm keeping fit & well & am only anxious
to go home now.
Lunch is here so I must say
goodbye with lots of love
from
Your loving son
Wilf

Last edited by:

Jacqueline Kennedy

Last edited on:

3 August 2024, 8:14 pm

Last updated: 3 August 2024