Letters from Geoffrey Gordon McCrae to his family, October - December 1915 - Part 6

LEMNOS
28.12.1915
Dearest Helen.                                                                                                  

I must thank you for your                                                                              

many letters of October and for the 
flattering remarks therein. Of course
it is difficult to write a special
letter as all my news is embodied 
in my epistle to [[Mater?]].  Still I 
thought it was up to me seeing you
had writ so much. This place is
very drab at this season a 

marked contrast to the brilliant 

appearance in the spring. We live
and have our existence on dank
mud flats surrounded by sterile
hills which act as funnels 
to the clammy wind Thank God 
we are going South shortly. All 

postal arrangements are now at 
a stand still so there well be a
big gap between this and previous

letters .  By the way I think if you 
were to get [[Blegards?]] address 
from the Defence Department and   

ask him for the parcel  you will
get it all right. He's an absent minded
[[beggar"?]]. I haven't seen old Burston
yet he only lives a couple of miles
from here but I haven't scrapped
up enough energy to plough my way
through the mud there yet. poor
old [[Jimmy?]] doesn't appear to be a howling
success. from what one hears. I was
put on Observation work again when
we went back to the peninsular and
had a lovely station strong with
sand bags overhead cover & steel loopholes
from it I could watch every movement
from Gaba Tepe as far south as Achi Baba
and eastwards to Khalid Bhar Range
I had a staff of six continuously on
duty and every Abdul that moved a
note was made of it what he was

doing where he was going and the time
This I complied in a report each
evening so I became very familiar
with the peregrinations of the chosen
One day I went to a neighbouring station
to compare notes and whilst I was
there an Officer and a sergeant were
shot beside me. Il n'ya pas ^plus di dire
Much love from Geoff
1 DRL