Letters and typescript copies from Florence Hobbes to her family, 1915-1918 - Part 2

Aunt Narelle
15^th March
1915

Just arrived Capetown, been up
since 5am in our [[?]] watching
the most wonderful sight as [[thick]]
mist came via Capetown & Durban

Night time Table Mountain is
glorious.

 

[*"Hat not so bad after all

& a comfort in this sun"*]

May 8th

My beloved family,

Since posting my letter to you on

Friday, things have been happening some & by the

time you get this I will in all probability  be

in Egypt or Malta - On Wed. Mrs Kirkealden

had a letter from the Matron War Office asking 
if she had a sealed letter from her Matron

at B.A.H. & the one they sent was only for Nurse

Welfman, of course the poor dear got a shock

as Nurse Welman had written from Melbourne

asking for a letter to Matron in Chief for

both of these.  Well they flew round to the War

Office to find out what they should do.  Matron

said they had better cable out & ask Matron

Newell to cable straight to her & they needed Nurse

at once, to show you how they need them, they

they have not looked at or asked for our one

of our testimonials, simply taken us on on our

Matrons letter sealed & last eve, we all

received wires reply paid "Would you go Malta

or Egypt on short notice"  of course we simply

yelled at one another through the phone we 

were so excited, we wired back , mine was "Yes

either place when ordered", the others "Yes, [?]

go either place Malta preferred & then it got

 

(2)

too late to know more & today Sunday you see.

They are sending all the wounded from the Darde

nelles back to Malta & Egypt poor dears, Oh! we

are so proud of them, you should hear the way they

English speak of them they adore them, they are

so proud of us - see - Im sending a paper with

a splendid account of the landing of the troops

send it to Weil will you as I think Edith is send-

ing the Times to Cls, the best one of all is in the

Pall Mall Gazette I want to keep & paste it

into this I would have sent it out but

cannot get any more copies it might

get lost on the way.  Its worth keeping &

handing on, its by Ashmead Bartlett who

is supposed to be the best & most reliable man 

& witnessed the landing - it spoke of the little

midshipmen in charge of each boat load of troops

being towed to shore "Standing side by side in the

dim light with these giants from Australia.

"At 4.53 a.m. there suddenly came a sharp

burst of rifle fire from the beach & we knew

our men were at last at grips with the enemy

I believe the sound came as a relief to the majority as

the suspense of this prolonged waiting had come

intolerable, this fire only lasted for a few minutes

& their was drowned by a faint British cheer

wafted wafted over the water to us " all the tows

had almost reached the beach when a party of

 

(3)

party of Turks entrenched on the shore opened up

a terrible fire fusillarde from rifle & machine it was a trying

moment but the Australian Volunteers rose as a man

to the occasion they waited neither for order nor for

boats to reach the beach, but springing out into the sea

waded ashore & formed some sort of line then rushed

straight on the flashes of the enemy their magazines

were not even charged so they went with cold steel.

the Turks in this trench were bayoneted or ran

& a [?] was captured. The Australians then

found themselves facing an almost perpendicular

cliff of loose sand stone & some where half way

up the enemy had a 2nd trench strongly held

from which they poured a terrible fire on the

troops below, & the boats pulling back to the destroyers

for the 2nd landing party.  Here was a tough proposition

to tackle in the darkness, but these men from over 

the sea Dominions are about all else practible, they went

about it in a practical manner, they stopped a few moments

to pull themselves together & get rid of their packs

which on troops should carry in an attack, they then

charged their magazines - Then this race of athletes

proceeded to scale the cliffs without responding to the

enemies fire.  They lost some men but di not

worry, & in less then ¼ of an hour the Turks were

out of their 2nd position, either bayonated on in

ful flight - The courage displayed by the wounded

Australian will never be forgotten -"  then he told

of how they were passed round the ships & continues

 

(4)

continues, I have never in fact seen the like of

these wounded Australians before in war for as they

were towed amongst the ships, while accomodation

wa being found for them. Although many were shot to

bits & without hope of recovery, their cheers resounded 

through the night & you could just see amidst

a mass of suffering humanity arms being waved in

in grating to the crews of the Warships, They were

happier because they had been tried for the first time

in the war & had not been found wanting.  They had

been told to occupy the heights & hold on & thus they

had done for 15 mortal hours under incessant shell

fire.  No finer feat of arms has been performed

during the was than this sudden landing in the

dark, this storming of the heights & landing in the

dark. This storming of the heights & above all the

holding on to the position thus won whilst reinforce-

ments were being poured from the transports.

These ran Colonial troops in those desperate

hours, proved themselves worthy to fight side by 

side with the heroes of Mons &the Aisne, Ypres,

& Neure Chapelle"  It was no disparagement to

any other past of our splendid force engaged

to say that our wonder & admiration is roused

in special degree by the fine fighting qualities displayed

by the Australians & N.Zealanders.  That they

would show magnificent  dash & courage nobody

doubted!  that they would display individual

initiative beyond that of the trained regular

many might expect, But, that their almost

perfect steadiness

 

 

(5)

steadiness should have sufficed to carry them through

that wild day of shot & shell without loss of cohesion

is a wonderful justification of the confidence

their leader Sir Ian Hamilton who knew then of

old reposed in them like the Canadians at [?]

the volunteer soldiers of Australia & N.Z. - have most

nobly made good".   Oh! I am so proud of our

when they are grand, & I am so glad to think

I will have a hand to nurse them, I did not

mean to copy all that our but I like that dis-

cription & it is probably not one you would get (we did with)

cls Geo & Donald would like I am sure.

Dont be surprised if my letters after this do not

go regularly for I dont know which way they

will go or where & just keep on writing to the

present address - It is so quaint belonging to the

War Office, you never know what is going to happen

next now I must go to bed - Later, Oh, my dears

the two girls were at tea with  some friends the

other night amongst them was a Mrs. someone who

had come over in the Orsova (I might add that

I have never had an answer to my letter to Mrs. Bleackly

on her return), well this Mr.s S. started talking  of her

trip home in the Orsova & talking about the passengers

She said "We had Lady Paty on board she tried to

run the ship being the Admirals wife but she

was rather nice (she is) & there was a Mrs.

Bleackly with a tiny baby which she simply handed

 

(6)

handed once to a 3rd class passenger My dears anything

[swift?] out of an aeroplane Ive never heard she

was beyond everything - I happened to go out in the

same boat with a Mrs. Botuison & this one as

brides & they were simply disgraceful,  they

were really naughty fast women, Lady Paty scarce

took any notice of Mrs. Bleackley whose husband was

on the Australia.  She had a sweet little baby

but one of the plainest mites you could see - She

never bothered about him simply handed him

over & had a ripping time with some of the

officers!  Well I just gasped - Oh! & she said her

clothes!  she scarce had a rag decent to her

back to land in England & she had borrowed

£5 from nearly every officer  man on board!!

Thank goodness she went back that

is one thing Mrs. Robertson did not do she never

got herself really talked & she was always very sweet &

indeed to any old people on board & the children

however after Mrs. B. you never know what they

will do.                          It is finally settled we go

Malta.  We flew round to the War Office

first thing on Monday morning saw Mrs.

Beecher the Matron- in -chief who told us she

was waiting to hear from 4 other nurses if they would

be ready to leave - if they were not - could we get ready

get our Military uniforms etc ready in three days

she would give us an Urgent letter to Shoolbreds

 

(7)

 

Shoolbred the[?] (7)Military uniform place & we

were to go straight to them & find out all we could,

got measured, etc & then go back to her & tell her

what was doing.  The poor soul is simply worked

off her feet, she is there at the War Office till 10p.m.

every night with 5 other helpers - off we flew & got

to Shoolbreds (Shortbread) I call him its less

German). We measured & saw our clothing - we

have hysterics every time we think of the uniform

& the HAT Nurses going to Malta or Egypt must have

hats instead of bonnets large brimmed grey straw

with a little band of that stiff sort of Petersham

ribbon with red white & blue stripes running round the

crown & a weird little bow at the side they are all the

same size with a bit of velvet inside, which if you have

a small head you draw up, if a large head you cut

it out. As B. [Purckaletie?] has red hair & bright colour if on

can imagine what the red of the uniform looks like

against it poor dear, & fortunately  that is only the out-

[?], we are not allowed to take 1 article of private

clothing, we do not wear stiff collars being Malta"  it was

very funny in the Shoolbreds, in the outfit room you were

asked are you "Malta" or "Egypt" Sister?  After fixing

up our uniforms etc in the regular outfit you are

allowed 8 aprons, 3 dresses ^ indoor grey zepher, so I thank

my stars I had some extra for I would be always be

running out of them, Why - that meant only 4 aprons a week.

The outdoor dresses grey alpaca, grey shoulder Cape

edged with red & grey sort of motor coat.

No more for this [?]

where we will find ourselves when

get out there, we hope it will be up in the

hills a bit as it will not be so hot, if we are sent

on further it will be most interesting & we hope

we will be.  I am just anticipating getting vacc

to typhoid, & I suppose really I ought to take out a

fresh policy for my insurance if we are sent further

I was wondering if it was wise to tell you to write to

Malta, of course it means we will get your letter

at the end of a month, instead of 7 weeks but if we

are being moved about still the people in charge

of the Military Hos will always know where we are.

We were going to put the name of the boat we were going

out by feel the blooming old censor wouldnt let us

he was nearly not letting us put where we were going

however he let that pass but struck out many [?]

The Ballarat also left yesterday with troops for the

Dardanelles, we were thinking how funny it would 

 have been if we had been sent out in her.  We

little thought when we were at Adelaide & saw the

Mongolia come in from London -  that our would be 

on her.  Now please do write often & tell me all the little

details & send me an occasional  Herald or something

for we will never hear any Aus news.  On Sunday morning 

we had we had the most beautiful service I've ever been

to. The Bishop of Kalgoorlie is on board, I think he is [?]

splendid. ^ Thursday 20th It was really just a simple address but

he spoke most beautifully.  By the way, I dont

believe I told you of the close shave we had

17

 

the Channel going Home, Capt picked up the

S.O.S. signals from a trawler we had passed

not an hour before, she had been torpedoed

pretty close wasnt it.  The Pilot wouldnt let

Capt go back said we had too many lives & valued

cargo to risk getting near so we fled, but everyone

was saved.  Then my dears, if you please on 

Monday, we were chased by a submarine, no one

knew till after, you know we had a gun on board

& gunners, which we transferred to the Orontes at Lib

well Monday was a most awful day, huge waves

everyone very sick, between 4 & 5 pm the chief

saw something following us, they discovered it

was a sub at first they thought it was

one of our own, but discovered it was another

& was trying to get us side on to us, they got the gun

ready for her to come into range, but when they saw

the gun, the cowards fled, but 3 times she

came up & each time the Mongolia was turned

so that they could not get a side shot; of course

had they got a shot in nothing would have saved

us with the sea that was running & very few

boats could have lived in it & nearly all the

people were in their cabins, sick, so Im afraid

Malta would not have seen us after all.  Tues was

a much nicer day & people began to come up

on deck again.  Wed at 8am we got to Lib. A 

wonderful old place, reminded me of Las Palmas

& Capeltown.  There were 9 warships in.  Sydney