Letters and typescript copies from Florence Hobbes to her family, 1915-1918 - Part 5

him my love, also the [[Ithaca?]] girls. I wrote to

them from London one day.

If you have any Australian papers, you

might send some along for our boys will you?

They do love them old M^r Scrivener, the manager

of the Commercial Bank, London, sends me some

now & again & they do love them, he comes from

Melbourne, & is such a very nice old man, his

son, Lieut Scrivener is out at the Dardanelles,

I see from Geoff Yomans from Brewarrina is

wounded. Kit when I see names of men I know,

wounded, it just fills me with horror to think they

might be going through what Ive seen some of the

men here going through, the poor dears, I hate

to think of Frank & Holt out there fighting those

fiends, its all too cruel.

Now I must stop dear & write some of

the others. Oceans of the best of love to

you & Donald and the children, tell 

them to write me sometimes, I hope Jack Webb

will be all right but we cannot expect our menfolk

to slip through without a scratch, but please 

God it will not be like some of them.

Adieu darling ever your loving

Narrie

The Canaretta

Military Hospital

Valetta - Malta

July 10th 1915

My beloved people

Thou long suffering ones, don't blame me, blame the

weather of this place, put heat of Brewarrina with the moisture of

Sydney and you have pretty well got it. I dont wonder that the Maltese

people are fat as ever, all you want to do is lie down and sleep, sleep

and get up, then lie down again and sleep, thank goodness we only have

two months more of it and then winter, I wonder where we will be for it.

I think Ill need that waistcoat Mrs Mack was going to give me??

My dears, we had a most fascinating afternoon on

Thursday, I do wish I could tell you about it all, but it is distinctly

naval and forbidden I cant do it, but I guess two or three of us spent

some hours that have been the envy of the hospital, we adored every

minute of it, and held conversation with a man who has done one of the

bravest things during this part of the war and he was not a bit of a 

lion really to talk to.

Of course this is going to be a deadly stodgy letter

because a new list has gone up of all the things we are to leave unsaid

in our letters, and by the time we leave them all unsaid, well there is 

nothing to say.  I see poor Wilfred Hartridge has been wounded, I must go

up to the P&O place and see if he is on the Island, he is the nice

youngster from the Brewarrina Bush Brothers, I hope he is all right, I

do hope the other boys get through safely, they were told to take 2

trenches the other day and they took 4, consequences were our own guns

were pouring shell into them from the sea, they are naughty the way they

race ahead, but how everyone loves themm it makes me proud to be an

Australian really.

I'm longing for some letters, it seems such ages since I heard, they

come and go in the most erratic way possible. Many thanks mother dear,

for the mail of June 6th, I got it to-day and will hand it on to the boys 

in the ward, they will love it, got a fresh batch of Australians in
yesterday but nearly all of them were medical cases.

Monday 12th July. Oh darlings I sort of dont know where to begin,

such a mail day, I've not had any letters for nearly a fortnight, of

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course we are very lucky to get letters the way we do considering we

are on active service and its war time, but one does so long for something

that is right from home, even if there is just absolutely no news in it.

Well to-day over in the ward I said to the Sister working with me, "I

should give just anything I could to go over to the Camaretta to dinner

and find an Australian mail for me there", and lo, as I crossed the

street I saw three sisters standing up the stairs shaking their fists at

me and saying "you mean thing the whole mail is for you", I made one

bound and tore round the balcony as tho I had been shot from a gun, and

there was a pile of letters, I could not believe they were really all

for me, till the Home Sister said "You need not go through them Sister

they are all yours". I bounded into the dining room to see how many

Els and Rose had and ran into Matron who said it looked as tho I needed

a day off duty and an orderlie to carry up my mail. I could hardly

bother having any dinner but guessed that by the time I had finished

reading I would be ready for food, so sat and ate food, and then came to

my room, undressed, and got just into bloomers and singlet (of the

thinnest), before I opened one letter, took my hair down so the perspiration
could dry, threw myself on the bed and devoured letters, 14,

oh scrummie, and such letters, and as I am having a whole afternoon off

duty Im just going to answer as many of them as I can to-day, darling

mummy, that was a noble letter of yours, you know you do write such

ripping letters eh what!, then I had two from Josie, 2 from Jean, your 

two, 2 from Els, kit, Smithie, Franko, and so on, a regular gala day,

I did rejoice, ever so many thanks dears, you simply dont know how letter

letters are appreciated just now, and we hear simply no Australian news,

Rose and Elsie and I always share one anothers news, its so nice having

those two here, of course Rose is my favourite, she is really a very

sweet girl, she and Elsie trained together at R.P.A.H

I started this on Saturday and was telling you about the B11 and

E12, of course it was all most fascinating especially after what they have

done. I went up to the Castille and inquired for Wilfred Hartridge the

other day, he is evidentally not on the island as they could not trace

him. My dear, there are crowds of Hospitals here, the one Miss Greig is

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Matron of is Beghi, B-gee. We were not sent to Cotonera, which is on

the other side of one of the harbours, but are right here in Valetta,

at the old original hospital. Then there are about eight other places, or

so - but do tell anyone coming here to look me up, even if it is only for

a few minutes, they take a Carroszin and ask for Military Hospital, in

Valetta, then ask for Matron who is very sweet, a Miss Brown. We have

really been having a very light time for the last week and more, and feel

quite bucked up, I dont know what would have happened if we had been working

through this heat as we worked the first month or so that we were here.

You dear souls, how busy you must be with Red Cross sewing, Els tell

them that Hospitals all want little pillows or pads for supporting

amputated limbs, or fractured limbs. You just make a little bag and fill

it with all the pieces from the cutting out or brown wool , and stitch it

up and they like to put an outer cover of jaconette or oilcloth macintosh

all the better, we can do with dozens of them.

Imagine Australian / sending so much $2,000,000, oh they are

great little people are the people on our island, and yet the Australian

men get blamed for everything that is done, simply because they do

things openly and dont mind if they are found out, whilst the English

Tommies do things behind the Officers backs and dont get found out, and

then the Australians are blamed for it. But all the same I'm jolly

proud of being an Australian, they are splendid, I do wish I could just

write as I want to, its hateful to feel that outside eyes plod through ones

letters. Els I'd have loved to have seen those rotters of Germans when

you all sang " God save the King" in the train, eugh, to think we ever

shook hands with a German, loathesome reptiles, look if I was married to 

one I'd simply have to leave him.

16th July. We are really having quite a slack time, they have been filling
up the other Hospitals, and we have a crowd of extra sisters who have

arrived from England, so the Sisters who came over first are being sent off

duty for two and a half days to pick up, I wish I could just fly over to

old Australia for a day or two.

Yes do see if Mr Hartridge has any friends to go to, he is very shy

till you know him, but a dear and very amusing. I've got a dear soul in

my ward now who will be going back first chance, paralysed, his people

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live down at Wagga, Worth by name

Elsie Wellman wants her sister to go and call on you, her sister is

married to a Mr Wilcox, they are very well off and live somewhere out at

Darling Point, her husband has been frightfully ill and she misses

Elsie very much.

Oceans of love darlings all frm

Narrie

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at night, & walk round & round our 66 tents,

but I like being out here really very much,

its much fresher than, than the city, it was

getting very murkey in there before I was sent

out here, we are right up on some hills and 

look out across the ocean, which is as blue as 

our own dear ocean, & intensly salt, you know it is

much more salty than the Atlantic or Pacific, &

its much easier to swim in it, you can probably 

find out all about that in those big books of

yours. We were nearly washed out of the

tents one day last week, had a thunderstorm

like our Australian storms, & it simply raced

down the rocky slopes - Malta is all rock where

it is not house - & through the tents carrying

half the hillside with it, they had deep trenches

dug round all the tents & the water ran down so

quickly that it was simply overflowed the trench

& flowed through the tents, the orderlies were almost

heartbroken & I found them, a few hours later 

seriously bailing out tents & pushing out the mud

with the flat of a broom, Ive never met anything

like it, & the best of it is they say that was

only threatening rain, it was not real rain.

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Please excuse the lead pencil dear, but I

cannot find my fountain pen, am afraid I 

have left this it at the quarters & will have

to wait till I get there to address this.

Since the rain it's beginning to look so

pretty everywhere, the grass is springing up

all round the tents & and on all the terraces,

& is growing so quickly, but we have no birds

here, the only birds Ive seen are the old

sparrows, & one day, in a shop I saw two little

lovebirds, you know the little green & yellow ones we

have in Australia, & two Quarrians, felt I wanted 

to buy them right away, & they had to fairly drag

me away from the shop, I did love them so.

All the Sisters' working in the Camps are most 

fearfully sunburnt, nearly the colour of a niggar,

& there is a white mark round our neck where

the collars end & on to our hands where the 

cuff ends, I'm sure if we have another summer

in camp or out here we will turn into blacks.

Must stop now dear, I love to hear all about 

your horses & dogs & cats & know what they are 

doing, have you still got all those dear birds

in the cage? & does Donnie ride much now?

does "Jimmy Tyson " still fight Dan & how 

many raw eggs has Kathleen eaten? I would

love to see the fat little puss sitting eating.

them, however does she do it.

Give them all great big hugs for me, I

would just love to slip over & land in the

middle of Gunyerwarildi, What have Stanley &

Bruce M^cMaster joined? ask Mother to tell me

when she writes.

Ever so much love to you all dears from

Narelle

This is a leaf from the Dardanelles, one

of my patients game me some, note the

spikes, every bush over there has spikes.

& they run into the knees & legs of the

men in the trenches.

Camaratta

Malta

July 17th 1915

My dearest old Els

Enclosed are a few snaps I thought you might like. The

avenue to Groot Schurre does not look much in this one, Ive a better one

somewhere, but it really was rather splendid. There are pine trees and

on each side was quite a deep bush, smelling of mouldy damp leaves, and

here and there huge oak trees with cheeky little squirrels throwing down

acorns at you, and then further up it sort of  opened out a bit and there

were lovely plumbago hedges, simply blue with flowers, and lovely trenches

of colour up the mountain side, I loved what we saw of Africa, and when

I go back I think Ill go that way, tho I would like very much to go back

by the B.I.S.N boat via Java but am afraid that would be beyond me. But

now I am over this side there are such dozens of things I want to see

before I go back, what I should love would be for one of you girls to

be over here and meet me in London, who knows what will happen in the

next few years.

Am having quite a slack time just now, a crowd of new sisters came out

from England so they have been put into the wards, and all the sisters who 

were here for the rush have been given two and a half days off duty, so

I am spending this morning getting all letters of my chest, will have a

great clearance and then start afresh, then this afternoon we are

going for a picnic round the island somewhere. Tomorrow we have not

decided what we will do, and the next day I believe some of us are g

going over to a little island near by called Gozo. We leave here about

6.30 a.M, and get over about 8 a.m. Then there are some rather jolly

places on the island here to go and see, but its so hot you dont feel

like getting around in it, but as soon as it starts to cool off we will

get busy and see things, eh what?

We are getting so tired of seeing men in Khaki especially if the coats

have no pleats in them? ? (cos why the pleated coats belong to our men,

and we are never tired of seeing them, the English men have plain coats,

very ugly). But we always feel we must greet our own Australians, and

they generally recognise us as being Australian sisters, they all say we

are different to the English sisters, that we are more understanding.

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and upon my word I believe them. One man, trying to explain in what

way he meant said "Well for instance you Australians sisters know how

to lift a man, like a man does, not drag him up in bed pulling bed clothes

and dressings with him". That is one of the most expressive things he

could say and I knew just what he meant. I want you to meet two of my

boys when they go back to Australia, especially Worth, he is the cutest

soul possible, I had him for an hour one evening trying to pick a flower 

up off his bed and carry it to his nose, and he was so excited when he

did it, that he nearly wept, and amused himself for ages doing it over and

over again, it was most pathetic. His people are not well off, they have

something to do with the water works at Wagga, I'd get you to look after

him when he gets to Sydney, but he would be too heavy a case, and would want

a trained nurse and Hospital things, but I want you to look him up. The

other man Weir can go over to Balkair, he too has his right arm amputated

and spends hours, practising writing with his left hand, such a fine big

healthy looking man ( I mean he can go over to just see you as he will not

be considered an invalid.) I hope Mr Andrews or any of the A.M.C men I

know do not land out here, it would be rather awkward as we are not

allowed to have anything to do with them, more than just our ward work.

(Can you see me telling Mr Andrews or Lindon Brown or some of the others

to take a B.P. to a patient or sweep a ward, and a few other little things

The boats don't call in at Malta on their way over from Australia, our

letters are put off at Port Said or somewhere in Italy, and come anyhow,

but we are really lucky to get them as we do considering its war time and

we are on active service. I had a letter from Airini yesterday, she said

she was just getting over "flu" poor girl, she ought to go up to Brewarrina
again. I saw by the paper that Geoff Thomas had been wounded, I

do hope not seriously, when I see some of these men, and think it might

be any of our boys it makes me sick, and I wonder if I would like to 

have them right here in my ward, or just be able to go and see them.

Ocean of love dearies all, and write often, and tell me all you hear,

we get no news more often than not and what we hear is not always reliable

and do send some Australian papers, get some of your friends to, and tell

them also, the men love getting letters, they have been getting some

addressed to "A wounded Australian soldier" Military Hospital, Malta -

or Egypt as the case may , they love them, filled with all sorts of