Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/2/1 - January - March 1915 - Part 2

January 2   9.
would have meant a strike of the men
his employer shifted him to another class
of job at 28/- , "I lost that," he told me, 
"by joining the territorials. I went away
to  xx camp & when I came back
I found a chap working in my place
at 20/- a week. They took me back
at my and the two of us were working
for a time side by side - but the foreman
came along & started grousing at the expense
of having to pay me so much when they
could get a chap to do the work at 20/- &
so I lost my job."  I
He was devoted to his officer.
"Its curious how you get attached to 
a man," he said. "Its a 
"Ah like it at Cairo, well enough," he said in 
his broad Lancashire said" of course - there.  "Ah laak it
well enough at Cairo," he said.
"O' course there's lots to do but it
keeps you movin' an' employed
all the time. Sometimes ah get dead
tired of it an' I ah think ah'd
like to leave his belt to clean in the

January 2.   10.
mornin '. But then he maat want
it an' he'd have to find drop it in,
an' ah doant want that whatever
happens. If anythin' was to happen
to him - if anythin' was to happen - I
doan' know what I'd do. But if
If anyone was to touch 'im " - he
banged one fist into the other, x shook
his head & clenched his teeth - "I could,
I could do anything. I don't know
what I'd do if I lost 'm. It's 
curious how you get attached to
a man. Ah don't know if he knows
it - ah dont suppose he does ...."
He was going to be called at
5 a.m. the next morning to clean his
of major's belt & have everything ready
for him when he called him at 7 a.m.
He had been  He was rather late
going to bed hm. "He knows ah'm no
saint," he told me.
Next morning he showed me the 
belt burnished bright. I think that was
one of the things he lived for. And I

Jan. 2 & 3.  11
daresay, as he said, his boss didnt
know it. The boss was I saw at breakfast
next day (Jan 3.- on which I am writing this)
He was a rather abrupt ordinary looking
officer, sandy  _^slightly  florrid rather sunburnt & freckled,
with a toothbrush moustache, ginger coloured.
But when He passed one or two abrupt
remarks at breakfast (after I had spoken
to him). But he afterwards turned out
to be not half so frosty as he looked &
I daresay, with knowing, he was really
one of the very best.
(Sund) Jan 3. Went to see _^the general officer Bingley
commanding this morning, & was shown into the
room of General Bingley himself, to whom
Blamey had given me that letter. He
was most kind. He first explained
me, very graphically, in a few lucid
sentences, the defence scheme of
the Canal. There are [Shorthand] 
[ Shorthand] 3 x. [Shorthand] 1 x  The [Shorthand]
Suez [Shorthand] 2 important [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] , Shatt [Shorthand] Sinai [Shorthand] Khoubra}

Cox at Cantara
21 Ind Bde.
(Wilson 22Bdier)
22 Ind Bde.          Wilson (1Bde)

Imp.S.Cav.Bde.   Moascar
"        "  Inf.   "        Suez (1Bde)
one of inf Bdes
has 3.1.s. Regts in it
Ismailia Ferry
56. Rifles
Frontier Bde. Younghusband.

21 K.
32.Bde (mixed)
Younghusband.
M.
22
Inf. Cav.
---Inf.
28 Bde also ran
29 Bde.
→22 Bde
38--- 2 Rajputs Serapeum also ran
1 Bde
Suez.

32

33
27 Punjabis
128 Pioneers
4 Gwalior

January 3.   12.
[Shorthand]The [Shorthand] 
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand] Ismailia [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 4th [Shorthand] at Kantara [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 
[Shorthand] 3 [Shorthand] Gen - [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] at Suez  Gen Wilson [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] camp at Mouskar [Shorthand] Ismailia -
2 [Shorthand]  Cox [Shorthand] Kantara or [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] The [Shorthand] S. [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
push x [Shorthand] Our [Shorthand] Cairo
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
also [Shorthand] posts [Shorthand]
6 [Shorthand] 4.5 [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand] a chit [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] chit [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]every [Shorthand] 
[Shorthand] easy [Shorthand] It is 
impossible to have posts every

seaplanes

January 3.   13.
mile or so because of the dispersion it wd
cause.
But [Shorthand]the most important means of obtaining infm as to the interior
of Sinai [Shorthand] is by aeroplane patrol. These are conducted from Suez & Port Said
[Shorthand ]by aeroplanes [Shorthand] and from Ismailia by aeroplane. The trouble is that the seaplanes [Shorthand]
which they have at Ism. are not very modern ones. (Gen. Bingley [Shorthand]
gave me an intro a pass to see them afterwards
& I went over)[Shorthand]  and the seaplanes are rather over-rated. They cannot fly
[Shorthand] very far and they are not very fast and they cannot land except on water [Shorthand]which of course xx
[Shorthand] doesn't abound in these parts. The seaplanes cant quite cover the distance [Shorthand] between P.Sd & Suez
[Shorthand] between them - there is a bit in the middle which they don't seem to be able to reach. 
xxx [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]  30 [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand] B.E. A1 [Shorthand] 75 [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]

[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
S.E. of Suez. [Shorthand] 
[Shorthand] 
Ism. [Shorthand] (via Suez) [Shorthand] 
Nakhl - halfway to Akaba,
80 xx miles f Suez. He x [Shorthand] 300 [Shorthand]
 

January 3.   14
[Shorthand]which landed 200 [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 2 p.m. [Shorthand] 3.30, 
[Shorthand]
The aviators Maj. Massey who commands the
aviators tells me that the desert is
very easy to find your way about. From
4000 feet up you can see both 
Port S. [Shorthand] The
only town there is this town of Nahkl.
About 10 miles out from here you get
on rough stone country - windworn
sandstone ridges with drift sand
in between, where it is impossible
to land.
The Turks are expectd I had lunch 
with Maj. Howard at the Camp of the
22nd Brigade at Mouskar - Gen Bingley
gave me a letter to him. He showed me
all round the camp of his brigade & the
cavalry brigade Hyderabad, Mysore,
Patiala, next to it.  All the cavalry
here is Imperial Service Cavalry & one of 
all the infantry batt brigades has three
Imperial Service regts in it. The men look

January 3.   15
well, big fellows, smart in their drill,
well clothed & equipped with the short rifle;
but [Shorthand] but their weakness is a lack of officers - they have only four or
[Shorthand]five Brit officers from regiments. Nothing can quite make up for that.
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]  
[Shorthand]

[*Shorthand*]

There are [Shorthand] Dirty Dick
& the Yellow Peril. [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] Moaskar [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 
[Shorthand] 
The aeroplanes are kept in
4 great wooden hangers near the
aerodrome, wh is a hard stretch
of desert.  [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] 12 [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]  xxxxx [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] Gen Bingley
[Shorthand] Col Elmslie [Shorthand] 56^th [Shorthand]
[Shorthand]Ismailia [Shorthand] 

January 3.   16.
walked [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] was nothing but sand 
the flower gardens & great trees now 
grow in profusion. In some places a tree
very much like our sheoak - but greater,
I fancy, than our sheoak cd ever
become grows in such profusion that
it is an absolute forest.
[Shorthand] 
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand] Requin
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]bec. they are so obviously trenches. xxx [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] newer sort [Shorthand] without
[Shorthand] 400 
[Shorthand]
[Shorthand]  glad [Shorthand] Egypt [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] realise [Shorthand] front
 

17
( page missed out)

January 3. 4    18.
[Shorthand] for them [Shorthand] certain death - esp. [Shorthand] native [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] are not keen {Shorthand]cold weather, they do feel [Shorthand] bit
[Shorthand] stationed [Shorthand]6 [Shorthand] 56^th) [Shorthand]
[Shorthand] lot wh [Shorthand] Aden [Shorthand]
 

Jan. 4^th (Monday) Got up early in order to go
with General Bingley on board the Indian
Hospital ship which has arrived in port.
I dont think I was late - I had to be at
Headquarters at 8 & I think he made the
mistake of thinking it was at the Quay -
I went to headquarters & had been there 10
minutes when Capt Duncan, his A.D.C., or
staff Captain, came in. told The general
had gone on & sent him off to bring
me in case I had lost my way.
We went off in another launch & found
the others on board. There was General
Wilson (He was a brigadier when he arrived, 
in charge of the 22nd Brigade ) but by the
chance of his being here when others moved
on he has become a general of division
& practically, now, of any army corps -
He commands the ?11^th Division consisting