Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/36/1 - December 1915 - January 1916 - Part 5

43
There ws no sort of order
getting off / boat at Folkestone 
it was a push of generals
privates staff officers junior
regimental officers, troopers
N.C.Os. Belgians French and mostly British all
squeezing for the
gangway like a Railway station
crowd. But at Victoria
the scene was really impressive
Trooping up / platform & off into
London came / men - each w his
rifle, x / mud of France still
on his boots, his haversack
or kitbag full of food &
curios - a bits of shell or bomb,
probably - There were wooden
boxes on / platform where
they cd change their money
for English. There was
a tea stall just by / door gate
where they cd get a good tea
& cake - to keep them out of /
pubs; there was / girl ticket

44
collector in rly uniform doing /
work o / men away in France;
there were officials asking them
where they wanted to go to &
showing them / way. There were
/ faces of anxious relations,
sisters, wives, mothers,
fathers, peering for them over
/ wooden barrier. One staff officer
& his wife were walking up /
platform when a youngster in /
crowd suddenly halted rigidly in
front of them clicked his heels
& saluted - I heard something
abt "old man " so probably
it was a son - And then /
whole muddy roughly clad
crowd wandered off & ws at once

45
merged in London where
nobody worried abt them or
even turned to look at them.
Perhaps people whom they met
w them were a little extra
tender w these men w their
muddy boots & their rifles.
But the country really took
them to itself as part of itself.
They were "home" for 7 days
from / trenches & / trip ws a regular
institutn in / war - Never has
It is taken for granted & it brings
England very close to /
war. Never has there bn
such a soldiers war as
this.

46

Going to Smart at / C'th
mil^y. office I found tt / Anzac Book
is (by his efforts) already
set up, & photos printed.
Old Jock is transferred to a
new undertaking - the
organisatn of a sort of temporary
hospital l  to prevent Australian
convalescents being at a loose
end in London. He is working on
a paper telling them / dangers
of venereal disease; & he 
has engaged the Westminster
Baths for Australian soldiers 
in London at £3 per week
- splendid work - Smart
very much approves 
 __
I cut this diary very short as 
I was hurrying & the Anzac Book
was my chief interest at the

47
Note from Freame on Lone Pine.
Turkish bomb attack
of Aug 15/16

----
[Diagram - see original scan]
Freame.
digging this
model
recess.
Work.
unfinished
- when Ts.
threw in 
bomb into
overhead
cover.
Then more
bombs
& smoke
bombs
thro ' wh
in flashes of our bombs cd be seen T.
bayonets. They were jumping over / top
from trench into trench. Then 75
opened up & Freame who ws on
parapet ws hit.

48
[Diagram - see original scan]

France & England
in War Time. &
Zepps in Paris.
Lond. Precautions -
Trenches in
Kent.
Darkened J. etc.
Tues [[shorthand]]

Concession

[Diagram- see original scan.]

49
(Jan 31/16)
moment. But now - Jan 31 -
that I am in the Malwa,
just out of Marseille & off for
Malea & Egypt there are two
or three many things well worth saying.

To begin at Marseille
- It was there for the first time
that one saw the year's fashions.
One doesn't take much notice of
the changes in the fashion of
womens hats & skirts as a
rule - a but it came on me
almost as a shock, in the
Marseille streets, that a
years fashions had slipped by
and been missed by all of us _
a blank _ as when you turn
over two pages; there we were
beginning with quite a new

chapter.  G
Something of
this sort → [Sketch - see original scan.]

50
In France everywhere there
were ladies dressed as
nurses collecting for / Red X -
It ws / only sort of public effort
one saw in France - the only
one tt ws obvious on / 
surface. ∧Sometimes there were men in /
fields ploughing w bullocks -
wh I imagine (at any rate when
you get near to Paris) means
tt all very many horses had bn sent
requisitioned for / war. There 
seemed to be a good many
young men about Paris -
but they all looked as if
something was wrong w them
- hectic red cheeks or narrow
build, might be heart or lung
cases. All / fellows whom one
met coming home sitting sideways
(as / French farm hand does) on
the great farm horses - & they

51
have splendid farm stock in
France - were either youngsters of
15 and 16 or elderly men.
One chap of whom I asked /
way in Marseille said in French:
"You are going to / front, Sir ? I
too am from the Yser - I am
going back there next week."
He went out of his way to
tell me this - clearly there
was a feeling in France, tho'
one didn't realise it, tt every
healthy man ought who
wasn't at / front had
something to explain. Beyond
a few bridges guarded we
saw nothing o / war all /
way to Havre. Havre ws
largely peopled w English 
troops. I was being sent home as

52
an officer of the A.I.F. (I dont
know if I am one or not - the
Minister for Defence, Gen. Legge & others
always call me Capt Bean when
writing & it goes so in orders &
against my own request the
press has always called me "Capt."
C.E.W. The Govt publishes my
despatches as from "Capt." Bean
- but I don't believe I actually
have even honorary rank. However
the D.A.G.M.G. on the lines of
communications decided tt this
ws much / quickest & easiest
way to get me home - across
France & possibly Italy - so Capt.
Bean A.I.F. I became - & as such,
without a passport, the War
Office sent me to France & back.
As for Bazley, I believe that the
order is that under no conditns
are batmen to be alld to travel
with their officers. However, I told