Arndell Neil Lewis

Camp 21
Lark Hill.
29^th April.            

Dear Mum,

           We have spent another week in this place and are now quite resigned. There is one thing about this you will never have any pangs at leaving. I havnt didnt get a letter from you this mail although quite a lot of letters came through and I got a mail down from Gran & Watchorn had a letter from you yesterday dated 1^st March. Perhaps they are coming. I am afraid you will have to ask questions to get most of the news & rely mostly for the rest on Gran. I have no idea how the mails h are running & just write & post. If you do get a letter it will not be because I havnt posted one. Your last ones had just finished rousing about no wire from Freemantle & I am expecting half a dozen rousings for no wire from Durban. I am afraid all letters leaving here are censored & destroyed if anything is mentioned that shouldnt be. I have very little time for writing letters. and I have so many local ones which must be answered. I hope the supply will decrease in time.

My programe at present is as follows. 6.30 – 7.30A.M. go to stables & superintend feeding, grooming etc, of about 36 horses. 7.45 see men’s breakfast & have own breakfast. 8.30 parade, 9.30 see gunners properly distributed, see drivers take out horses, start fatigue parties going. Watch fatigue parties & do any other works till 10.45. 10.45, Inspect huts, equipment etc, 11.30-12.30 stables, 12.45 mens dinner, & own dinner, 1.45 parade, wander about trying to look busy. 4.30-5.30 stables. 5.30 Inspect boots leggins & spurs. 6. men’s teas. 6.30 Mess, 6. 7.30 – 8.30 Lecture, (go to sleep) 8.30 report how many men at supper! 10.15 all lights out, windows in huts open & sign absentee report.

There appears a lot & it keeps you walking about all the time. But it is a most terrible waste of time. We thought we were coming here to train but there is not for anyone. No one does anything but pick up paper & clean boots. I change boots & leggins 4 times a day. Out of 450 men in our battery, 100 are clean harness nearly 50 a day are on guns, 50 more on guard & the remaining 150 pick up paper, dig ground, weed gardens & scrubb floors & windows. All the men are sick of the place. It is the Colonel that makes it what it is. He is awful.

I have had a deluge of letters & find I have to keep a list of letters answered because some nights I havnt time to write & others I am two fed up to bother. This is the 32^nd letter I have written in a fortnight. When I came I wrote to the Agent-General & to Gran. I got a letter from Sir J. McCall, who is very little at the office, & one from Mr Ely. Also some from Gran, and a huge packet of letters from Earl of Dononyhmore, Sir M. Moore, Col. Frank & Mrs Ord. All these as well as Sir J. McCalls & Mr Ely’s needed answering. Then another from Mr Ely, & Aunt May which needed answering. Then this week I had letters from Sister Em. Freda, Miss A. Youl, Miss L. Youl & Mrs Ord!!! All of which needed week a night to read & another to answer.

Mrs Ord has been very good & has sent two parcels of cakes & some warm vests. She must be answered at once. Ther The first letter she sent, I got an urgent wire asking why I hadnt answered it before I got the letter. These people must be educated into the ways of military post offices. The postal service here is pretty poor. It usually takes two days to get a letter to London. Auntie Jane insists on me going to see her at Bristol. 50 miles & I can see nothing but taking a car the first free Saturday afternoon I get off. I had a letter from Milly (Molly?) asking me from Lady Macartney to write to her, & one from Sir Edward Wallington, Mrs Cox, Aunt Ida & Uncle Eric. So you can explain that I havnt much time to write to anyone who is expecting anything in Hobart. Rob Reid wrote a line last mail. If any of you see him tell him I will answer someday. I am afraid I must say I am awfully disappointed with this England. It certainly is pretty. We have a few little villages around here, with churches, mills, streams & village greens etc. just as if they had stepped out of a picture book. Certainly they would be very pretty in a painting, but in real life – oougherm.. England may be a nice place for a tourist but to have to live here, no thanks, & I havnt found anyone one who is not thankful he is an Australian. I really dont like the trees very much either. They l dont look natural. Like some big, negl neglected garden. The nearest tree to us is at Amesbury 3 miles away!

We were lucky to arrive in time for the kings review. About 34,000 men. We marched in lines of 200-300 long & 6 yards between lines & took over an hour to pass. There were 4 Aust. Generals there, 4 btys of Artillery mounted 4 dismounted, Two squadrons of L.H. 2 aeroplanes 10 motor ambulances 25 motor lorries & about 50 horse A.S.C. waggons. We were drawn up in brigade, with  The infantry was drawn up in brigades with Companies in line 16 deep. All with fixed bayonettes, about stretching over 3 miles of Country. We afterwards formed up along roads at the king road past. I saw him twice close enough to touch him. It was a very cold day indeed on a most bleek place. We left camp at 7 oclock arrived at Buf Bulford field at 9 & had to wait till 2 for the review. Then wait about till 4. It was cold & I am afraid some of the remarks were rather loyal. Still no one there would have missed it. Tell Hubert that forming up to march past the whole brigade in column of companies formed fours, turned to the right then left wheeled at the double, with fixed bayonettes. It looked fine.

I enclose list of Tasmanians on the Osterley & addresses. We are all scattered everywhere now. I am sending a guide book to Stonehenge which may be interesting.

To be continued in our next.

                                           Arndell.

R.B.A.A.
24^th April 1917
                                                                                                                               Camp 21,
Lark Hill  

Dear Mum,

           This isnt such an awful place after all. It is bad enough but not nearly livable. If we had leave, more to eat & a new Colonel things wouldnt be half bad. I have got out. Went to Salsbury on Saturday & Sunday so things are not so bad. This brigade is the unit of Australian Artillery in England ready for any emergency. We are organised as a complete brigade of four – six gun batteries. All the batteries in the Army are six gun ones now. Four gun batteries have been cut right out.

The weather this last week has been quite warm. We can even go about with out a coat usually though it is properly cold in the morning. The work is not so very hard, for anyone especially for officers. They wanted me to go on the permanent instructional staff here but of course I couldnt hear of that.  & I got out of it, but I only hope they wont detail me. Our routine at present is 1^st morning up on time for breakfast 8.15, 2^nd morning, up for first parade 6.25, 3^rd morning up for stables 6.45, then 1^st again so that isnt bad atall. Parade from 9 to 9.30 then officers hand over the men to imperial instructors & go off on their own somewhere. Ditto in the afternoon. In evening lecture 7-8. That is all. We do no drilling or instructing, We have a good deal of office hours work still and stables three times a day for an hour just to supervise grooming, feeding harness cleaning, etc. The rest of the day you just get out directors, telephones, rangefinders etc & fool about with them and look busy. At present we have nothing to do. Just to wait for vacancies. Still we dont get very much time off & all absolutely all my spare time is taken writing to Aunts.

I dont think we get sent to a School. I have seen Aunt May. She came down to Salsbury for the weekend. She came to Amesbury first, About 3 miles from here. Neither of us knew anything about the place & when we got there neither of us liked it & went got a car & went to Salsbury about 15 miles away. I walked over & had arranged to meet Aunt May at the station. I would never have known her if I had seen her, without having arranged where to meet her. As is was I walked all round her before she recognised me. She was the only person on the station & I would certainly have had to have asked her, her name if she hadnt recognised me.

We found a hotel, most delapidated on the outside & one which in Australia you wouldnt be seen going into but quite decent on the inside. We had a good look round the place. Salsbury is a most disappointing place. Just what we would call a big slum. Tiny houses, very narrow, dark dirty streets & the whole place would be much improved but a coat of whitewash. The cathedral is beautiful though. I am sending a few postcards of it. I went to a service on Sunday. I was at the King’s Review.

Sorry am called away at the double. Will write again but post this much now.

                           Goodbye             Arndell.

Camp 28
Lark Hill
Salsbury Plains
18^th April 

Dear Everybody,

           Well I believe we are in England. Someone said so, so we probably are. This is really the very end of civilisation. If ever I get out of this country nothing on earth will induce me to come back. Why they dont give the whole place to the Germans I dont know. I would call Lake Eyre home after this.

I sent you some letters which I hope were posted at Plymouth & got there were sent as soon as we landed. They may go with this letter. We got up the channel all right although I believe we had a run for our money, but fortunately it was we very rough & raining all the way up. We came up a absolutely full speed & even blistered the paint off the funnels. We were very glad when we saw the tremendous light of the Lizzard Sweeping round in large circles about 8 oclock. We passed Eddinstone at 12P.M. & were safe in harbour about 2. I believe ships have been torpedoed right within reach of the forts. We anchored in the stream & landed about 11. We were the last off, and it by the time we were formed up & checked on the quay it was 2 oclock. It was snowing hard the whole time. We landed right in a goods yard & were packed straight into a train without even seeing a street. The passengers didnt land till evening. There were 4500 Australians landed at various parts of Plymouth & Devonport that day.

We left about 3 oclock & went straight to E(illegible) where I wired. We had about ½ an hours stop & some ladies dished out some ref very light refreshments. It was very cold & snowing all the time. We seemed to pass endless successions of filthy little “villages”, pretty “perhaps”. We got to Salsbury about 11P.M. & went straight on to a little branch line to Amesbury about 10 miles further north. Arriving about 12 midnight. Then more checking in a raging storm and packing kits etc, a terrible job. We got on the move about 1, & had a march of 3 miles right into the wind. Our guide got us into a plowed ploughed field & a bog & we eventually arrived a what we were told were our quarters 200 short. The rest having followed a party of infantry to another camp. However they arrived about an hour later. We had nothing to eat & had only biscuits & beef since breakfast. Next morning it was white. About a foot of it, & cold. We didnt form a very favourable opinion of the place. There are huts at Lark Hill for miles, enough to hold 40,000 men, although they are not all inhabited.

The whole is divided into camps to whole (hold) 100 men. There all two lines of huts. Smaller than those at Claremont. To sleep 25 men, & a Segt or Corpl, to each with a small room in it to himself. There are roads as good as any in Hobart, every where.  The men mess in ‘dining’ rooms. The food is scanty but I cant say anything about that or the letter is just destroyed, but 6 blankets are issued. All available ground is being dug for food. I have been put in the R.B.A.A. Reserve Brigade Australian Artillery which occupies Camps 21, 22, 26 & 28.

It is Commanded by Col. Mailer who took Col. Smiths brigade away when the latter was turned down. He is a real brute & believes in making life a misery for everyone. He is running all the men here, they are simply loathing military work, England & everything on account of him. If Australia knew a quarter of what he does he would be recalled at once. He is a disgrace to Australia. The Adjutant is worse. The officers are not atall a decent crowd, mostly men over from the front, but there are a few I knew. All who left Maribyrnong since last August are still here & of course I know them. Capt Kemp of Hobart is in charge of Camp 28, he is very decent & easy going, suffering from shell shock. He hates the place. Turner is here too, broke his ankle at the front & is goi just waiting to go back. He has had 3 months in hospital.  Watchorn is at a school about a mile away, Camp 14. Irwin of course is here. I w Turner & I got quite a shock when we met. Neither of us had any idea we were here & I went in a little late to breakfast the first morning and sat down. And after quite a little time, we real I realised I was sitting next to Turner. He was surprised. So was Bruce. He didnt expect me for 3 months I w Turner told me where he was or I should never have found him. I went & looked him up in the dark the other night & met him in the dark. He absolutely didnt know me. We are all being split up. It is rotten. Even brothers are split up. Col. Mailer does it, he It is his idea of discipline. No friends will keep long together here. We are to get no leave atall till for a month, & then only 4 days. After that Saturday & Sunday when not on duty between 2 & 8P.M. only. The Col. again. So between the bitter cold, no food, no leave & the Colonel everyone is feeling very down & very bitter against England but I suppose we will get used to it, but it is a contrast to everything on the “Osterley”.

I wrote to the Agent General, & Gran the first day & got a dozzen letters back & I have had letters ever since by the dozen. Aunt. Jane sent two lovely cakes which were very acceptable. I had letters from you but posted only a week after I left, one from Aunt Jane, Donoyhmore, & Col. Frank Lewis which were duly answered. I have been kept busy fixing up after the voyage but the work seems pretty slight here. There is a tremendous block of Artillery Officers & we expect to be here 6 months. They send you when they want you & dont worry about scho training. I dont know anything about my movements. We split up tomorrow. I go to Camp 21. Camp 28 is a sort of receiving depot. It has snowed & rained every day we have been here, & it is a contrast to the Serra Leone, of a fortnight ago. Mails are most erratic here. I have been advised to stamp letters although they can go free. I will Excuse this writing but it is cold & I have no chair. I will write again. (sometime)

                                Goodnight

                                                Arndell.

                                                                                                                           Day before
Disembarkation
                                                                                                                           [April 1917]

Dear Mum,

           I am very busy but you all may like another letter and I dont know when I will write again. We havnt had a very exciting time the last few days. There have been a large number of ships about. After 7 ½ weeks without seeing a single ship it seems funny to see perhaps three at a time.

There are quite a lot of trawlers about. Some day after there will be no danger from disclosing information I will write all about our trip. It has been wonderfully interesting & enjoyable. I havnt had an idle minute the whole time. I packed four days ago and spend three whole days – Good Friday, Easter Saturday & Easter day getting papers ready, in order & signed again, Quite a lot of work. Our papers are even in a better state than when we came aboard. I seem to have more luggage than ever & havnt used ½ my things There is a great temptation to tro trow throw everything overboard. Next time I go to England I will take what I can get into two pockets. I havnt Still sleep on deck. I The weather is beautiful. Some call it cold & wander about in coats but it is just like a spring day at home. You can just see your breath. It gets cold on deck. It rained quite hard last night & I didnt wake. I was sleeping in a coat & have never felt more rested before.

I had to change. I have Sleep in clothes but no one takes submarines seriously I have spent all the morning checking utensils, equitment bedding, clothes etc., a lovely job. 270 sets of everything. I know nothing. We will disembark sometime about 3 hours after arrival & then get orders. We have just had a case of mumps so that will probably mean a fortnight in a sort of quarenteen Camp. I dont expect any leave for a month, or to get to France till September at the earliest. It will be quite funny seeing everyone real instead of on paper. We havnt seen anything of the war yet. I must finish, I have a lot of writing to do yet. I will try to wire & write soon.

                                                           Arndell

(written on board the R.M.S. Osterley)

Good Friday
6^th April 1917

Dear Mum,

           We are getting near land at last. I expect this will be our last week-end on the water. Eight solid weeks on the water and in all not twelve hours leave to do what you like. Still it has been an interesting experience and one impossible at any other time, we will all be quite sorry to break up. We have been a most happy family and have had absolutely no interunital rows. This is most remarkable. At Claremont every unit was always trying to work points on every other one and officers wouldnt speak. Here we all get on wonderfully well, At my table ever since. we left we have had a good collection. An engineer officer, the rep W.A. representative from the far back part of West Aust. An artillery officer from Sydney and another from Townsville who has spent a several hours on Thursday Island, and one of our chaplains, Jonnie Walker from Ballarat and Mrs Walker his lawful, wedded wife. Every state except S.A. is represented. The padres are not much. Jonnie Walker is a very decent old man who tells very long uninteresting stories without any point and laughs so much that every else laughs & he thinks he has made a great joke. The C. of E. chaplain is a philosopher, and the YMCA man isnt much.

The C.O. hasnt been very well at times. He has malaria badly. He can rouse when things go wrong but he doesnt interfere much and has nothing to do. Capt. DaRavin knows uncle Eric very well indeed. He was in the 7^th Battn. You neednt be worried about the ladies. They are seem to be specially chosen with a view of keeping the younger subs, on parade. I havnt seen much of any of them except Miss Paramore & very little of her.

I believe there were 200 women booked to start. It would have been awful with them and women should never be allowed on a boat with troops. Now there is only one boat of civilian passengers & the troops can have the rest which are only enough with the collapsable ones & rafts. But no one thinks seriously of submarines.

Everyone is supposed to wander round with liftbelts but it is the most difficult thing in the world to make the men keep them, they leave them about & lose them. We have a guard on watching. A lot of men with loaded rifles. The guard as usual are always seeing things that are not. There is always one of our officers on duty & a man in the crows nest.

I have slept on the boat deck since we first went into the tropics & will stay up there now. I tried to urge the men to sleep up there but now it is cold they just go down stairs. I wouldnt sleep down under the waterline for anything. We are in civilised latitudes again and the weather is quite cool especially at 4 in the morning. I always get up about 4.30 as that is the dangerous time, just at dawn & dark when we are show showing up against the sky yet couldnt see anything like a periscope. We are a most valuable convoy and one of the largest that has gone home for sometime.

Convoy life is very interesting. First you nearly run into the boat in front and then you drop back & the boat in the rear nearly runs into you. One of our big boats went off westward one morning & hasnt been seen since. It is generally believed she has gone to Convoy the American fleet. We get a few headlines of news each day but only the war on the western front. We have some hazy lines about America which gives us much to speculate about and we have heard nothing about the rume rumoured trouble with the Government in Australia. I expect there will be some letters for us in England. The one subject is leave. The December 7.A. didnt get an hour off for a month. I dont expect more than 4 days altogether before going to France. I am wondering what will happen to me myself. I would give anything to keep the unit together more or less. I havnt had much time to myself and I havnt written a single letter except to you. I havnt had time. A good deal of spare time goes preparing lectures. I have kept going pretty well & havnt nearly run out of material.

The poor sergeants were bankrupt six weeks ago. One thing you might tell anyone coming away they want to bring is plenty of money. I didnt think you wan would want any & left with £14 and have had two pays of £5 each only. But when it comes to £5 at this port & £5 at that for motors, dinners etc, and drinks on board, 9D (penny) a glass for lime juice & soda! And about six a day. Then biscuits, choclae choclates, it soon mounts up. I have still about £10 but I dont know how long that will have to last on shore & what expenses I will have to meet before we get our full ship’s pay.

There is absolutely nothing else that I havnt got. I am very glad of the Capo comforter (refers to a knitted wool cap worn by soldiers during WWI as an informal alternative to the standard service cap. It was a versatile item that could be worn as a short scarf or pulled over the head to act as a warm hat, especially in the cold trenches, and it was made from patterns circulated in military publications) & we had to wear one even in the tropics when sleeping on deck. I wish sometimes I had brought my bed, I as the deck is rather hard but it would have been a nuisance. I gave out that packet of magazines yesterday. I had kept them till everything else had absolutely given out and were very much appreciated. I My batman also said your cigarettes saved his life. I will have to pack my trunk again as to find anything needed looking and the three drawers provided have been all the time absolutely filled with papers.

I am just getting the disembarkion papers ready. As far as the sea has gone we have had a wonderful trip, it has been absolutely like oil all the way even in the Bight. I have learnt a good deal about work by having to get lectures ready & Col. Heritage (Lieutenant Colonel Francis Bede Heritage, Tasmanian) is a very good man to work under, he is always pulling you up on points of etiquette. I think last week end when I wrote I mentioned doing Court Martial work. I won my last case & got the man 30 days. I know that big Manual of Military Law inside out by now & all the rules of Law procedure & evidence etc. it was rather good practise especially as the three men were all defended by a full K.C. with junior Complete. Mr Mitchel of Sydney I dont know if you have heard of him, at present a full acting lance-corpl. in a Light Trench mortar battery (Corporal J Mitchell of the 6th Light Trench Mortar Battery [LTMB]).

I have enclosed the a full series of copies of our little paper the “Osteralia” which came out every the on Saturday mornings early, for the last six weeks and provided a good deal of amusement. I dont suppose you will understand all the allusions.

We got all the kits up today & tomorrow trow tr throw overboard all clothing etc not required

I believe we get a holiday on Monday as the old Pres. Padre so severely objected to Good Friday being a holiday that we got the other as well. He kicked up such a shindy at St Patrick’s day being a holiday that the Col. gave him the next Saturday & told him to call it St. Andrew’s day & went to the C. of E. padre & told him it was given as St Georges day. The old man padre is most foolishly narrow minded but not a bad sort really. I think I will censor this letter!

It was rather a pitty pity missing Easter in England.

I may write again tomorrow but after that don’t expect a little letter till you get one. These will be censored on board & posted on arrival. I dont know yet whether I can wire, anyway I will get one through somehow.

                           Goodbye,
                                           Arndell

What do you think of this blue card. (I am yet to come across the blue card he was referring to – it may have been lost)

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)

At sea
Sunday
A week after last letter
[1^st April 1917]

Dear Mum,

           I was writing last Sunday just before we were going into the last port. It was rather interesting and the sort of place you would very seldom get to. We have always heard this coast spoken of as the white man’s grave. It doesnt seem anything like that. I would very much like to spend a holiday round there. The first thing we came to was a most pretty small white light-house on a little island, (Aberdeen Lighthouse, Sierra Leone) with a few really tropical white houses with large verandahs, and the whole island covered in high palms. The harbour of where we made our chief call and stayed for two days was formed by the a wide mouth of a river, about as wide as the mouth of the Tamer (Tamar River, Launceston, Tasmania). The town is about three miles up. All along the shore and sides of the river are most glorious stretches of very yellow sandy beeches, with rocky islands here & there.

The Here I saw saw (I dont think I w better go on, I will tell you later) we went up the river and anchored opposite the town, quite a small place w and the practically the only white are agents and the garrison. There are several quite large churches and a grammar school. The town is built in quite a tropical Style and lies down on waters edge. Some of the houses are quite large. The barracks and European’s houses are all on the top of a hill about as high as Knochlofty (Knocklofty Reserve, West Hobart, Tasmania) just in rear of the town. There are no wharfs atall, the steamers lying out in the stream and being coaled & watered by lighters. There were over 40 craft in the harbour but most were ow only small tramps. But there was our convey, a Tommy convoy for all Mesopatamia, & some returning Australian transport in the harbour as well as a large number of men of war so it looked quite a busy place.

The place belongs to the blacks almost entirely and they are have the same rights as the British. They are a terribly cheeky lot and consider themselves far abo quite equal to you. But they are really far and away superior to the Kaffars & Zulu’s. They talk English as well as anyone else, in fact in the town English is the chief language. They are all well educated, as ed it is compulsory to go to school, and can talk quite reasonably on almost any subject. They are very black with thick woolly hair, and dress in European clothes although usually the colours are of the most violent sort. I saw saw a few real Arabs from the desert in their long white rob robes, and there are a number of French traders in the place.

The natives are payed paid 2/- a day for work. They dont kick up the din the blacks did down south. and are a much superior class although of course very lazy. They will do anything for meat. Sheep will not live in the place & cattle die after a year or so, so there is really little meat atall. The men threw them the bones from dinners. Little black boys in canoes would dive for pennies if you threw them near enough, but I saw a whole lighter full of men with all their clothes on, they were being toed towed out to past us to another boat, jump overboard for a big German Sausage someone threw to them, & there was a fight in the water.

We got into this place on Sunday [25.3.17] about 4P.M. spent all Monday there & left about 2P.M. [27.3.17] on Tuesday, it wasnt atall unbearable there, out in the stream although very damp & muggy.

The world is very small. The first thing I saw in this most out of the way place, “the white-man’s grave,” Was a full tin of Jone’s IXL apple & plum jam, made in Hobart. We got a little fruit here, some wonderful oranges, about the size of a naval (orange) but absolutely black, with a very thin skin. However they are quite sweet inside. Also we took aboard a lot of pineapples. Th We embarked a lady going home & the first night she was very su amused at being handed a slice of pine apple. She said it was the first time she hadnt had a whole one. They only cost 5 a penny there & you just cut the top off & eat them with a spoon. There was not much of interest in the place & nothing except beads to buy, & no mail going back.

I suppose by this you are worrying why you havnt had a wire & you will we be wiring furiously by June to go know why I havnt written.

I havnt been so busy lately, firstly I havnt had to work so hard as everything runs without any trouble and sen secondly I have been doing some rotten Court Martial work. If any one mentions Field General Courts Martial to me again I will the cause them to evaporate. Hubert will tell you what a Field General Court Martial is. (It was a wartime court used when more formal courts were unavailable, often convened by a commanding officer on active service. It could impose the death penalty for serious offenses like cowardice, though it was convened with a minimum of three officers and could proceed with two if necessary. Many death sentences were reduced to other punishments, such as hard labour) The first case was one of disobedience. [30.3.17] Quite a decent man was charged under A.A.Sec 9A, for which the only penalty is death as Hubert will explain instead of as I though sufficient see 9B.

I am afraid I didnt try do do my best against him & he got off. The second man got 14 days, and a third case is still going on, I hope to get this man 6 months at least for accusing an officer of embezzling £14 without any grounds. But it isnt a nice job & I dont think I will ever make a lawyer especially as I am up against a K.C. defending the man. I may write again later

                                                           Arndell.

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)

In port
Sunday
25^th March 1917
[Sierra Leone]
[Q. Bathurst Gambia]

Dear Mum,
           I wrote a line on Wednesday as we were crossing the line, we have now rather unes unexpectedly got into port We did not realise where we were going till a day or so ago. The Captain even didnt know exactly where we were, We have been exactly a fortnight at sea and it has been rather hot all the time. We are now ready for a real swelter.

Things havnt been so very bad. We are most lucky in our ship. Our ‘F’ deck ha is rather hot, especially when it is full of men but the men only eat there. Very few sleep down stairs. We have the boat deck for sleeping and parade purposes and there is almost always some sort of screen breeze. The men are allowed to wear anything as long as it is something and most of them have would be in an awkward position if they lost the rest of their belongings

Sorry attractions outside too strong, going outside will go on later.

                                                           Arndell.

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)

On the Line
Wednesday
[21^st March 1917]

Dear Mum,

           I havnt much time just at present but I thought you might just like a note from the centre of the earth. Things are not so bad. Eversince we have been out from the last port [Cape Town] it has been getting hot. It certainly is hot, especially as the sun is directly over-head at pre this time of the year but it might be worse. It most certainly is not as hot as the day before & the day we embarked at Melbourne. It is a very moist humid heat and no one had very much energy but it is quite livable. There is always a breeze somewhere and often the sun is covered with clouds. We have had screens over the boat deck scn for the last week & so can go on parade without hats. & we get all the breeze. It is very muggy in the cabins & saloons as th they are absolutely sealed after dark & you must keep your windows, which is covered with plact black plaster shut, all the time, so I simply sleep on deck & nev dont go down stairs or inside except to do work which I try to do I the daylight.

Our men are allowed to sleep on the boat deck too and you can sleep wonderfully. I put on pyjamas, british warm, cap – comforter & lie on one blanket with a rug to pull over if it gets cold towards morning which it always does.

Everything is very pleasant & I have too much to do to notice the heat. It is simply work, work, work, so I must really leave off.

                                                           Arndell.

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)

Doldrums
Sunday
18^th March 1917

Dear Mum,

           This is the first Sunday out from our last port, [Cape Town] and I suppose it will reach you via England. The last letter I wrote was just before calling in so just a word about the place. We were anchored in the bay when I got up in the morning. The harbour was full of shipping mostly po tramps painted grey. and about twenty vessels of all sorts. The wharfing is very limited, there being only room for about six large steamers alongside at once. The scenery at once strickes you. You have heard descriptions and seen pictures of the place but it is nothing like what the place really looks like. The only comparison I have ever seen would be Wineglass Bay on about ten times larger in every respect, or else a town just under Tasman Island. The mountain stands up sheer from a small plain running about a mile in from the sea. It rises she very steeply for 1000 feet and the remaining 2000ft is a sheer cliff of sandstone in regular lines. There are several very steep hills at along side it. The whole place was once bare of vegitation but large plantations of larch and oaks have been planted over the lower slopes of the hills. The city winds round the between the beach and the mountains.

I am afraid I didnt have a very good time there, I was on piquct all the time and only saw the main streets. I tried to wire several times but they wouldnt accept any from anyone in Australian uniform. They wouldnt let me wire to England even. I believe Miss Paramore got one through. I got your cable as soon as we got in.

We were alongside by 10 oclock. There were two patrols with an officer & 80 men each to be furnished. We left the ship almost at once. We had no directions except to report the to the Garrison adjutant at a drill hall in a certain street. No one knew where abouts that street was and but I managed to get there by mean asking friendly policemen on the way. We were shut up in a drill hall for 12 ½ hours. Fortunately that is the usual rendezvous for patrols. And a number of ladies had furnished the place as a reading room and some were there with tea, cakes etc. They were very nice, and good.

I had a look round the Castle. It is an extraordinary place. Built something like the old barracks houses. The whole covers about 6 acres and is surrounded by a wall about 100ft high and 20ft thick fortify fortified and with a moat the whole thing rather like the Bluff Battery on a very large scale. There was living houses for about 3000 married families in houses just like old ones in Hobart barracks, built into the walls and in the centre. It is now used as Hdqrs for Africa. [word heavily scrubbed out but reads Cape Town] (I dont know what I was thinking about) is not nearly such a nice place as [word heavily scrubbed out but reads Durban]. There are more Boers and more the natives mix with the whites more. You have no idea of the disloyalty of the lower class Boers. I was surprised. They openly hate English and wont look at Australians who are loathed. All the hotels were shut as at Durban. It is quite good but seems rather hard that Australians going to the war should be forbidden a drink by those who are absolutely refuse to do anything & are openly pro-German. It is only the heads in S. Africa that stop serious trouble. That town is rather like Sydney, with narrow streets, fast electric trams and tall straight houses, but it is not very large.

I did not go far anywhere. Just along the main street and did not return till after 11.30P.M. During the night we slipped out into the bay with the other steamers. It was a most perfect day. The bay was like glass absolutely. The shades of brown & green on the mountain was very pretty. There were about fifteen very large ships including two huge hospital ships from German East. And all these ships were holding church services at the same time. We were lying within a stones few hundred yards of a famous little ship. I will let you know some day. She was in one of the big fights. And is now in sole charge of us all. The captain is very strict and often roars the other skippers up. Of course he is responsible & our captain knows nothing, not even when where we are. The We left the fo bay in column of route about 12 noon. [11.3.17] And outside formed Battery column. We as the fastest & most valuable boat are right in rear ready to run anywhere if attacked. We have a lame duck who makes our speed about 9 or 10 knots, with a result we will ha take over a fortnight going through the tropics instead of 6 or 7 days. We have difficulty in keeping our place & there is a terrible row if any ship over shoots any other. The first night out we almost rammed the boat in front in a thick fog.

I will finish this letter now & st write again soon some time.

                                                           Arndell.

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)

Saturday 7 A.M.
March 10^th 1917

Dear Mum,

           I dont know if this will be too late to post here. (added in: Cape Town) We have halted outside the harbour in a large bay. The scenery is very pretty A tremendous hill an, though not as high as Mt Wellington with the town at the foot. and ranges all round. Something like Wineglass (Bay) except it the bay is some miles across. We were anchored the early. I can just hear them getting the anchor up. I dont know whether we will be allowed ashore or when we leave.

                           Goodbye

                                           Arndell.

(written on board R.M.S. Osterley)