He began his latest letter to Pips by apologising that his correspondence had been somewhat ‘irregular’ of late – partly because he had been busy, but also because ‘not sometimes feeling well, I have spent the time resting when  I should write letters’. However, since today was Saturday, and they had the afternoon free, he had at least time to write something now.

He expected that the Battalion would only have a few more days of rest before moving back to the line – in total it would have been out for a fortnight or so – a little less than he had hoped, ‘but that cannot be helped, I suppose’. There was still not much to write about: the village they were staying in was very small, not much more than three farms and a similar number of Estaminets. Their Mess was in a farmhouse, and the men lived in barns round about, ‘with plenty of straw to sleep on’. His daily routine was straightforward:

‘In the morning I walk down to Mess from my billet, about ten minutes walk, and after breakfast the men parade about 8 o’clock, and after inspecting them we carry on with Physical Drill, Bayonet fighting, Platoon Drill etc…much time is of course spent in cleaning up…and having losses replaced. This takes a lot of time and we are pretty well on the go from 7:00am until 4:00 in the afternoon, and, as I sometimes have bad headaches, I simply come in and lie down and forget to write letters to you.’

He told Pips that a new officer, named Reynolds, had arrived in the Battalion, who had previously been in the Foreign Department of the Sun Fire Office: ‘I did not know for some time that he was in the office and it was only quite by accident that I found out – he asked me if I knew Barkus in the Artists and I told him he was in  my office and he said he was in his office too. Do you remember Reynolds?’ He hoped that Pips would gather together information about how the men in the office were doing, as he was always interested to hear it.

He had little time to write much more, since he owed letters to Bundy, Beryl and his mother. But  before finishing he wrote briefly about the prospect of leave: ‘Fancy – it is now nearly 5 months since I left home, but as yet no sign of leave’. Nor would there be soon, he feared, because there were about 15 officers ahead of him in the list, and even if one left every week (‘ which they don’t’), it would still be another 4 months before he got home: ‘Still, it is no good worrying about it – we must just wait and see.’

[Next letter: 25 February]