Back in the trenches, rather sooner than he had expected, Sherriff apologised to Pips that he could tell him nothing about where they were, ‘but after the war I hope I shall have the opportunity of describing to you this most wonderful place’.

The ruins of Calonne in 1921, from Sherriff’s father’s account of their Battlefield tour. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/9/7)

[Whether he was being sarcastic here or not is difficult to say. He was obviously unhappy to be back in the line, but the place they were stationed – Calonne – had an interesting array of trenches running through the town. In a short story some written probably a year or two later (The Cellars of Cité Calonne) he describes their dugout as being in the basement of a large house, and sketches a merry evening dinner party with officers from many companies attending, suggesting that he did not find it as dreadful as other sectors he had been in.]

He told Pips that ‘We had some good route marching on our way here, and naturally with full pack etc you feel the strain when marching for long periods, but of all soldiering I like the route marching best of all’. [Clearly the happy memories of route marching stayed with him for the rest of his life, because in his Autobiography, published in 1968, he wrote that ‘I loved the route marches along the country lanes, singing the marching songs with the band ahead of us’.]

An account of Calonne, by Sherriff’s father, while touring the battlefields with his son in 1921. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/9/7)

Another part of soldiering he enjoyed, as long as it was quiet, was ‘wandering around trenches making maps’ – but not when there were missiles around. ‘It is a curious thing,’ he wrote, ‘that the more experience you have the more nervous you become – nearly all the men say the same thing, although of course there are exceptions’.

There was still no sign of leave on the horizon: ‘Days go by and weeks go into months [and] it is now getting on towards 6 months and I am afraid the prospect of leave is still fairly distant’. Since there were still several officers to go before him, it might still be a while before he had the chance to go home, but ‘meanwhile, we must be content to look forward’.

[Next letter: 5 March]