After seeing the Engineers officer on the Sunday, and Nobby Clark on the Monday, today it was time for him to see his Commanding Officer:

‘He did not seem exactly pleased about it. He is a new C.O. since I left the Battalion and he seemed to think I was trying to get a soft job – as a matter of fact it certainly is not always a soft job…after some palaver he initialled my application which I immediately took up to the Major of the R.E.s who said that the C.O.’s initials were hardly enough and he would write to our C.O. about it…The C.O. seemed very reluctant about it – he said he did not know me well enough to give me a “character” and I had not had enough experience of trench warfare etc.’

If the transfer did go through, he told Pips, he expected that he’d be posted to the Engineers on a month’s probation to the mining company: if he proved efficient he would stay with them, and if not he’d be sent back to the Battalion.

A ‘letter card’ from Pips, with pictures of Burnham Beeches [about 20 miles to the north-west of Hampton Wick] was a ‘pleasant reminder of the good old days of peace’, and prompted some reminiscences: ‘I well remember calling at the Bells of Ouseley [in Windsor, a few miles away] for a drink, and filling the old stone bottles with beer and water (not mixed, of course)…and the village cricket match too – it is curious how well these things stand out in one’s memory.’

[Next letter: 22 November]