Sherriff had just finished the second day of the slow march back to the front, when he wrote a brief letter home to Pips:

‘I wish I had more time to write to you, but at present our hours are so split up by night marching that it is difficult to get a good opportunity…We march from about 2:00 till 9:00 in the morning to avoid the sun – today we got in at 9:30 and had breakfast about 10:00 (omelettes made of ducks eggs) and after inspecting the men’s feet, rifles etc, turned in about 12:00 and slept till 4:00 in the afternoon.’

He had slept on the floor of the Mess which was located in a large farm house – and he had settled down into an old-fashioned recess, ‘something like those between walls at Hampton Court’. After they had awoken and had tea, there had been time for a stroll into town (they were billeted near Caestre, which Sherriff described as ‘an interesting though old place’). He was writing to Pips just after finishing an early dinner – and apologised that the note must be short, because they had another early start the next morning. Nevertheless, he assured his father that he would ‘endeavour to find more time to write tomorrow’.

[Next letter: 20 July]