‘We have been out all day on manoeuvres which consisted of attacking lines of trenches etc’, wrote Sherriff to Pips. ‘The day was very hot and the work was very hard so we had a hot two hours of it and were quite glad when we arrived back to lunch.’

The previous day (Sunday) he had visited a nearby large town [probably St Omer] to do some shopping for the Mess and for other officers. It was about twelve miles away and he had travelled there ‘in a groggy little railway like the Selsey line, the carriages being chiefly occupied by Portuguese soldiers’. The trains only ran twice a day (at 6:00am and 2:00pm), so he had left early and arrived at the town in time for breakfast at an officers’ tea room. After his shopping he had toured the town and enjoyed the sights, with which he was quite familiar, since it was the same one he had stayed in while resting while his teeth were fixed some months earlier. He noted that the local cathedral had a cannon ball (fired by Marlborough’s forces) embedded in its walls – ‘an example of the difference between ancient and modern warfare – what would a 9 inch shell have done if it had struck the same place in the cathedral wall?’

He had arrived back from the town at 4:00pm, just in time to see the end of the tug-of-war contest. The regiment had also played the RE at cricket that day, but had lost quite heavily – ‘I am afraid there is not much chance of having practice’, he noted ruefully. The next day he would be Orderly Officer again, which meant a very early start for inspection – so he apologised for bringing his letter to an end, but he really ought to get to bed.

[Next letters: 8 May]