Back with his battalion, Sherriff had spent the day as Orderly Officer, which meant that, by the time he was able to write to Pips, he was ‘so sleepy that I can hardly keep my eyes open – so this will not be a long or very interesting letter’. Perhaps the next day, if he was not so busy, he would send a long letter ‘telling you as much as I am allowed to tell you about our work while in rest and while I was getting back to the battalion, hunting for t all over the countryside’.

He complained that he had not received any letters from home during his days at the officers’ rest home – in fact it had been three weeks since he had last received a letter, and he was ‘naturally rather anxious for news’. He had been told that a couple of parcels had arrived for him, but that ‘as I was away they were consumed by the Mess’. He signed off by wishing everyone well at home, and with the hope ‘that I shall soon be able to get the latest news from there’.

[Next letters: 19 February]