In his latest letter home to Pips, Sheriff remarked on how much he was enjoying himself:

‘My Company is used by the school for training purposes, so we ourselves do not have a very hard time, we have to be responsible for the cleanliness of the men generally, and see to their camp etc., and apart from a few parades we have quite a good time.’

He had been back with the Company for about a week now, and expected they would leave the training school in a few days.

They had been engaging in a good deal of sports of late. Two days before (on 11 July) he had taken about 30 men over to run in the Battalion sports. He said little about the day, since he had told his mother about it in a separate letter [one which has not survived], but we know from the Battalion diary just how elaborate and successful the day was:

Yesterday (12 July) there had been a cricket match between Sherriff’s Regiment and the Officers’ Training School, in which Sheriff had played a useful part: ‘I had the luck to stay in for some time by dint of much blocking and scored 13’ (out of a total of 40). The School made about 80 for 6 – but it was hardly a surprise that they were better, since they had a couple of County players playing for them (‘Abel the Surrey cricketer – son of the famous Abel – and one of the Hearns of Middlesex’). But he had enjoyed the game despite the loss.

Earlier on, before writing his letter, there had been more sports at the School, so they were having a lot of fun, as he put it. But then? he asked.

‘Off we go – where? No one knows. But just lately I have watched the papers carefully and I try and read in them hopeful signs – sometimes however hopeless.’

[He may have had an inkling that something big was in the offing, because the previous day the Battalion had received a draft of 46 Other Ranks from the base, following on a draft of 69 two days before that.]

He concluded by noting how beautiful the weather was, and how pleased he was that the days would soon be shortening (‘I prefer night out here’) – above all, though, he hoped for an end to ‘these continuous hopeless weeks – even when you are having sports you can never properly be happy with the trenches always in the back of your mind’.

[Next letter: 15 July]