‘I am writing this in my dugout,’ he told Pips, ‘on a brand new table which my servant and Gibson’s servant have just made – it consists of three planks about 4 1/2 feet long nailed together, and is certainly an improvement on the old duckboard we had before.’ The two servants had spent the previous evening putting up wire netting (‘just like that used in our chicken run’) around the walls to keep the rats out. Now he was back to work on digging out the new room: ‘I am down about a foot at present and am going down six feet if I have time – I expect we will just about finish it for someone else to live in.’
Letter to Pips, 8 December 1916. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/1/1/3/120)
Things were ‘going on as usual here’ he reported, ‘…you see the same thing happens pretty well every day as though I was going up to London every day, and it is very difficult to find something I am allowed to write about.’ He was able, however, to tell Pips that, with the battalion back in the line there was no imminent prospect of him being relieved – meaning he might be there another 5 days, or perhaps as much as 17 days, ‘but providing things remain quiet I have not the slightest wish to be moved.’
Although he chafed at the censorship restrictions, he had to impose the same restrictions on his men. He read about 60 or so letters every day, most of which did not extend over one side of paper, and ‘as for anything interesting, I am afraid few try and say anything beyond “I am quite well, give Annie my love, how is Aunt Maud etc etc…”. There is an extraordinary sameness about all their letters – and to judge from their writing there are a good few educated men amongst them.’
In other news he was pleased to have found, when the servants were cleaning out the dugout, a cigarette holder which had gone missing some weeks before. A little bit had been chipped out of the top, but otherwise it was ‘quite useable’. He was glad to have found it as he had become quite attached to it. He was still waiting to hear about his transfer to the RE – but he had been told it would take a month to process, and he had only applied on 20 November, so he would probably have to wait another week or two. In the meantime he had decided to get out of his ‘rather bad habit [of] staying in bed late’, and he now intended to cure himself by getting up at an ‘appointed hour’.
Before signing off he thanked Pips for the postcard with views of Boxhill that he had just received, and promised to return the favour with postcards of France just as soon as he could get them.
[Next letter: 10 December]