Still in the line, Sherriff wrote a short letter to his mother, and began by thanking her for the parcel he had received that very morning:

Sherriff’s mother, in nurses uniform. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/6/6/3)

‘The Veda Bread came in for its usual share of applause as also did the chocolate biscuits…I love that photo of you in your nurse’s uniform, I think it is one of the best that you have had taken so far although the little one in the leather case wants a lot of beating – I have carried that in my pocket ever since I found it in my stocking the Xmas before last.’

He told her that he was keeping the new photo in the case that his Company Commander [Tetley] had given him [ to commemorate their time under heavy fire on New Year’s Day]. It was a very good photo indeed, he thought  (‘Jones is really quite a good man at photos’) [Chaplin Jones was a well-known Kingston photographer].

He promised a longer letter when he came out of the line again, which he hoped would be very soon.

[Next letters: 2 April]

Back in the front line (the right sub-section of Calonne) with his battalion , Sherriff had little time to write, so settled for dashing off a couple of quick letters to his parents. He apologised to his mother for the one-page letter:

 ‘Just a hurried line to tell you I am quite well but very busy as we are in the line and as we have to work at all times we require as much sleep as possible, so you will excuse just a short note…’.

His letter to Pips was a little longer, and he mentioned that he had been reading a good little book (‘really a children’s book’) with ‘some very fine little stories in it’: Parables from Nature, it was called, and Pips should try to get hold of a copy, as he might like it.

The weather had been rather changeable of late (‘first rain, then snow, then sunshine’) but the days were growing longer (‘we have, of course, gone back to summer time as well as you’) and the nights less cold:

‘There are signs of spring everywhere now – today, two larks soared up from the middle of No Man’s Land singing – they are quite neutral – there are also some snowdrops growing out there…’.

The Daily Mail had reported that the crocuses at Hampton Court were at their best – ‘I should have liked to see them, but I do hope I shall be able to next year’.

[Next letter: 31 March]

After 11 days ‘away back behind the guns’ Sherriff told his father (and his mother, in a separate letter) that they were getting ready to leave:

‘All is bustle and confusion again today as we are off from our quiet little village where we have been training men, back to our Regiment again – these good jobs never last long and this one has not lasted the time we expected – still we have to get used to these sudden moves and I suppose it is always the army way’.

They were due to leave at about 2:00 in the afternoon with the prospect of a ‘good tidy march’ – ahead. Luckily the weather was now ‘fine’, despite having been very variable of late.

Sherriff’s father dressed for the City (c 1900 or so). By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 3813/14/1/3)

Sherriff’s father dressed for the City (c 1900 or so). By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 3813/14/1/3)

Before he had joined up Sherriff had been, like his father, a clerk for Sun Insurance in the City in London, so he could sympathise that his father was likely to be ‘pretty well underwater with Renewal notices coming in.’ It was a job Sherriff had hated, and had been glad to leave to join the army (a ‘merciful, heaven-sent release he called it in his 1968 autobiography, No Leading Lady), but nevertheless, he now ‘would willingly work from 6 in the morning to 12 at night to be back at that work – you get quite enough of this in a few months.’

In his letter to his mother, meanwhile, he reminisced about the last day he had spent with his mother ‘wandering round Bushy Park’ – exactly six months before. ‘It does seem a long, long time to wait, and although it does not seem so very long ago ins some ways, it seems years in others – I can still remember so clearly everything we did together during those glorious days – our walks in the park, our talks in the front room over the little gas fire and everything between the time when I came home from Gidea Park that afternoon and sat in the front room until we said goodbye at Charing Cross’. He hoped it would not be too long before they got to see each other again.

Sherriff’s mother, in nurses uniform. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/6/6/3)

He thanked her, as he had on previous occasion, for the letters ‘written in haste on the hospital paper’ – he appreciated how busy she must be, and expected she was now becoming quite a skilled nurse. He told her he was longing for the war to end, so that ‘we can settle down to do all those things we talked of so much – a farm, and our tours we would do – I do hope it will soon all come about’.

[Next letters: 30 March]

[Parts of this post were mistakenly published on 24 March (a confusion caused by the similarity in Sherriff’s writing of the numbers 4 and 7). The post relating to his 24 March letter has been rewritten, while the present post covers his letters to both mother and father on 27 March 1917.]

On 24 March Sherriff wrote home to his father with details of the training they were giving their men:

‘We are having some perfect weather now, and training is very nice back here – the men are getting instruction in everything: besides the usual Physical Drill & Musketry etc there is plenty of firing on a range – Rifle Grenades, Bombs & Bullets – Digging – Marching & everything pertaining to the soldier’.

He told Pips that he had received a long letter from him two days before, and wished he could think of more interesting things to say in reply. He felt he had said everything he had to say about the French people and plans as much as he could, or was allowed, and there was nothing much to add about his recent activities. ‘But tomorrow is Sunday,’ he noted, ‘and a day off except a voluntary Church parade which I shall go to after a hard week’s work – and after that, I hope I shall be free, and I will summon up all my thoughts to write a more interesting letter’.

[Next letters: 27 March]

The weather had turned cold again – it had been trying to snow and there was a biting wind – but the training continued nevertheless. He told Pips that, when the weather was very bad, ‘we retire into barns and give lectures – the training is very interesting and you get hold of very keen men sometimes’.

Pips had obviously written to him to ask how long they spent in the trenches at a time, but Sherriff felt he could not answer because the censor would be displeased: all he could say was that it was not quite as long as they used to do. He asked his father for more news from home – of men at the office, and of all the local news in the Surrey Comet.

Sherriff’s mother, in nurses uniform. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/6/6/3)

Writing to his mother on the same day he thanked her for the letter he had received from her:

‘It is awfully good of you to write such long letters to me after your long hospital hours – please don’t sit up late to write, dear, even although I appreciate them so much – just a short note saying all is well when you are pressed for time’.

He apologised that his letters to her had become so ‘scrappy’ – but he found it hard to think of any news. He told her that all leave had been stopped, so his chances of getting home soon were ‘not great’ – but he was resolved to hope for the best, and just look forward to that ‘great time’. But at least, at the moment, home did not seem so very far away, with his letters arriving so regularly, and the countryside looking very English – ‘just like Shere or Dorking’.

[Next letter: 24 March]