Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 504

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[Page 504]

[On letterhead showing the AIF Rising Sun badge.]
Fargo
Military Hospital
Sailsbury Plains
28/2/17

Miss M. Windeyer

Dear Madam,

As I promised you I would write and tell you how I enjoyed my trip I will commence. Firstly I will explain myself for being in hospital. I am now on my feet again after an attack of Bronchitis and Gastritis. It is heart-breaking to see the way the Australians are dying on these plains. The average for this week is 28. Quite a large casualty list on its own.

It was 21 days after leaving Sydney on that eventful morning of the 11th Nov. before I set foot on land again. Then it was a Durban. I quite enjoyed my self there for the three days that we stayed there, It is a real botanical Garden on its own, for every where one looks he sees the most beautifully kept lawns and gardens, All the streets being planted with flowering trees, I was quite amused with the darkies and their little sulkies I had a ride in them. They can go at a fair pace too and shy like a young horse. Then After leaving Durban we set out for Cape Town, I did not like being there at all, There is too great a mixing of the nations there. The streets being very narrow and not the interest taken in them as in Durban, We spent 16 days there during which time we had plenty of drill. We took on a gun and picked up 2 New Zealand troopers and 4

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