Item 04: John Duncan McRae diary, 6 May-18 September 1917 - Page 42

[Page 42]

army stretchers. The hospital is situated in a garden and after the dirt & dust of the billets, life here is very easy & pleasant.      After the first day or so I felt all right and quite able to take the full benefit of this new-found liberty.

The boys here wish they could find a brand of cigarette that would keep their temperature up, in order to be kept here for a good while.

The orderly of my ward, "B. Pyrexia" is Murray Sinclair, whom I knew at the Varsity. & strange to say the local Y.M. Rep is Harry Peake, also of the Uni.

Down here I have noticed some of the field toilers of the fields at work. All the cultivation is done by the old men, the women & children. In the heat of the mid-day sun I saw a man & woman & boy at it for all they were worth. The woman looked about 50, most likely with 3 or more sons at the Front and occasionally