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[Page 27]
KF
Hospital Ship
nurses
21.6.'15
My dear Father & Mother & Jean & Ame & Tien & Clarrie & Phil & Frank & Did, Mabel, Francie, Viva, Linda & Viv, Ida C., Nora N., Molly M., Mrs K., Jean K., Jean Begg, Auntie Lizzie, Bill & Sophie, Farmer Whyte, Percy Allen, etc., etc.
This be a real red letter day for me in many ways. To begin with its the first time for the last 5 weeks that I have felt absolutely safe from shot and shell and snipers. I'm absolutely having a most glorious holiday on the hospital ship. It is lying a couple of miles off Anzac and I had to run across on duty. So I've been having a most glorious time. I've got to go back to my little grey home in the trench in a couple of hours but I'm enjoying every minute of this. After 5 weeks of bully beef and bacon and biscuits it was a real joy to have a decent dinner. I'm afraid I made a perfect beast of myself. I had soup, fish, grilled chop, sausage, potatoes, rhubarb tart, coffee, cheese, bread & butter. It was a feed fit for a king, after such a long spell of army rations. Before dinner I watched the stewards hungrily as they walked in and out of the saloon. When I bought 2 cigars for 2 shillings (well worth it) and smoked the smoke of absolute peace and contentment. I quite forgot the war. My duty was merely to go through the list of killed and wounded etc. etc. When this was over I had a couple of hours blissful ease. I had a BATH. None of your ordinary swims, with one eye on the shrapnel and the other on the shore, but a real bath with SOAP and a wash in FRESH water. These be things to cable home about ....
But the best is still to come. There were NURSES on board !!! What do you think of that. I was just longing for a broken arm or leg or something to keep me there ... Fancy not seeing a lady's face or hearing a lady's voice for weeks and weeks and weeks (it seems years and years and years) and then actually talking to and shaking hands with half a dozen nurses. (Ida C. you ought to have been here). One of them was a perfect little angel .... (The rest of this particular episode may be left to the imagination).
There were several doctors on board but as I ate like a team of horses and never felt better in all my life, there was no excuse for my remaining. Quite a lot of officers and men were there sick and broken-down with the stress of the last few weeks. And there were several of our brigade amongst the wounded ...
The view here is just delightful, Imbros, Somothrace and Tenedos are near by. The sea is smooth. The weather perfect. The blue of the Mediterranean sky is equalled by the blue of the Mediterranean. We are even out of sound of the fusilade and bombardment of Anzac. I keep on the other side of the ship so as not to see the place. The only thing that reminds us of war is occasional booming of the guns of our warships. After the trenches its just heaven.
This unexpected and wholly welcome visit to the hospital ship is really the only item of news this week. In any case it has dwarfed all other items into insignificance. We all feel very optimistic on shore and have no doubt that soon we will start out to finally smash the Turk. We do not know when that will be. We just keep the Turks at bay and wait events.
Col. Ryrie is very well. So are most of our brigade. In an earlier letter I mentioned that I thought Les. Holmes was in Egypt, but yesterday I ran across him in the trenches. Please drop a line to Liz and Stan and tell them that Les is very well and getting fat. If I stayed on this hospitable ship much longer I'm sure I'd get fat too.
The/