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[Page 54]
Alan's first letters came from a training camp at Randwick in 1914. Apart from a few complaints about the weather, our young soldier spent most of his time dwelling on a topic which I later came to know was close to his heart - that of food.
Two of the chaps in my tent had their people out to see them and they brought plenty of eatables. We had roast fowl, scones, cakes, jam rolls, fruit cake and tomatoes, all for breakfast!
In between the more mundane details of a military life, snippets of war news are included. On 31st August, 1914, he mentioned: Have just heard that we have captured Samoa.
There is a gap of almost a year in the letters from this point, and in the next letter of August, 1915, we find Alan camped at Warwick Farm in "H" Company, complaining about the stew, adding:
...not being able to procure sufficient to eat, and what we do get being of a very poor quality. We are all putting in sixpence a day and get fish, tongues, paste, etc.,
and asking Nell on her next visit to bring plenty to eat.
By September, 1915, Alan had been transferred to Liverpool camp, and had been told officially that he now belonged to the 11th reinforcements to the 4th Battalion. Conditions were still not particularly good, though he was looking forward to moving from the tents to some sheds, as each man is supplied with a bag of straw, so no more corns on the hips. He guessed that they would be sailing off to the war within 6 weeks.
As leave was cancelled, Alan seemed to become a little more morose and pleaded for more visits and letters from Nell
Try to remember a lonely boy at nights, and a heart-sore soldier at week-ends.
After the notification of his departure date, Nell and Alan's engagement was announced on 11th October, 1915, when Nell was still only 19 years old. Alan sailed on 15th October on the Troopship S.S. Port Lincoln. Luckily, on board, he managed to obtain a photo of the ship and had several of his fellow soldiers sign it. This he later sent to Nell and she kept it. Apparently many similar photos were kept in soldiers' kit-bags and inevitably lost during the war.
[See Image for photograph and signatures]