Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 229
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[Page 229]
114
conversing with friendly fellow-convalescents, most of whom were young officers of the Royal Marines and the Royal Naval Division. I was not the only Australian there, and they were rather enchanted by colonial idiom and slang. In response to an invitation to have a drink with two of them, I said I would like a shandy. "Shandy?", they queried, "What's shandy?". "Oh just beer and lemonade", I replied. "What", gasped one of them, "Lemonade in beer?". "Dreadful!". The mixture was quite unknown in England, it seemed.
One afternoon we were visited by Colonel Sir Frederick Treves, the famous surgeon who had operated on King Edward VII for Appendicitis, then considered very new and risky surgery. He and a young aide proceeded to examine all the officers in the Home to decide who were fit to return to Gallipoli, and who had been there too long. When it came to my turn he inquired how I was. I replied that I felt well and expected to return to the Peninsular in a few weeks. He and the aide carefully examined my leg. "You'll not be fit for at least six months", was Sir Frederick's verdict, "Do you wish to go to England, or back to Australia for your convalescense?" I chose the latter alternative, and the aide noted it down accordingly. A few afternoons later, Sir Frederick called again, with an open Victoria carriage drawn by a spanking pair of grey horses, and took three of us for a very exhilarating drive in the big park and the beautiful gardens. He was a very natural charming fellow, with whom one felt at ease immediately.
A week later I was on my way to Helouan Spa, on the Nile a few miles up-river from Cairo. The huge hotel there had been turned into a convalescent hospital, and after a rather boring week there, I was included in a train load of wounded Australians travelling to Suez to return home on the Aberdeen White Star liner "Themistocles" leaving on the 13th of August and going direct to Fremantle, then to Melbourne, and to Sydney where the voyage terminated on the 14th of September. It was a pleasant and unexciting month, steaming along smoothly in generally calm weather. We were not bothered by many parades