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[Page 55]
[Letter from Major Geoffrey McLaughlin, 22nd Battery, Field Artillery, to his brother]
[Note added]
Heard yesterday Doc. [Howes?] is a [Major?] as his show is in reserve havent seen him for a week when he rode up for a visit.
France
27th June 1916
Dear Old John,
Many thanks old man for your letters. Mails are rather scarce outwards I mean and last mail came on top of pretty continuous work which with interruptions, O.C's battery wanted at group Headquarters, pals into dinner & so on made me very [scanty?] last mail. I am also in receipt of two huge envelopes containing mail written while I was at Malta which being labelled Malta promptly went astray. There is only one way to address military correspondence – to the bloke's unit ie squadron Battalion or Battery. Brigades are only a hindrance as units are often fighting under other formations & the P.O. know what Division, & the location of each unit & mark "Delayed wrongly addressed" anything that has Brigade on not. Tell them will you I am 22nd Bty. & if I move & take command of an army it will still find me quick enough.
I have a bonzer pozzy here, in a nice green wood & the best constructed gun pits in the line, painted white under to give the teams good light & little electric bulbs & so on to give light on to the sights. Old Hobbs, nearly wept when he saw them & said he was going to get Birdwood to see them, but as his promises of anything promotion included are always taken c.g. [salt?] by the [kernowing?] ones as one worries much. Stu Walker lives up the road & comes & brings his
['Old Hobbs' is Brig. Gen. J.J.T. Hobbs, 1st Divisional Artillery]