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[Page 156]
[Pages 156 to 164 and 170 to 171 are of an 11-page letter, dated 8 March 1915, from Dr Nash to his "Girls". The pages are out of order and the letter is transcribed here in the page order in which it should be read. See individual images for detail.]
[1 – image 170]
Mena
Egypt
8-3-15
My dear Girls:/
Letters & photographs were posted this morning to Mollie, Miss Garran, Dr Armitt [editor of Medical Journal of Australia], and You. Do not forget to take one of the photos to the A.J.N.A. [Australian Journal of the Nurses Association] at the Equitable buildings, in George St, near to Palings.
My interior has quite recovered and today three good meals have been satisfactorily disposed of, at the present moment, 9.30 p.m. writing to you, my mental and physical condition are at the normal standard.
Most of our hospital material is away from here, but personal marching orders have not been delivered. I should have liked a day in Cairo but so far it has been convenient for me to leave, there has cropped up something for me to do surgically or otherwise. If we were all relieved from duty for a few days the respite would be much appreciated by some of us.
It was announced yesterday that an Australian mail would be distributed to those in the Camp today. As far as I have been able to make out the rumour was a false one, as no one here has been favoured. Good night. Good night. Good night.
10-8 [3]-15. Keeping O.K., eating well, sleeping well, able to get about with comfort. Hope all will be right for the future.
A horse came for me a few days ago. Yesterday morning at 7 o'clock I went for a ride across the sands. The weather was as it has been during our stay, of the best, air clear, no wind therefore no dust, the sands to
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the South East and West rolled away in hillocks and valleys, far as the eye could see, the cultivated lands to North, West, & East gave relief to the sight when one faced the North; Cairo & the plateau of the dessert beyond formed a back ground making the horizon. I thorughily enjoyed the outing. I was by myself at dinner the evening before I told the Colonel and Colonel Springthorpe that I was ordering my horse for the morning, neither of them was ready to come, so it is probable that they were not as anxious as I was to look round. Several of the regiments were starting across the sandy wastes for a days drilling & manouvering upon the dessert.
During the afternoon, about 3.30 'oclock I went to Cairo. At 5 p.m. I visited a school which is taught by the Christian Brothers, a French order, same as those who teach at St Catherines in Alexandria. The grounds are extensive, the school building substanial looking, the corridors, stair-ways, and rooms spacious & well lighted, the dormitors fairly well equipped and comfortably bedded without being crowded. Four stories in elevation, each story being about 18 feet high. A striking character of all good class buildings here is, to an Australian the spaciousness of the interior and the height of the rooms, it is a necessity, probably, resulting from the climatic conditions of the Summer time.
At the Palace, Heliopolis, at 6 p.m. Met Colonel Ramsay-Smith, Major Barrett, and Major Watson, and other officers attached for duty. Dined with them. After a talk went on to the Camp and there called
[William Walker Russell Watson CB CMG VD (1875-1924) had served with distinction in the South African War. On the outbreak of WW1 he commanded the Australian Naval and Expeditionary Force that seized German territories in the Pacific in late 1914. On 10 May 1915 he embarked from Melbourne on HMAT A14 Euripides with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 24th Infantry Battalion, 6th Infantry Brigade. He temporarily commanded that Brigade when it landed at Gallipoli on 10-11 September. He led the 24th Battalion at Lone Pine, and commanded the 6th Brigade rear parties during the evacuation, being appointed Commander of the Bath for his services on the peninsula.]
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upon Captain Fiaschi who was out of camp next upon Colonel Beeston, he looks well and is consuming, as all other Australians, much of the Egyptian sand. Found Colonel Burnage, Colonel McGlynn [McGlinn], his people live in West Maitland), and Colonel Monash, the first named from Newcastle, the third from Melbourne. Each is working hard getting a crowd ready for fighting when called upon anywhere at the seat of war. Good officers they are, who spoke well of the men under their command.
Col. Monash is of German extraction, a man of high standing in Melbourne, possessing, I was told, much money. He has been widely talked about on account of his name. It certainly is a handicap. During his earlier years he must have listened to much from his parents and others which would fix in his mind sympathy for the German race, because up till a few months ago, every Teuton had good cause to applaud, in all company, the great strides that had been made by those who were managing affairs in Berlin & other parts of Germany. It mattered not whether those advances were of peace or war, reputation was gained which compared more than favourably with the individuals of any other human combination. The only competitors they had in commerce, ship-building, manufacturing, education, government (State or Municipal), and the subsidiary matters attached to each of these, were the British Communities, and the United States of America. In many
[Lieutenant General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB VD (1865-1931), soldier, engineer and administrator, commanded the 4th Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli and later commanded the 3rd Division in France.]
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of the human activities included in this list the Teutons claimed, and perhaps justly, that they were set example for the rest of the world. As a proof. Immediately war began question arose as to how the makers of cotton & woollen fabrics could obtain aniline dies [dyes]. So with many important chemicals used in medicine, the arts, and the allied sciences. One might elaborate this matter in large extent, but the foregoing is enough for present purpose.
Colonel Martin is away this morning, while acting for him my pen is serving me to have a chat with you. It will next do me for a few words with Mollie & some others.
Where is the Australia? The last I heard of her was when she had something to say to a ship off the Southern part of South America. If you guessed the North Sea would you be right? If I were in a guessing competition I should guess the North Sea. Whether my guess would be right or not I know not. You may have more information than is in my possession.
Expecting letters this day. Hope they will come.
12-30 p.m. A letter has just come from Frank Fox. By Jove he is a brave man, to throw up the comforts of journalism & a good name, for the position of a Lieutenant of Artillery after he has been an eyewitness to the horors of war in Belgium during the German progress through that country. Did you read the article by him in the 19th Century, to which I referred in one of my earlier letters? Therein there were enough scenes of a terrifying order to keep any man from playing a part in the game which had devastated the fair land
[marked 6; actually page 5 – image 158]
inhabited by the Flemings & Walloons. His heart always was in the right place, and now he has shown it. Good luck to him!
10-3-15. 3-15 p.m. At 3p.m. a whole heap of letters came into the office, they have been sorted and not one from home for me. One came to me from the Minister for Defence in acknowledgment of one from me written when I had arrived in Egypt, it was addressed S.S. Kyarra Egypt, and bore a post mark Victoria 4 Feby 1915, any letter posted two days earlier in Sydney could have been here in the same mail. However what is the use of complaining. On these days one is glad to be alive, let alone be amongst the favoured ones who get more than enough to eat and clothing with which to cover his nakedness.
I have written letters to Mr Flowers & Jimmy Roach. I have asked the former to make the latter a Justice of the Peace for New South Wales and I hope that he will do so at an early date. I feel sure that he will do so. Jim must be now growing into a man of standing in the community, & by so doing he deserves an honour like a J. Pship.
Are your finances satisfactory? Let me hope so. Should you have any difficulties in making ends meet consult with Mr Finney, he will then direct you as to what is best to sell that you may keep the necessary accounts paid up & my property as intact as possible.
Dr Kennedy has just come in he has had no letter and looks disappointed. He is I think worse off than I, because he has had no letter of later date than the 28th Decbr 1914. During few days my mind has had within it several times question:/ Wonder do my letters posted here arrive in Australia in regular sequence? Wonder is it so?
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11-3-15. 3 p.m. A large parcel of letters and papers down stairs. No one for me. Bother.
No orders as to moving so far. We expect them daily, but when they will come I have no information.
Hot & dusty here today. The air is thick with sand to such extent that the pyramids are not to be seen through my window. It is said that the period of the Khamssie [Khamsin], (The fifty days included in March & April) is the most disagreeable in the year. The wind blows almost continuously off the desert, & being at times strong and gusty much of the sand is rolled in thick clouds & over long distances. The particles of sand here are rounded and it may be that the blowing of them about so frequently and over such long distances causes the edges to be rubbed off. The same physical reasons may account for the stones in the sand on the ridges having the appearances of waterworn pebbles; their surfaces cannot be due to water because there has been no water where they are for at least 8000 years, yet they are smooth surfaced pebbles. On the stony ridges too there is no sand, this too must be a result of the wind which keeps them clear from the particles where which everywhere else form a thick layer. You may remember in the pictures of antartic exploration that the rocky masses project being free from snow & ice midst fields of both materials, so here do the rocky ridges & precipices jut out as bare rock from the seas of sand.
13-3-15 – 10. a.m. Letters from you three girls and
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from Doffie. Hurrah! Hurrah!!! Hurrah!!!!!
Hurrah! Hurrah!!! Hurrah!!!!!
Each bears the same date 12-1-15. i.e. 8½ weeks ago.
Car dear:/ It was good of Jimy Roach to send to you a ham. In these days when meat is so dear costly it should count for much in your large family. The cooking at the F. H. Ice Coy. is a novel idea. Ham is very nice when it has a slightly sweet taste, at least this is my idea, others may prefer it without the use of sugar in the preserving. I wrote to Jimmy a little ago.
I am very well still in the land of the Pharoes, quite recovered from the temporary indisposition which made me somewhat uncomfortable for two weeks. You were right not to reply to my cable by wire as our ship left Colombo before the New Year's day.
Mail day is of course irregular, but I never wait for it to come round that I may write to you, I just write any time the fancy comes upon me & there be thoughts wandering through my mind which may be interesting to you, or which serve as the an excuse around which to build a conversation with you. "We write just as often as they go" is portion of a sentence in your letter, "they" referring to mails. My way should be a better way one than yours, because when my sheets are numerous enough they are enveloped, & placed in the post box, and are thus ready to be forwarded at the first opportunity.
Yes. Great excitement. In an earlier letter I asked you to convey my congratulations to Belle Moxham. Good luck to them all. Uncle Herschell could not refrain from sending a cablegram to express his joy. Good luck to him too!
Mr Trefle I wrote about some weeks back, & a letter has gone from me to Mrs Trefle.
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No one has sent to me a copy of the Melbourne Advocate. It was, I have no doubt, Mrs M. M. Knowles who wrote the paragraph. The festive Marion was always a great friend in childhoods days to the members of the Nash family. She has developed much facility in recent years for arranging English words in pleasing sequence. Did I see the paragraph a letter would go from me to her. It is a wonder that MacNamara did not send to me a copy. Not before has word come to me about Mr Cosgrove, he appeared to me, the last time we met in King St, to be growing more feeble that had been his habit. R.I.P.
My best wishes to Nellie Anderson & to members of the family whom you may meet. You & the festive Rene were gay in going to Manly so often. Mrs MacMurray is a real wonder. Fancy competing in style & good looks with Mrs Sep Levy? My best wishes to them when you next see them. Also to the Regans, the Phipps & others. I am struggling all right, & hope to continue doing so after we move on. The war is still as great as ever. My view of it is still that the approaching summer will be productive of great struggles on land & it may to by sea. Time the great exhibitor of all things will give some chance to see, list to, or read about what should be turning points in the histories of many nations.
Joseph dear. Glad you were pleased with my cable from Colombo. Compensation enough for having sent it. O.K. just now. Mails are irregular just now to all parts of the British Empire. A paper is to hand from Mrs Fraser this morning, I have not so far opened it. Did you eat Pecks acorns?
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I shall look up Reg. Bridge if ever I get to London. The idea is prevalent that Clarrie has been in the North Sea for some time. Colonel Homes [Holmes] & his boys from Rabaul had a great reception on their return from the tropics. Good luck to them! I met one of the Milner boys, a Captain, here a few days ago, please tell his Mother that he was looking very well, & was doing his share of the work here.
Glad that you are managing all right. I shall look forward hopefully to the end of the first half year of your management. All your friends appear to be very king [kind], & to take an interest in your wellfare & happiness. Try to deserve well of them in the future as you have done in the past, then all will be satisfactory for and with you. There are none who do not look with admiration upon well conducted and careful women, no matter what be their age or station in life. The opposite kind of women are simply put up with & pitied.
My best wishes & kindly thanks to all your and my friends.
Glad to read that Andy Watt & his family are so comfortable in their new home. He is a good chap, and there is no more beautiful set of girls. Did Pat appreciate the letter which went from me to her? Maria will be wealthy beyond all dreams of avarice soon should her income be increased frequently. To her best wishes. Buddie whose letter to have about four weeks ago, and dated eight days later than the 12th Jany, told about your ringing her up for the Christmas time. She is now I suppose hard at work again teaching the young idea in Maitland how to shoot.
Good Kitty my dear. How I should like to see you all? Bad fortune was with Mr Trefle. He was a good man. R.I.P.
[Engineer Lieutenant Clarence Walter Bridge, born in North Sydney on 18 January 1890, a career Naval Officer, who served on HMAS Australia during WW1. He went on to have a long career in the Navy, retiring in 1952.
Colonel, later Major General, William Holmes CMG DSO VD (1862-1917), commanded the successful Australian Naval and Military Expedition against German territories in the Pacific. In March 1915 he was appointed to command the 5th Infantry Brigade, and landed with them at Gallipoli in August. He was temporarily in charge of the 2nd Division there at the time of the evacuation. In January 1917 he was promoted Major General to command the 4th Division. He was killed by a shell while escorting the Premier of New South Wales, W A Holman, on a visit to the Messines battlefield on 2 July 1917.]
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Sir H. Maitland. [Sir Herbert Lethington Maitland (1868-1923)] He is in fortunes way & was well repaid for the appendix operation he performed on young McGavan. My congratulations to her ladyship & the gallant Knight when you see them. I may write to him during the week.
Yes Uncle Herschell! Bai Jove!!!!! You too congratule Harry, Belle & the baby for me.
Rain in plenty will make up for the shortage just before I left, you did not write as to its being in the country as well as in Sydney. Some day may hap God may be good to me letting me see sunny New South Wales & Macquarie St. once again.
My regards to Dr Dunn. Thanks for the love & kisses, I hope to struggle on successfully.
Kitty dear:/ Dont look out for the mails just write post the letter 'twill then be ready for any mail that sets out. You should before now have had plenty of letters from me, if not 'tis not that they have missed, [through] my fault, any ship going your way.
Mrs Fraser is very faithful. Julie does not forget. Mary & Nell Johnson were thoughtful. I hope to see them all should I get to London. The tribute to Mr Trefle was well deserved. R.I.P. Sic transit gloria mundi. [Thus passes the glory of the world.]
Greystanes is a good name for the Watt palace. My kindest regards & love when you see the children or other members of the family. Plenty of amusement for all when the times count the pianola, & other accessories are available, it is wise of them not to entertain much, because such is costly and entails much loss of valuable time, for which there is not much recompense, and time is so valuable if one only occupys it usefully to some good end. Good, the papers have been appreciating Dr Harris. He is a decent man, cleanly in mind & body, & making his life useful.
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Yes Uncle Laurie v. Herschell. Glad to learn from you that you are managing "quite all right." Thanks for "lots of love & loads of kisses".
These replies to you, & a letter from Buddie will go into the post directly, hoping with their leaving my hands that they may reach you rapidly.
Orders have gone for every one here to pack up. Which means that within few days our hospital will be on the move again. The Colonel told me today that he may leave me behind for a couple of weeks to clear up this hospital & make ready to follow him. If so it may or may not be good luck for me. However in this sort of work one has but to obey and be satisfied.
Yesterday I was off for the day & became for twenty-four hours a combatant soldier again. Were I a few years younger, the rumble of the guns & the click of the rifle would draw me away from here, to take a hand in the more strenuous aspects of the war, not that the medical corps does not play a useful role but it is more sedate & much less stimulating than is the fighting area.
Good bye now my dears God bless each of you all the time, may holy & heavenly thoughts still counsel you, and time bring them to ripeness with you, upon you all a thousand thousand blessings. To my friends & yours kindest regards.
Your affnt father
John B. Nash
The Misses Nash
219 Macquarie St
Sydney
N. S. Wales