Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 627
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 627]
When walking between 5 p.m. & 5-45 p.m. from Popes Hill and Shrapnell gully to my dug out I was telling Lieut. Col. Millard what a neglectful boy I was not to have left a week end telegram to be sent conveying my congratulations to my Baby on her berth [birth] anniversary I added that she was aware of my being at Anzac and that she would know the reason for the delay in dispatching to her a message from my place of residence. He said that he was sure that she would forgive me under the circumstances.
The hour for the evening meal approaches, I must away as I do not like being late. Later on words will be set down to tell you about my travels during the afternoon. Good bye for the present
8 p.m. About 11-30 a.m. I went to the headquarters of the 2nd Australian Division and there met Major Williams, Lieut Col. Millard. (Dr Millard of the Coast Hospital), General Legge, & others. Millard invited me to lunch.
About 2 o'clock we set out for the trenches, passing over much of the ground that was so gallantly traversed by your fellow countrymen on the 25th & 26th of April we came to the Sap (travelling road) which connects the various points in the present firing line. In it we met officers and men who hail from Sydney with its subburbs and many other places in New South Wales. One man named Manifold [Manefield] I knew as a child in Wallsend, and many of his relations were of my acquaintance & my patients.
[Lieutenant, later Captain, Ernest Thomas Manefield MC, shop assistant from Wallsend, NSW, joined the army on 5 May 1915 aged 21 and embarked from Sydney on 12 May 1915 on HMAT A32 Themistocles with C Company, 17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Infantry Brigade. He served at Gallipoli and later in France where he was awarded the Military Cross for actions in the field during the attack on Mont St Quentin on 31 August 1918. He returned to Australia in 1919.]