Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 133
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[Page 133]
hour. Next day they had in a fresh stock and were bought out again by evening. The other inhabitants were out for making what they could too. We bought some eggs and bacon at the store and paid one of the neighbours a shilling from each of us to cook them and give us tea &c. She supplied us with a very nice tea served in a cosy little dining room with a fine fire crackling in the grate. It was quite homely and a pleasant change from scrambling for tucker in the military style.
This lady's husband was at the front. In fact every house in the village has its representative there; most of them are bereft of the head of the household and the wife and four or five children are left at home to subsist as best they can on the miserable military pay. The English tommy only gets his 1s/1d per day with an extra allowance of
16s/10d for his wife if she lives in London and 12s/6d is she lives in the country. They are also allowed an extra 5/- for one child and 10/6 for three. The french soldier is even worse off and only gets three-halfpence a day - his fighting is true patriotism. Until recently he only received a half-penny per day.
The people in these villages, which are dotted over the countryside within a mile or two of one another, are very old fashioned. Most of them never move out of their own little township and some don't even know the name of the next township but one. They are also dreadfully pecuniary, through necessity I daresay.