Friday. Started in the morning before the first lecture. To be added to in odd minutes as the day proceeds, a new system being tried out.
Scotland
My Dearest
7.15 on a fine, slightly rain-in-the-air-e morning. Back from P.T. Bed made & all kit clean. Waiting for Mr. Lilley to come & give us our recce papers of last Saturday morning back & and then to discuss them. Lectures all the morning, and rest from the intense agricultural activity of the past two days. The Class Officer for the day stands at the door, we all sit in our places, and when Mr. L. heaves elegantly in sight round the curved corridor he’ll shout “Room Attention”. Report all present less sick, ask permission to smoke & then give sit easy. After that we work on fighting recce till 8 when breakfast comes round, & so this day starts. All in high spirits.
Class 11 has arrived, a sign of the Times. They came to Barton Stacey only last week. They have a great deal to go through. Very innocent & new they are, too.
No, the triangular building was to be the Children’s Mental Home, & is our home. Auchinleck House is a solid terraced red stone house built some 50 years ago by a Glasgow ship-builder & a is now the Officers Mess.
By a strange freak Mr. Lilley is late ! Never happened before. The insides of the officers are disturbed, maybe he’s a poor man is occupied. They live too well. So do we. Kidneys for tea, & Tony dosen’t like them ! I had his. Lashings of stewed kidneys, after an afternoons clay digging. Its a wiring practical this afternoon & at 6.30 the full unbowedlerised version of “Next of Kin“, in the Mess room, to which am looking forward. They say it’s a very good film. Takes 2 hours.
Because I’m on duty on Sunday I am going to Caldergrove on Saturday after dinner. You ring me, remember, Hamilton 1027. Ask for O/Cd Daniell, Class 10. Probably I’ll answer anyway. You & I direct at the end of a lot of joined wire.
Last period yesterday afternoon we had a lecture by the O.C., The first of a series of four, on Messing. An interesting subject. I shall put in for a Messing course.
Here’s Mr. Lilley.
(After Breakfast) 15 min break between periods 2 & 3.
Mr. Lilley apologised charmingly for being late and us and said it was rude of him. He had our recces is in his hands & I felt considerable trepidation. It was written, & made, last Saturday morning, directly after our night march, & we were all woolly & tired. Furthermore it was very rushed, as reports had to be in by 1o/c. So I was very delighted when I found I’d got 89%, (an A) & the highest mark. Recces are considered important, as they are, they’re sheer soldiering. Moreover it was marked Very Good, & was quoted in the discussion by Lilley three times. A small thing maybe, to be pleased at “good marks”, but there you are ! The nearest mark was 80, & 60 was the average.
A busy afternoon. Two periods lectures & 3 practical, wire erecting. Good fun. Then pay & then the film “Next of Kin”. Very good indeed. Shattering silencer against careless talk. Makes one blush for once past indiscretions.
Now, after this, to bed. I find myself very tired at the end of the week, we all are. So much enthusiasm, hard mental & physical work, & a night out leaves one very grateful for the weekend. Next weeks a swine, the worst of all. Night wiring on Wednesday, 4 hours, all round bushes dishes and bings, dead silence, Battle order & Battle conditions, L.M.G, Grenades & even gas ! Then on Friday is our endurance test, march off 9o/c in the morning, march 25 miles, with schemes en route, fight a scheme at the end, dig ourselves in & wire the position, no food, & then an attack to repel & counter attack at dawn, and so home by 1o/c !- Saturday. No bed at all. But why worry, it’ll be good fun. And I’m Guard commander on Tuesday, bed at 3o/c. Also Field Works exam on Wednesday.
Thus ends the fifth week ! Seven weeks today I’ll be in the train steaming south. Oh dear.
How unfortunate for everyone, – the affair of Manders child & Spencers pig. Its terrible for the Manders, & a great worry for J.S. & H. I do hope the child doesn’t get too much permanent damage.
I do hope I pull this job off. One can’t help wondering. So far it’s been a sheer soldiering, which I found quite easy. But now it’s field works, and that’s not my street. So it means a great deal of attention to detail & lots of new work.
Yes I remember those days of three years ago, & the Mitre & the House of Commons, & Windsor, & you.
Well dearest, I must go to bed. You don’t talk about being tired now, are you settling down at the
P.S. Yes. The worst had happened, I’ve mislaid, lost, I fear, my fountain pen ! Alas. It’s been a good friend though. So sorry.