Part 1 of a Letter written by Albert to his sister, May

Part 1 of a Letter written by Albert to his sister, May

6th November 1915

Dear May I have just received your letter, and being as I have plenty of time I am going to write you a good letter. Of course, when I send a letter to any one of you, I really mean it for all of you. I thought perhaps when I send a letter or P.C. to any one of you, that the others might think that I had forgotten them. Of course, I have not time to write to each one of you, so I must write to one, and make it do for the lot. Referring to Aunt's last letter about arriving home safely, Aunt said that she hoped that I did not get very wet. It did not rain at all in London that day or the next. We have it very wet since though. In that same letter Aunt said that Will wrote a letter, and as Aunt could not find it she would leave it until the next letter. Will's letter was with Aunt's letter all right. I expect that Will shoved his letter in the envelope, and forgot all about it. The stamp was on all right, and the handkerchiefs were all right. Thanks very much for sending the handkerchiefs quickly because I lost the one which I took with me. A gentleman in our room has since given me 2 nice white handkerchiefs, because he is going to have khaki handkerchiefs. I shall get 3 khaki handker-chiefs sometime, so that will make 7. I shall send 5 home at a time and keep 2. We now have in our company Lord Butler's son who is going to have a commission, a Lord?s son, a Belgian Millionaire, worth £15,000,000, the Earl of Crewe's son, and 6 well known gentleman?s valets. So you see May we have quite a lot of gentry in our company. In Will's letter, Will asked me to get him some cigarette photos, but as most of the fellows smoke Woodbines, I shall not be able to get him any photos at all, He also asked me how many Germans I shot on my route march. Tell him that we did not see a German of any description during the whole march. And he asked me what kind of drill it was that was going to make me 6 ft before Christmas. Tell him that if we keep on having the good plain food, the stiff drills, and the fresh air we are having now, I shall not be far short of 6 ft. When I come home at Christ-mas I shall bring him something back better than cigarette photos. And of course I shall bring George and all of you something back as well. If you are going to send me some chocolate next week, May, I shall be very glad, and I thank you very much for it, al-though it has not yet come. If it did not come I should know the reason why, I know you can ill afford it. I am going to get in a better position than I am before another 3 months, and I am going to try to be a lance-corporal before Christmas. Last Friday we were short of section commanders, so the commander asked me to command one section. I had to drill them, and the commander said I was very good. He said I was getting on quick. So you see I am getting on all right, and stand a good chance of rising from the ranks. Have you had any separation money yet? If you have not, you must tell me in the next letter, and I will inquire into the matter. How is Alice at Wood Green getting on now, I hope she is as well as she can be. I hope that Mrs Cox did not mind me not going in to see her. Of course, I suppose she understood that I did not have time. Mrs Cox will have to come up and see me at Christmas when I come.

Created by: , Charlotte33

  • Profile picture for Albert Edward French

    Born 1900

    Died 1916

    British Army C/7259 Rifleman King's Royal Rifle Corps 18 Battalion