Transcription
Dear Papa,
Since writing you last I have received two letters from you dated Aug 5th and Aug 9th with the [?] from may and Sue which I was very glad to get. The parcel has not yet arrived. The last parcel I had from you is the one in which you put the lemonade (?) (the first time) please keep the Imperial Hotel address throughout because the are so careful here being friends and know all names. I got two letters from Blanche last week dated the first part of may I addresed to Salisbury Plain that have been travelling all over England. We can't keep all the military posts acquainted with our changes of address we can keep the Imperial to date so easily.
Kirkman(?) and I are on embarkation. It doesn't mean anything. I mean it does not indicate immediate orders. We may not get sailing orders for a month yet. The major kept his compact. He sent us away together and recommended us to the war office for Egypt as promised. I know your desires about my remaining as instructor in England and I have jumped at the work and because instructor so I was able to take up the work. But there is an unwritten law that men who have not been in the firing line do not get these jobs which are reserved for men who have been there. It is only fair too because a lad that has done his part should not be sent back and another lad who has not taken his place in the danger zone be given a safe job in England. But I went to work and as a [?] have made a record for length of stay at the instructional base, for I will have been there about four months before I finally leave. It is almost three months now. But if I get to Egypt there is not nearly the same danger. But I will say this that anything I should get offered over here I should take for your and Blanche sake because I would feel I had earned it and not "pulled" for it. Fellows have come and gone at high Wycombe after I came there and still am there because I knew my work and was of use whereas they weren't. Kirkman[?] and I are well thought of by those "higher up" and we have outlasted (?) everybody, and anything offered would be earned and I would not turn it down to get overseas.
I was to have been acting adjutant of the battery for a while while Capt. Clayton was on leave but that fell through when I was sent on leave. He picked me out for the job because I had been a banister and used to office work. It would have been a good experience Arson told the major he simply had to have me back in his section because the last three(?) animals there cannot "carry on" because they don't know their work and the major promised him to transfer me back there. I like there work in the right section though, very much because I get lots of riding. I am in the saddle every morning from 8:30 to 11:30 and as I have a horse of my own that no one else is allowed to ride without my permission you may imagine how I like it. Every Saturday and Sunday also I have gone for a 10 to 12 mile ride.
I have had two pleasant experiences lately. The other day I received a letter from a gunner that came to the Centre section and whom I helped train. He is in France. He sent me his photograph and said he wished to write me and thank me "for the kindness I had always shown him at high Wycombe" He was a good lad and worked with a will so that I had picked him out quickly and helped him along and wished him luck when he left. One never knows how a kindly word or two is appreciated, is it not so? The other experience was when another good young gunner who is awaiting commission stopped me on the street yesterday and said he would throw up his commission if Kirk and I would take him overseas as our servant. He said "you and Kirkman and Cockburn are three pretty popular officers here." naturally I was quite pleased but of course told him to stick with his well-deserved commission.
Cockburn is now on his way to Salonika. I received a letter from him written in France they disembarked on the north coast and were to reembark on the south coast. He heard that another of our old Company boys is killed, one wounded and one missing and wounded. My great friend Frank Fontes of the flying camps met his death last week in an air fight. His machine went down in flames and poor Frank was burned to death. I just heard the news today at the Imperial. I feel quite cut(?) ups for only a few weeks ago I spent several pleasant days with him here and he was almost entitled to a permanent staff Job in England or Canada as he had almost served his 6 months in France which would have so entitled him, [?] Campbell is in hospital here. He got sick in France. I am to see him tomorrow. He is almost better now.
The war does not seem any [?] end does it? I am afraid we are going to lose Russia. I fear Kerensky and Kornilov have too big(?) a job and that they cannot reunite the factions. The whole army is falling to pieces. The whole trouble is that they cannot force things by creating a military dictatorship because they could not depend on the army as a whole. They are real heroes to have checked things as they have. I am afraid it will take a huge disaster such as the fall of Petrograd to bring the politics-mad people to their senses. But Italy is doing things with a vengeance in the face of inconceivable difficulties — one of the brightest spots in the war has been the campaign in the great Italian mountains. Canada has won a pinnacle in history. Yes the U.S are in it with a vengeance and their natural enthusiasm is carrying things right along. [?] they do nothing but supply aeroplanes + crew will be of an inestimable value to the Entente.
Well I have no more news to tell you I have leave till Saturday night as we got a few days extra. We then report back to high Wycombe there till ordered overseas which may not take place for a month but may come in two weeks. I have not yet bought Camilla's present as I am awaiting another letter from you this week. As you said previously that you had an appointment with Blanche to buy it I thought my letter to let me send something from here would be too late. Under the EU(?) circumstances I shall not buy it until I hear again from you.
Goodbye for the present,
H D Anger
P.S That signature makes me laugh. I have got so used to signing things that as I was talking to Kirk I unconsciously signed that way
HarryTranscriber
Mia Laguerre, Sopie NeangLanguage
English
