Letter from Roy Bruce to Maud Bruce

Please reply
to Golf Club
just thank them.
RB.

I was very
glad to get your wire
last night & to know you
are fit enough to go away
by Monday.

If I am able to
write again before we leave
I will address to Rollesly,
but all other letters I will
send to Campbell St , so if
you have not done so you
had better notify the postal
authorities to forward your

letters on.

My number is 22 but it
will not be necessary for you
to use it in waiting to me.
The only address you need to
put on is

Lieut. R. J. Bruce 5th (S.C) Mounted Rifles N.Z. Expeditionary Force

& if you add "please forward"
I don't suppose it will do any
harm.

The other address so far as
I know is

Mrs E.P. Johnston c/o Messrs. Glyn, Mills, Curry &, Co Lombard St. London . S.C.

but after we get home, I will probably be able to give you
something more definite.

I believe we are going
to Southampton via Suez .
We will then go into barracks
on Salisbury plain for the
winter and go to the Continent
in the spring.

I think we start
embarking tomorrow or Tuesday
& leave for Wellington about
Thursday.

The weather here is simply
beautiful and I am rapidly
getting very fit again.

I had a letter from your
mother, she seems to think
I am bullying her & treating
her like a child, apparently
she alone is to have the perogative

of doing that. You need not
say anything to her about it,
and I am sure it will
prove beneficial in her treat-
ment of you, and that is all
I care about.

Tonight I am going
to supper with the Guthries .
Church parade is on now,
but he would not let me
go and stand in the sun.

During the voyage I will
try & keep a sort of diary &,
send it on, but after the
first week or two things get
pretty monotonous on board
ship.

Sloan 's wife & family are
going home by the Remeura
on Thursday, I wish I had

enough money to send you
& Helen home at once, but
I suppose it will come in
due course.

I am rather afraid
that horse of mine will
never be much good as a
troop horse, Arthur Rhodes
was riding him yesterday,
and he had an awful time
with him. Rhodes was
absolutely done after about an
hour, and he is a very
strong fellow- there is no
vice in him but he pulls
& plunges all the time.
I was riding Rhodes ' horse
Shamrock which suits me
exactly.

I have another Bruce
in my troop now, R.A Bruce ,
from Geraldine , that makes
three of us altogether.

The troop is improving,
and some day will be
quite respectable.

Did you know Williams
your one time cowboy is
here as a farrier. He is
fair.

What happend to my
blue cap & socks, they have
not yet arrived, it does
not matter very much if
they dont, I should only
need the socks in the tropics.

Had a letter from Edith

yesterday, nothing in
it.

Well darling this may
be the last letter you will
get from me from New Zealand ,
and if it is I have nothing
more to say except to ask
you to be happy as ever
you can be and enjoy yourself
as much as possible.

I am sorry I have
not always been as good
to you as I might have
been, but at least you
& Helen have always occupied
the first place in my
thoughts & love and you
always will. I have tried

to do my best for you both,
but I recognise it has been
a poor one.

Good bye dear one, give
Helen a big hug for me &
get her to give you one from
me too. Don't let her forget
me.
God bless you both my
dear ones. Roy