Letter from Roy Bruce to Maud Bruce

Here we are at
Lemnos , that is the few that
are left of the old brigade, trying
to knock sense into the new
one. You will remember years
ago Thatcher 's remark "It makes
me 'eart bleed to see 'em sir".
Well I can appreciate that remark
now to its full value. We are
trying in a few days to make
a fighting force, and it is almost
hopeless. Almost any day now
we expect to go back to Anzac
or elsewhere. There are only 3
of the original C.M.R. Canterbury Mounted Rifles officers

here at present. Gibbs , Free &
myself. We have a new
Colonel, one Stewart from Otago , a
good man; old John Studholme
is in command of the 8 th ( 'nuff enough
said) with myself, Chillie & Bowron .
Mathias is temporarily attached to
the 10 th . Things are worse in
some of the other regiments.
The men would be alright with
proper training but - we weep
for the old brigade.

I got two parcels & several
letters from you the other day,
all various dates, also a cable
7 weeks old, which I cannot reply
to from here, but which does not
matter now as you will have
got letters from me & you will

know I am alright again.
Thanks very much for the parcels
dear , containing cigarettes, socks
& shirts, they were very welcome.
Everything lately has been following
me around half Europe I think.
The postal arrangements are
getting very complicated, but we
must not be too critical, they
have a difficult row to hoe.

I must say I am not
altogether looking forward to the
winter campaign. It is
getting cold here now & we
have had some rain and cold
winds. My health is pretty
good, but I am not so fit
as when I left Egypt the
first time. The Peninsula has

left its mark on every one
of the old hands.

We were inspected the
other day by the new C in C Commander in Chief ,
General Munro , but I am
afraid we were rather a
motley gathering. We are
not more than half strength
in officers & men.

I have a new troop, good
fellows but undisciplined.
Luckily, my N.C.Os non-commissioned officers are old
hands returned, Priest , Grey &
Tennant . All the old hands
that come back make a bolt
to come to me, but unfortunately
it cannot always be managed.

I am sending you Cooks '
receipt for my kit, in case

you should ever have to use
it. I have another one, so
that I can get my stuff
any time I may want it.

It is extraordinary how
your dream is coming out,
there is no doubt that Southern
Europe is going to be a shambles
before long & probably the finish
will be here. Don't worry
about me dear one , I feel I
shall be alright, although all
kinds of things may happen.

Do you know after I left
Anzac , for weeks I felt I
could never go back there, I
suppose my nerves were in a
bad state, it is really
the last week or so that I

have felt I could comfortably
face that death trap again.

By the way you ask what
happened to the M.S manuscript of your
dream. I had to burn it,
because I can't carry things
about here and I did not want
it to be found by anyone.

Old Andrews is here in
command of a company of
Auckland infantry. We see
each other very often and sit
down and "strafe" everything
generally.

I am awfully glad you
are getting ideas for your writing,
stick to them old girl, you will
come out on top in the end.

You don't seem to be getting

my letters very regularly from
your replies, but cheer up and
don't worry so long as you
don't get nasty cables that is all
that really matters.

Tea is just ready & the
new brigade is going out for
night operations
afterwards (ye gods) so dear child I
must finish. Give Helen
numerous "humbugs" & you
know darling you are both
always in my thoughts.

Heaven bless you both.
Roy.

Enclosed an envelope. You see
nothing happens to it
RTB