Letter from Roy Bruce to Maud Bruce

Much jubilation in
dugout land, I got 6 5 f letters from you
in the last 3 days after receiving none
for over a month. I was glad to get
them, and to know that you and Helen
were both well and as happy as possible.
I also got one from Alice Hursthouse , which
was rather curious considering I had written
to her only the week before.

I am going to try and write you a
decent letter this time, and answer yours in
turn if it takes me a week to do it.

To begin - your first letter dated Sept r September 29 th
by the way one is numbered 43, three numbered
44 & two numbered 46. Your numbers are
somewhat out, but it does not matter
because I cannot keep track of them very
easily. You seem to have been having

a somewhat strenuous time between the
nurse and the cooking, but don't worry
take it as easily as possible. Take comfort
in the thought that you are just as
useful there as anywhere else at the
present time. It is all part of the game.

Don't worry too much about Jean , she
will very likely get better. I know what
it must be with all of you there; in
these times of death and uncertainty
always remember that there are many
thousands of others (I don't mean here, I
mean homes) who have suffered and are
suffering far more than you are. Remember
that & be thankful that you are not where
massacres are taking place, that your homes
are not in ruins and that you do not have
to look for shelter. These things are accepted
more of less as part of their heritage by all
European nations, and are naturally note
well realised or understood by Australasians
owing to the geographic situation and the

peaceful existance always led by those countries.

Where the Hamiltons got the idea
that I was going clerical work beats me
altogether. Truly rumour is a strange thing.

Here, none of the "useless old crock"
cry of yours, buck up and look after yourself,
if you are not looking 10 years younger
when I come back there will be a row.
I shall be the useless old crock, you are to
be the young & beautiful peri. By the way
just to annoy you and make you consider
what you had better do about it, I will
tell you a deadly secret, that, at the
present moment I was never before in better
health, or felt younger or more idiotic, that
I am eating like a horse & sleeping like a
bear, and that except for losing a far more
hairs from the top of my head I haven't
looked younger for about 12 years. There, just
think that over quietly and tell me what
right you have to call yourself a "useless old
crock". Since I have been here this time
I have actually just put on weight. I hope

this won't send you tearing into James' to
buy aids to beauty! You don't need them,
but dear old thing do please look after
your hands. Here endeth your first letter.
Your next dated 1 st October is a little more
cheerful. I cannot understand why you
have not received any from me, I wrote
three from Cyprus and I think three
while I was in Egypt . You seem only
to have received one from Cyprus & one
from Egypt ; perhaps the others have
turned up by now.

Sorry you did not see Nicholls , I
am wondering what lot he is coming
with.

Glad you are getting that Building
Society money at last, just use it as you
think fit.

Your remarks about the war are
very good, your ideas are the same as
mine, so far as they go. I think before
you get this letter several things will
have happened. Has it ever occured to you

that the Gallipoli penninsula has now lost
its strategical importance. I discussed
the point with Andrews at Lemnos 6
weeks ago and we both held the same
views.

I should like to see Helen & Dickson
together now. Give the old chap my
regards & tell him I have every confidence
in his ability to look after her, or hers to
look after him.

You must not blame the authorities
too much for sending wrong reports & for
mails going astray, they are up against
a very big proposition here, and they all
work their hardest and do their best.
No one who has not been here can
accurately gauge what is required of them.
To me, it is extraordinary that there
are not more mistakes made.

Am looking forward to getting a
parcel from you before Christmas. They are
so welcome, a whole lot came yesterday

but there was nothing for me. Chocolate,
sweets, cakes in tins, an occasional pipe etc,
all those things help us along very materially.
Your next letter is dated October 10 th , there
is not a great deal to answer, but it
sounds cheerful and that is the great
thing.

I am glad Barney & Helen are
getting on well together, there is no
reason why they shouldn't.

Your next dated 12 October , is a postscript
saying you have a letter of mine from
Cyprus . Am glad the photos arrived,
but sorry the postcards did not, some were
quite good ones. How Chilton's P.C postcard to
Jean got in is a complete mystery as
those photos were posted in Cyprus before I
left and Chillie has never been near
Cyprus !

You are quite right about the Dar-
danelles , although perhaps so not quite so
needless sacrifices as you imagine. You

must remember that in the first instance
it was necessary to open the Dardanelles to
help Russia . It was not possible at the
time owing to a miscalculation, and
now Russia is able to help herself. Had
we been able to do it as we intended,
Warsaw would not have fallen. That is
one of the reasons why I say this place
has lost its importance, another reason is
that the base of operations has shifted.
Do you follow me.

(The blighters have started shelling
us with a 75 they possess. I don't
like those 75s. You can't hear the shells
coming, the first thing you know is a
violent explosion & pieces of shell all over
the place. Shrapnel you can hear & after
a time you can tell if it is coming near
you or not).

Your news of Margaret is after all
only natural - surely Chillie knows. It is
curious because only a little time ago he

was talking of bringing her to Egypt . We
have heard no news of him since he left
here, and have no idea where he is nor
what is the matter with him.

Those teeth of yours seem to be taking
a long time, surely they ought to be nearly
finished?

I told you in one of my letters that
I had destroyed your Dream M.S. manuscript I can't
do anything with it here, and I can't
carry it about with me. I never showed
it to anyone, there was noone to show it
to.

I don;t agree with you that it was
Germany 's avowed plan to strike down
through Servia Serbia on to Egypt & India , that
only came after she had failed to break
through on the Western & Eastern fronts.
Had she done so at first, & been content
to hold the Western & Eastern fronts, I
think the tale we should have to tell
now would be a very different one,

because she would have succeeded & we
should now be fighting in India instead
of Turkey . She miscalculated at the
first the resisting power of England , France ,
& Russia .

The next letter from you is dated 22 nd Oct October ,
and acknowledges one of mine from
Zeitoun .

Thanks very much dear for your
cherry messages, I have got over all my
despondency now, as you will doubtless
have gathered from my more recent
letters, nevertheless it is nice to know
you are so plucky over everything. I
was rather down in Cairo , I think
reaction & strain more than anything
else, and I had to let myself 'go' once
once or twice, and it was some 'go'. Details
verbally, sometime in the future.

Haven't had any papers from you
for a long time, but I have seen all

the latest ones from the others.

Don't fret yourself about not being
able to write for a time. Your turn
will come alright. Hurry up and get
a cook, and go back to your own home. I
always think from your letters you are
really happier there than at 'Rollesby' .

Do you leave "Jeremy" behind now
when you go away? Who looks after him?

That, I think, ends your letters, &
now I will start and tell you of a
few odd things about here; though there
is not much to say.

First of all there has been a change
in the command of the regiment. Major
Powles who was our Brigade Major from
the beginning has taken over from Major
Studholme (who has not had much experience!)
and they did not return Major Studholme
to the command of the 8 th but made
him acting 2 nd in command & in charge

of digging operations for winter quarters!
He can do no harm and fusses round
with a tape measure all day. I
was awfully afraid he would take over
the squadron from me. Major Powles
is a soldier, & things are very different.

I have also heard confidentially that
I have been recommended for promotion
to the rank of captain (temporary) that is
that it will lask as long as I command
the 8 th , which is not likely to be very
long now, as some of the others are bound
to be back before long. Anyway, although
not permanent it is a step in the
right direction, and apparently I have
not made a mess of the squadrom since
I took it over. Don't get excited because
it is really nothing, and I haven't event
got the temporary rank yet. Of course I
will not be able to increase your

allowance even if it does come off, because
it may not last any time, but if I can
I will send along a small cheque.

Just had a most delectable after-
noon tea - yesterday when the mail
arrived there were a lot of parcels
without any names to them so they
were divided, Mathias & I collared a
lovely plum cake in a sealed tin (they
are very welcome) & a packet of china tea.
Image it, plum cake & chine tea &
shells all round.

I am not chronicling the various
interruptions, they are too numerous, but
now it is tea time and for the present
I must depart.

Tea is over, the trench line is
posted and made as secure as possible
for the night, I have lit my fire and
a pipe and with luck can settle down

for an hour to continue this yarn, I
don't know what is wrong with me but
for the first time for many moons I feel
in the mood for writing.

At the same time it is rather
curious that an order has just come in
that until further notice no more letters
will be received at the post office which
means I shall probably have to carry
this about in my pocket for some days
perhaps weeks, it also means - many
things - which you will probably know
long before you get this.

You always ask me to tell you
everything about myself, doings etc, well
dear it is very hard to do because one
day is so like another in this place.
My diary has suffered sadly lately, although
I still have the record of the early days
here. When I can get an opportunity I
will send you the diary. It is contained

in a Field Correspondence book and written
from the back. The other part of the book
contains a lot of notes, orders, etc, which
will probably be Greek to you, but from
which you may be able to gather scraps
of information. When I can get it away
of course I have no idea, but it may reach
you by post someday if I do not bring it
myself.

Life here now is not nearly so
strenuous as it was before, we can breathe,
formerly we had no room to do that, also
we are much better fed, getting all kinds
of little luxuries such as raisins, bread, &
even a tin of butter appeared the other
day. Consequently everyone has a chance
of keeping much fitter. The weather has
been very mild since the blizzard, and
long may it continue so.

It is very funny to have a confidential
chat with some of the old hands & to

draw them out about the new lot. There
is a tremendous bond amongst the Main
Body men that I think will never be
broken, no matter what the future holds
for the new ones & the old, the early
training in Egypt and the early days here when
we established Anzac will never be forgotten
by any of us. It is rather a grief to me
that I wasn't in the big fight in August,
that I was not there to lead my old
troop in the big charge, but one can't do
everything, and I stuck here until had
no strength left to continue.

When we meet you will probably find
many changes, I think I take my sorrows
more sadly and my pleasures more madly,
but as I said in an earlier part of this
letter I don't feel any older than I ever
have done, which sounds absurd but isn't.

Have just been out to say goodbye to
Jack Tennant , who you will remember used
to be in the Bank, he was one of the old

hands and is now a Sergeant. Like most
of them he has not been well and is
now being sent to the Hospital. One by one
they are dropping away.

I do wish New Zealand could have
seen the C.M.R Canterbury Mounted Rifles when we left Egypt in
May last over 500 strong, trained to the last
minute, the equal of any troops ever raised.
I am not boasting, I am merely stating
a quiet fact - and four months later when
we left the Peninsula one officer ( Gibbs the
signaller) & 32 men.

I came across a Dardanelles number
of the Weekly Press, and in turning idly
over the pages I suddenly saw you in the
centre of a full page picture watching some
infantry go by at Addington . Have you
seen it? Your face is turned away & your
mother & I think M rs Harper & Gordon Harper
are standing beside you close to a car. It
gave me quite a shock. Probably you have
sent the "Press" to me, and it has not

yet arrived.

Did I tell you the field glasses the
S.C. South Canterbury Club gave me have become almost useless -
one of the prisms has slipped & one gets a
double picture of everything. I took them to
a place in Cairo when I was there last &
got them mended, but I don't think they
thoroughly understood them and they soon
went wrong again. They have had some
very severe handling and I don't wonder at
them going wrong. At the present time I
am using Chillie 's, he left them when he
went away. The watch that Howden & Innes
Jones gave me when I went away is still
going well, although I have worn out two
leather wristlets on it and the outer case
is rusted through at the back. Actually
the same glass still remains in it.
The little valise is nearly in pieces, my
sleeping ^bag is lost (but I have another) also several
other articles are lost, my old tunic that used
to be so smart was in rags & covered with

blood so I threw it away. All my original
clothes, I think with the exception of an odd
shirt or so are now no more.

What a life this is, death all around,
graves in every gully, one walks about day
& night with one's life in one's hands and
yet I am well and dare I say it - happy.
Truly man is a queer beast.

This my dear brings me to the end of
my letter for tonight. The fire is low, my
supply of timber is nearly exhausted & I
must look round the trenches before I turn
in for a few hours. I get up at 5.45, we
stand to arms before daylight as the Turks
usually choose that time for attacking, also
I usually prowl round during the night.

Good night sweetheart, kiss Helen
for me, and a very tender one for you dear.
God bless you both.
Roy .