Longmore Camp
19/6/16

Dearest Mother:-

It seems funny that I have not heard from you yet altho Ethel said in her first letter that you were writing & would mail it the same night but I have not received it.

It is really impossibly to try to tell you about our trip across. It was so uneventful in almost every way. Of course the scenery on land was at times beautiful but frequently absolutely uninteresting. As to the trip across the water it too was uneventful and we are not expected to refrain from describing it too fully. There were no submarines at all events. I suppose because the big battle of the Skagger Rock was in preparation.

All the fellows are hanging around here talking all at once so it is pretty hard - just won a toss for tea & toast.

25/6/16

You see I had to stop and have not had time to write since then. For instance we were shooting at the ranges last week and when we were off parade Major L & I were continually engaged entering up the scores of about 275 men shooting about 15000 rounds a day. We had hardly finished shooting when we moved over here - to Bramshott where we are again in Barracks.

Since arriving I bot myself a sleeping bag of waterproof canvas with an air pillow and double ply wool blanket sewed down both sides like a bag and a cork mattress but it was awfully cold till I got it and sleeping on the floor made my arm black & blue. I also bot a new uniform cheap but fair in looks etc.

We have been moved twice since we came to England. First we were at Bordon as you now know. After just time to get the barracks cleaned we went to Longmore camp about four miles from Bordon for shooting. It is a lovely place with a small pond nearby to which we took the men for a bath and the way they enjoyed it was funny. The same day I was sent over here with 5 other Capts to locate the Companys in Barracks and we came over by motor - about 5-6 miles further from London & Nearer to Aldershott. We are now part of the 12th Brigade 4th Division and have as yet had no leave and are again down to hard work training in everything. I have to organize the Battalion Bombing Section and put the whole battalion thru a course of training within a month. 200 men a class of five days each.

Yesterday Seven of us got permission to go to Portsmouth about 25 miles away and spent the afternoon and evening there returning by motor starting at 11.30 & reaching here at 1.30 A.M. I slept the whole way over.

This morning the Col. approved of some ideas very much & had the whole battalion follow suit. After Church Parade we had a call from Lord Brooke our Brigadier and his staff. The Lord seemed rather nice but found it hard to talk as most Englishmen do. His Aide-de-Camp was funny. Fat frivolous and wore an eye glass. The combination did not suit.

This country is so awfully queer everything strikes me as funny. But tell Ethel that if she thinks of coming over to think twice for the prices of everything has gone up tremendously and it is not now as cheap to live here as in Canada.

I had despaired of ever hearing from you until to-day. At noon I got six letters - one from Ethel and yours, one from Canon Garton and several others. You had better continue to address me at the Army P.O. as we never know for two days where we are going next but we were told to-day that we are expected in France by August first.

We have only about half a battalion left. so many men on this class or that & all the officers on some duty or class but they will all come back at the end of their class & go on another. But the O.C. seems to have dropped on me as the guy to take the most strenuous work of all & the Brigadier told us today it was the most important of all- Bombing.

Wilf has not written me yet and I am wondering why. I am going to give up my weekends to writing letters if this keeps up for unless I do it on Sunday I'll have no other time.

You know I cannot finish without telling you how much I miss everyone and especially you. But somehow I feel more love and sympathy for everybody than I ever could before. Maybe I am more of a Christian than people used to think. Anyway I try to be.

Love to all and heaps & heaps for yourself
Gordon