Letter from Pte. Charlie Thicke

July 11, '15.
Risboro' Barracks,
Shorncliffe, England.

Dear Mother and Father:
I suppose you don't mind getting letters. I am going to scratch away every chance I get to write. I am feeling tip-top. And to-morrow is the 12th July. There does not seem to be many Orangemen in this place, but one never knows. We shall see to-morrow.
I was talking to a chap to-day who had been at the front. He had been wounded in seven places, and received a dose of the gas, also. He says the doctors cannot find out where the gas is in him, and he is becoming weaker every day. But what I was going to say was that he was in the same ward as a dying German General, and that the General says this war will not last two months more. The General says he has seen Germans lying dead in heaps six feet high. They are betting here it will not last through next winter. But do you hear what the Kaiser says? That he is going to finish the war in two months. No doubt, but the finish will not be to his liking.
Well, I am in England, and only twenty miles from France, but even so, I shall not be satisfied until I get there and see a bit of the fun, and get back. That will be the happy day. Oh! by the way, I intend to send my ring home. If I do not some German will take it from me - if he can. Say, if I come back with a little Belgium girl don't be surprised, for they are a pretty lot, and this place - Folkstone - has lots of them.
To-morrow morning we awaken at 4.30, and at 5 we go to the ranges. My officer has gone for his training, and he wants me to stay here until he comes back, and then go with him, so it will be a month or so before I get to the front, and there is talk again of us being transferred to the Princess Pats. What do you know about that?
The Minister of Militia, General Sam Hughes, will be inspecting our troops this week, and we have some good bunch of men. It's bed-time now, and 4.30 comes quickly.
Mother, dear, fry me two eggs, and prepare toast and coffee. Goodbye. Love and kisses to all.
CHARLIE.