Tuesday afternoon, 30 July, 1918
M----, France
Letter No 88

My dear dad,

I am afraid this won't reach you in time to wish you very many happy returns of the 31st, and let us hope that by this time next year if the war is not actually over the end may be well in sight and the Boche in full flight across the Rhine! I hope that the coming year may be a very happy one for you despite the stress and strain of war conditions and that you may look ahead of the present shadows to the brightness of the future. In the very nature of things business must become more difficult day by day but I hope that you won't be over anxious and that your health may be good. I really have forgotten how old you are; let me see, is it 46? I am afraid you, like Uncle J, won't like the volunteers if it ever comes to that, but I hope you won't be called up at all - at any rate for a long while yet.

Yesterday I was on parade as usual and for the first two hours was firing down on the range. I am glad we have plenty of shooting practice as it is only in this way we find out how our rifles fire - they have all got peculiarities of their own. I finished up the morning with LG drill and jerks. I started a letter to Stanley in the afternoon (which will be sent at the end of the week) and was interrupted as I had to fall in for a bath. Another bath! And being a hot day I enjoyed it ever so much. There seem to be a lot more bath houses out here now and most of them are worked on the spray system. Owing to getting so many baths and clean changes I have been able to keep quite free from vermin for a long time now.

Stanfield and I went to the YMCA tent at Q---- after tea to buy some Nestle's milk and biscuits and I was able to borrow a book, Widicombe Fair, Eden Philpotts.

I have been "messed about" this afternoon and not able to catch the post so I scribbled a Field Card instead.

The post has not arrived today, so there is nothing more to write about.

Give my fondest love to mother and the boys

Your most affectionate son,

Bert

PS The weather had made a change for the good - boiling sunshine all day yesterday and today.