Read Online Made in Myrtle Street (Prequel) by B A Lightfoot - Free Book Online
Authors: B A Lightfoot
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for Christmas. It was very nice. I took it to Sunday School to show Miss Howard but I think that she was going to cry. I heard Mrs Jones telling Mrs Willoughby that Miss Howard has a sweetheart in somewhere called Flanders.
I asked Mam if Miss Howard is sad because you are in Egypt because I am sad when I think about you.
Me and our Edward went to the gas works yesterday for some coke. It’s a bit cold now. The horses were slipping on the ice on Cross Lane which made us laugh. We took our Mary’s pram out of the back yard.
Do you still love us in Egypt or do you get very sad?
Uncle James came round yesterday with a rabbit that he caught on Dorney Hills but it didn’t look like my Floppy. Mam hung it on the rack in the kitchen with a piece of string. It smelt a bit funny.
Who does your washing in Egypt? Mam was darning our Edward’s socks yesterday and she said that you will be having to darn your own socks now. Has the Army given you one of those mushroom things like Mam has?
I will finish now because we are going to get your wages and buy something to go with the rabbit.
Dad, will you bring us some of that sand home so that we can play in the backyard with it. Mam said that you are in a great big desert so it should be alright.
Love,
Laura – age nearly 8
Ps. Mam said to put ps to say something else and to tell you that we are all well and we all send our love. Mam said to hurry up because I have taken all morning to do this but I forgot to tell you that I got a nice doll for Christmas made out of wood. I have called her Dorothy because she is pretty like Miss Howard and I heard Mrs Willoughby call her Dorothy. But the bible is the best thing ever.
Ps2 Will you be coming home soon?
Chapter 3
Suez, 1915
Egypt was becoming, for the soldiers from Lancashire, a tediously hot and ultimately frustrating experience. Their capacity to take on board liquid was not met by the Army’s willingness to supply it and Big Charlie’s pleas that he did not have the build to be a Gyppie fell on largely unsympathetic ears.
Liam spent two days in detention on a charge contrived by Major Fforbes-Fosdyke who had emerged from the theatre tent in a haze of whisky fumes. Liam, unfortunately passing by at the time, had been ordered to run down at double-quick time to the officers’ mess to get another bottle of whisky to use as a stage prop as it was essential to the plot and the smooth progress of the rehearsal. Liam had taken the liberty of suggesting that, as all the Arabs took things at a very slow pace in order to conserve their energy ‘in this sodding heat’ then, particularly as he was now off duty, he had no intention of running anywhere. He would, however, oblige the Major but would only walk down to the officers’ mess.
The cell, apparently, did have the merit of being cooler during the day than the desert but he had yearned for his greatcoat during the night.
Although for much of the time the contact with the enemy had been restricted to minor skirmishes, the Army remained unshakeably keen to develop their abilities as soldiers. In the early months of 1915 they were increasingly taken out on route marches in the desert where, throughout the day, they suffered with the extreme heat, the dust and the flies. Even worse were the sandstorms which made breathing difficult and drove sand deep into their clothes.
At the end of the day the plummeting temperatures meant that any nights spent out in the desert in bivouac became long, sleepless, freezing hours waiting for the sun to come up.
There had been intelligence received, in October of the previous year, that the Turkish army were about to mount an attack. The Allied troops had been quickly put into position, the threat had petered out, and life had settled back into the normal dusty, perspiring routine.
By mid January 1915, however, the Turks were ready to advance again, having now assembled a force of two divisions, with another one in reserve, plus
I asked Mam if Miss Howard is sad because you are in Egypt because I am sad when I think about you.
Me and our Edward went to the gas works yesterday for some coke. It’s a bit cold now. The horses were slipping on the ice on Cross Lane which made us laugh. We took our Mary’s pram out of the back yard.
Do you still love us in Egypt or do you get very sad?
Uncle James came round yesterday with a rabbit that he caught on Dorney Hills but it didn’t look like my Floppy. Mam hung it on the rack in the kitchen with a piece of string. It smelt a bit funny.
Who does your washing in Egypt? Mam was darning our Edward’s socks yesterday and she said that you will be having to darn your own socks now. Has the Army given you one of those mushroom things like Mam has?
I will finish now because we are going to get your wages and buy something to go with the rabbit.
Dad, will you bring us some of that sand home so that we can play in the backyard with it. Mam said that you are in a great big desert so it should be alright.
Love,
Laura – age nearly 8
Ps. Mam said to put ps to say something else and to tell you that we are all well and we all send our love. Mam said to hurry up because I have taken all morning to do this but I forgot to tell you that I got a nice doll for Christmas made out of wood. I have called her Dorothy because she is pretty like Miss Howard and I heard Mrs Willoughby call her Dorothy. But the bible is the best thing ever.
Ps2 Will you be coming home soon?
Chapter 3
Suez, 1915
Egypt was becoming, for the soldiers from Lancashire, a tediously hot and ultimately frustrating experience. Their capacity to take on board liquid was not met by the Army’s willingness to supply it and Big Charlie’s pleas that he did not have the build to be a Gyppie fell on largely unsympathetic ears.
Liam spent two days in detention on a charge contrived by Major Fforbes-Fosdyke who had emerged from the theatre tent in a haze of whisky fumes. Liam, unfortunately passing by at the time, had been ordered to run down at double-quick time to the officers’ mess to get another bottle of whisky to use as a stage prop as it was essential to the plot and the smooth progress of the rehearsal. Liam had taken the liberty of suggesting that, as all the Arabs took things at a very slow pace in order to conserve their energy ‘in this sodding heat’ then, particularly as he was now off duty, he had no intention of running anywhere. He would, however, oblige the Major but would only walk down to the officers’ mess.
The cell, apparently, did have the merit of being cooler during the day than the desert but he had yearned for his greatcoat during the night.
Although for much of the time the contact with the enemy had been restricted to minor skirmishes, the Army remained unshakeably keen to develop their abilities as soldiers. In the early months of 1915 they were increasingly taken out on route marches in the desert where, throughout the day, they suffered with the extreme heat, the dust and the flies. Even worse were the sandstorms which made breathing difficult and drove sand deep into their clothes.
At the end of the day the plummeting temperatures meant that any nights spent out in the desert in bivouac became long, sleepless, freezing hours waiting for the sun to come up.
There had been intelligence received, in October of the previous year, that the Turkish army were about to mount an attack. The Allied troops had been quickly put into position, the threat had petered out, and life had settled back into the normal dusty, perspiring routine.
By mid January 1915, however, the Turks were ready to advance again, having now assembled a force of two divisions, with another one in reserve, plus
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