France

August 17^th 1916.

My dear Harry,

As expected your letter of Sunday arrived yesterday.  We are out resting today and expect to do plenty of marching and have considerable rest.  I was very interested in your arrival at Worcester but sorry the place is nothing to write home about.  I don’t know which I would prefer, the plenty of hard work or the twelve big books.  I have a distinct dislike for that sort of literature.  I am glad you like the river & hope you will have time to do a little boating.  I expect you will like the place much better when you become used to it.  (Brilliance!)

Madge King married one of the Wythes, a big but poor Worcester family, and lives at Crowle, which I understand contains several old houses with beautiful interiors of the Tudor period.  Dickson went to school at Bromsgrove & was not excited in any way about Worcester’s charms, but for the Cathedral.  Is it far from your place?  You have plenty of people under you & it will be all right to have a room on your own.  When you are accustomed to the work do you think you will be occupied all your time?  We spent an afternoon in the place you mentioned & met with the peculiar waiter & waitress, Jean and Augusta, of whom I wrote I think.  The place is bashed about certainly but not to the extent you would think.  There are still one or two very swagger military shops there, which have appearances of English connections, and any amount of the smaller shops as everywhere.  The small shopkeepers stay & risk the occasional shells for the chance of making money, which they do very well.  There are many lovely houses all of which contain splendid halls, the walls of which seem to be of marble but are of painted plaster.  Generally speaking it is very deserted.  I shall not forget one day.  We were walking through a town & heard a shell.  Shortly afterwards a man came rushing along the main street at a fearful pace pushing a mail cart with baby over the cobbles & making a terrible noise.  We reached the heart of the town & heard another crash which was a hundred yards off.  Everybody chased off at once & you could have entered the estaminets & helped yourself to beer and money very freely if you were not afraid of the shells.  On our way out of the town to the camp we heard the shelling which continued regularly for a little time.  We have a Mrs Gamp who has called the parapet “parfait”, retaliate “repaliate” and a mascot “muskit”.  Yes the news was certainly cheerful.  I think the Russians have done something great since as well.  We are going out this afternoon for a bathe & small outing but will return early to get a good night’s rest prior to tomorrow’s adventures.  You ought to hear some of our rumours.  Tigers are not as wild.  We have had a few showers at night time & water is not so scarce consequently.  It is much cooler also.  Will you tell Ethel I will send her a short note later as it would be such a tremendous amount to censor at one sitting.

            Your affectionate brother,

                        Alan

You had better put your address on your letters for some time.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., c/o The Surveyor of Taxes, The Avenue, The Cross, Worcester.  Ans^d 27/8/16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 124 19 AU 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signed H. Simpson