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29 Jul 55 Julius Malta Mother Portland Place, Worthing ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Malta

July 29th/55

Dear Mother

As there is a Mail going out very soon I am going to send you a line or so. I find I am now Lieut, which little I fancy has been rather long coming, but it is all right now.

We arrived here last Friday & disembarked on Saturday. I and Stack * of ours have Quarters 2 miles off where the men & Parade are, so we have a nice walk, or rather this morning we had a run to get there by five. It is awfully hot here. I have been in one continual perspiration all the time.

There is an order for some of the Of'rs & men to go on. They have not been named yet but as I am one of the juniors I shall probably stop behind.

I saw a poor fellow of ours on his way home, of the name of Jordan*. On the 18th of June when the English stormed the Quarries, he was hit by an iron ball. Knocked away part of his nose, all the teeth one side, a part of his tongue & it is now stuck in his neck. One of our Captains, of the name of Bourke, is going home to retire. Another step I hope.

They must send on a good number of us as some of the 77th Of'rs are doing our duty in the Crimea. Every Capt of ours has been hit.

Malta is the most humble of places you can imagine. It is all rock & sand. There are not 5 trees in the Island. You can only get out before 6 in the morning & after 7 at night with any comfort as the sun regularly boils you here. I have got to go 2 miles presently to parade in the Barrack. They do not even let the men out at this time of day (11 o’clock). It is awfully hot.

I received your letter yesterday & am extremely thankful for it. I wish you could manage to send me the papers that have the Gazettes in (Wednesday & Saturday) as it is hard to get at them here. In fact I have not seen my name as Lieut yet. I have only been told.

There are upwards of 40 different Depôts stationed here (all the depots of the Reg'ts in the Crimea). Of course the 4th is here, but it is not in our Division (Light Division) so I have not seen any of the Of'rs but I have found out 3 men that were at Sandhurst with me.

With love to all

From yr. affect son

Julius, Dyson, Laurie

Lieut 34th

P.S. Excuse bad writing for it is so horribly hot

* Stack – Ensign Thomas Lindsay Stack

* Jordan – Capt. Joseph Jordan, injured 18th June 1855