May 1916

April 1916 

(First half of letter missing)

good situation.  Well dear Mother I don’t seem to have much to say in this letter. I must try + write a longer one next time. If you have not sent the parcel by the by the time you receive this you might put in a little pepper + salt as many a dinner I have would have been much better if I had had them.  Well I think I must close now, hoping you Dad + Fred are in the best of health. Best love to all + May God bless you. 

I remain 

Your Everloving Son 

Lionel 

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

27 Gumleigh Rd

Northfields

Ealing

May 2nd 1916

My Dear Lionel 

I was ever so pleased to receive your letter yesterday & I received one last Wednesday too. I don’t have two letters every week, I also had a field card dated 17th, the letters were dated the 8th & the 24th, but I think you must have dated it wrong.  I think you must wrote it the 14th instead of the 24th & I received it the 1st May.  I don’t think it could get here in a week.

Dear Lionel I am so glad to know you are well & I daresay it was laughable how I kept talking about that parcel but good job we are on the laughing side. I shall do my best to send you a few things, but things can’t be afforded now like it was, for some of the things are trebled the price & some of them double, lump sugar 2 ½ + grain 5d what used to be 1d ¾Bacon 1/6 + butter 1/6 + cheese 1/0 , [??] 1d a lb + Sunlight soap is 5d a bar used to be 9d, soda used to be 7lb 3d.  We are paying very heavy tax, boots and all kinds of material are gone up, a small loaf id 4d ½. Dear Lionel I must try hard to send you something if you have started to eat some pieces of old sack, lets hope you wont have to eat much of it. We have still got your Xmas pudding, is it any good for me to send it out to you, I am pleased to tell you Fred started work at the arsenal last Friday, he is in the Danger Zone, he is in the filling department, but next week he will be out of that getting empty shells ready for filling with the explosive, he got 6d an hour + it he does any overtime it is time + a quarter each night except Saturday + then it is time + a half. They leave at 12o/c Saturday so he put in 4 hours + earned 3D. It is Hayes in Middlesex, dad’s work + the arsenal where Fred started are not far from one another. Dear Lionel he had to show his School Reference + the ome from Mr Hardcastle.  Mrs Rabbit wouldn’t give him one, she was a rotter wasn’t she, she told him he could go back to the laundry if he liked, she was a rotter or he would not have left.  He was out of work 10 weeks all but two days.  Dad finds his work hard + I don’t like Dad’s night work but it is very good money, about £2 9D 6d a week.  Dad + I went to Kew Gardens yesterday + we heard the [??] while we were there.  I heard it Saturday morning early before I was up.  I go out a little sometimes otherwise I would have no change at all for I have not visited a picture house since you left England + it is twelve months ago to the day that I left off drinking the stout. So now I must close, kind love to you + Edgar 

From your ever loving Mother

x x x x Dad + Fred x x x x  

God bless you + keep you safe + well.  Fred is just come home, he says Hayes is 4 miles out of Ealing +you ought to see his hands, they are all stained a yellowy brown x x x.  Fred says he hands are browny, redy, yellow.

3603 L.F.King

‘A’ Cpmpany

1/6th Essex Regt

E.E.F.

May 6th 16

Dear Mother 

I am pleased to say I am quite well + Edgar is likewise.  We are still jogging along here just the same as ever. Still grumbling + longing for the war to end.  I hope Fred has got a job by now + that Dad is still getting on alright at his works.  Dear Mother Edgar + I are sending you a little present. It is the best we can do out here.

Well dear mother I think I must close now hoping all are quite well at home. I will answer your letter as soon as I receive your letter.  Love to all + may God bless you.

I remain 

Your Everloving Son 

Lionel 

x x x x x x x x x x x

27 Gumleigh Rd

Northfields

Ealing 

May 9th 1916 

My Dear Lionel 

I receive your letter dated 20th last Wednesday+ yesterday morning + field card dated 25th so pleased to know you are quite well, we are fairly well, Freddie has had a terrible cold+ I have had a bit of a bad back, it is getting better though, two weeks running I had the headache. Fred looks a bit queer I do not know if it is the cold or the kind of work.  He does not care for the work very much, there is a nasty smell with the explosive stuff + I do not know if it gets in the inside + he did not have the change about as he thought he was going to have, or he didn’t yesterday, I do not know what he’s done today until he comes home. You will be surprised to hear that dad has found his job to hard+ and that he has given it up, the money was very good indeed but you see Lionel there are other things to study besides money, we do not want dad to ruin himself + I daresay he will soon get something else to do + the night duty is not very grand for dad + it will be better for me to have dad at home of a night.  I would sooner for Fred to have a motor driving job, but they are not so easily got by what I can see of it.

I had a very nice letter from Auntie + she had heard from you.  Their doggie is getting better now.  The weather is not very grand, it keeps on raining, the country looks nice now all the trees are come out nice + green.  I am sorry you did not get any hot + [??], but never mind lets live in hope you to have some, some day I wish to goodness the war would end so that you could come home. 

Dad + Fred have put potatoes in our garden, some radish seeds + onion seeds too.  Fred is came home from work + he has been filling again so they do not keep their word do they, you do not have to wait so over long if my letters reach you in 12 or 13 days. I hope I soon hear from you again, I may have a letter tomorrow.  Mrs Tucker had 3 from her Bert last week.  I had two + a card on Monday + one Wednesday, the one I had Monday I mentioned in my last letter.  You are right Edgar is very lucky to get full pay from his work, I hope he is quite well, also Wallie + Henry, the Anzacs what came home from Gallipoli are over in France now.

Dear Lionel you have been away from home nearly 18 months from, England 9 months. Fancy it is nearly 2 years since I had to fight against my selfishness.  I think God told which way to go, may God spare us to meet again some day if not soon.  God bless you + keep you safe + well + bring you safe home to me.

Love to you from 

Dad + Fred + your loving mother 

x x x x x

55 Copythorn Rd

North End 

Portsmouth

11 - 5 - 16

My Dear Lionel 

Just a few lines to you hoping to find you still quite well. I received field p.c. dated 25th April. So glad you were all right, Evie said they heard from Sid the same date, and he said he was quite well. I expect you are getting it pretty warm now, it isn’t way too warm here, it is miserable for May. I had a letter from Aunt Marthie a few days ago, and she told me that poor old Uncle John Barter has been dead six months, he died from shock owing to the bombs, and Andrew is in hospital wounded rather seriously, there are three more of them in the Army. Aunt Marthie is afraid Bert will have to go, and she is wondering how ever she will get on. Evie and Aggie are helping their father in the fields. Aggie got a cold at present but Evie has been helping to truss hay, rather hard work for her.  Uncle Willie is still in the “pink” I am glad to say. Dad is quite all right again, Renie, Gwen and myself are all about the same, old style.

I hope Edgar is still all right, what do you think of the Daylight saving, I daresay you have read about it in the paper. I had a nice long letter from your Dear Mother on Tuesday and she tells me she has not been quite the thing since riding on a bus on Monday week.  I expect the shaking has set of rheumatism as she says her back is bad. I hope it will soon get better and she hardly knows of Munitions works suits Fred as he looks so green.  I expect it trys anyone at first. 

Jack is still about the same, he can manage to walk but he doesn’t seen to make much head way, Dear Li I don’t seem to have anything to say this time so please excuse short letter this time. Dad, Renie and Gwen send their best love to you and please accept the same form me you ever loving Auntie

F. Newman x x x x x x x x x x x x

“So long” Dear Li and may God bless and protect you where ever you may be and bring you safe home to us again x x x x x x x x

3603 L.F.King

‘A’ Company

1/6th Essex Regt

E.E.F.

May 12th 16

Dear Mother & Dad

I received your letter dated April 25th + the books quite safe. I am sorry you have not received my letters as you would like then but I have written to you oftener than once a week, so you ought to get a weekly letter. I hope Fred has found a decent job. Edgar + I are quite well. Edgar was attached to the R.F.A. for a short while as the officer he looks after was attached to them for a short time + Edgar went through a course of riding. He was sorry when he had to rejoined the battalion. He is still looking after the same officer. I am glad Mrs Townsend has found a decent situation. How is the weather at home, it is fearfully hot out here. The flies are getting a bit of a nuisance. Dear Mother what do people think of the War now + when do you think it will be over.  The French seem to have made a headway at Verdun. I hope they will keep it up. Wallie & Harry are quite well. It will be fine when we can have another tea with Edgar, Ernie & Wallie. Dear Mother I think I must close now with best love to you all.

May God bless you

I remain 

Your Everloving Son 

Lionel

x x x x x x x x x x x x

P.S. Please excuse scribble

27 Gumliegh Rd

Northfield

Ealing, May 15th 1916 

My Dear Lionel 

I haven’t heard from you this week, not since last Monday when I had your field card dated 25th April.  Mrs Tucker heard from her boy this morning, he is on the move somewhere, he is quite well. I hope I will soon hear from you, it will be a fortnight come Wednesday since I had your letter. I sent you a parcel last Thursday, trusting you will get it alright, it contains 1lb chocolate, 1/2lb mix fruit, 1 tin herring, 2 pencils, the ones you asked for, 2 writing pads, photo envelopes, Kabbel coal Tar soap, + 3 [??] Borasie[?] Foot Powder + 4 handkerchiefs. I hope you will be pleased with it.

We are getting on middling, Dad found another job last Wednesday + started work at 1 o/c as carpenter’s mate, it is in the open air so I think it will be nice for Dad’s health. I don’t know about the money, it is 8d an hour, but I do not know if it will be good enough for Dad, he will be alright this week because he worked 7½ hours on Sunday + Sundays he gets double pay, but perhaps there wont be always Sunday work to do, but we shall see, if it doesn’t suit him he will very soon give it up. Fred has got a shift from the Filling Department + a good job too, for the Fumes of the stuff is making him look nasty yellow looking, if he is sent to that Filling Shed again he will give it up directly. I would sooner for him to join up either of the services for it does worry me to see him look like that. Where he is now is dangerous but no smell, I am feeling better than last week in my back. I heard from Auntie last Friday, Uncle John died from the shock of a Zeppelin Bomb, you know Grandmother’s brother. 

I must tell you our Minnie got a little black kitten so we got 3 cats now, the weather is better now. Daisy has heard from Arthur 3 times. I wish the war could end so that we would not have so much worry, it is enough to drive one off what with one thing and another. My letter seems all blots + my pen doesn’t write too grand but you will excuse it of course because you are a good boy, I will close, 

Love to you from Fred + Dad + Your loving Mother F.King

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

So long God bless you & keep you safe & well for me x x x x x x x x

3603 L.F.King

‘A’ Company

1/6th Essex Regt

E.E.F.

May 16th 1916

Dear Mother & Dad 

I received quite a lot of letters etc yesterday, 4 letters & 4 papers & books. I had a letter from Vanie[?] in answer to the one I wrote when I heard of her sad loss. I am glad Fred found a decent job, he will make a lot of money won’t he. Mrs Rabbit hasn’t much decency in her has she for Fred couldn’t have done very much wrong if she wants him back again? I am glad Fred is one not to be put upon.  I have still got his photo safe. I often look at it + remember the ride I had in the car. 

I am still keeping fairly well although the heat is telling on all of us. Edgar, Wallie + Harry are still with me + are quite well. George Oliver said when he was in England he didn’t have heart enough to go + visit Frank’s people. 

Dear Mother I have just had a little surprise, the mail has just come in + it brought me a parcel from Auntie, Renie + Gwen. I must try and write to them a nice long letter now + thank them as it is so good of them to think of me so much. 

I hope Dad will be able to stick his work. I would like to be with you again. It is nearly 10 months I have been away now. I hope Germany will soon chuck in the sponge. I am sorry my letters are not so long as I should like them to be. I must close now hoping you, Dad & Fred are in the best of health. Love to all & may God bless you. 

I remain 

Your Everloving Son 

Lionel  

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

p.s. The ‘Llyods’ was very interesting this week.

55 Copythorn Rd

North End

Portsmouth 

19 – 5 – 16

My Dear Lionel 

Thank you so much for your kind and welcome letter which we were all so pleased to receive and so glad to hear that it left you quite well. I expect it is pretty hot for you now in Egypt.  It is grand here just at present, I hope it will last, it is quite a treat to see the sunshine.  I am glad to tell you we are all nicely here at present. Jack is not quite well yet but is getting on, “Bruno” and “Kitty” are alright, but Bruno is a terrible thief, he gets right up on the top shelf after meat or fish, we have to be so careful. 

Dear Li I’m glad you were able to have a bath even if it was only an apology and that you could wash your clothes, “yes” I bet you wash your flannels better than Mrs Peacock. Your Mother didn’t like her washing did she?  Dear Li I don’t seem to have any news for you this week. I’m glad you like he Hampshire pack and Renie will send you a different book next week all being well. She was ever so pleased with her letter which she received two day after mine. My letter was written on 29th April ([??] birthday) and Renie’s was written on the 2nd of May. So the mails come along alright don’t they?  Renie is writing to you in a day or two. 

Some of your letter was erased, it was the name of the regiments you were talking about. I suppose the authorities doesn’t want us to know what regiments are there, but I think Dear Li that you have all done your best and all deserve the highest praise because this war is different in everyway to any other war. Don’t you think the [??] people were mad to act like they did, but of course it was only a certain class of people, they soon got stopped, thank goodness. I suppose you have read in the paper that our clocks are going to put on a hour during the summer months  starts tomorrow, it will seem funny to go to bed by day light but I think it will be a very good thing.  Has your Dear Mother told you she hears the “cukoo” every morning, isn’t it nice, I’m so glad she is feeling better this week, I expect she will tell you about you Dad changing his job. I don’t know if Freddie will be able to stick it at the Munitions work, the fumes are rather bad for anyone , we he can’t do that, he will be able to get something else to do. I suppose he will have to join up when he is 18 if the jolly old War is not over by then, I do hope it will be.

Now my Dear with our very best love to you and kind regards to Edgar, I will conclude 

From you ever loving Auntie F.N. x x x x x x x x x x x x 

So Dear Li may God bless and protect you and bring you safe home to us again.  x x x x x x x x x x

3603 L.F.King

‘A’ Company

1/6th Essex Regt

E.E.F.

May 23rd 1916

Dear Mother & Dad 

I received your letter dated May 9th, also books quite safe. I am sorry your head has been bad lately. I sincerely hope it has changed for the better.  Fred hasn’t struck a very good job has he?  It is rotten he has to work with such a disagreeable smell.  So Dad is after another change, I hope he gets a nice easy job. I am pleased to say I am quite well. We have had another shift we are at the base of the outpost we have just left.  It is quite lively here up to the last show. There are canteens and recreation huts, plenty of water & the food is much better. The ‘Boys’ are giving a concert tonight. We have got a piano & two violins so we have got ‘some’ music. The canteen sell jolly good dough nuts & lemonade so we can feed here to our hearts content.  Edgar, Wallie & Harry are still quite well. Bert has got his pension from the Army.  His hand is getting a wee bit better. He thinks it may be alright in time.  Dear Mother please remember me to Mrs Townsend & tell her I will write to her in a couple of days or so. I hope she is getting on alright at her new situation. Well dear Mother I think I have said all for the present, hope this will find you, Dad & Fred in the best of health. God bless you all.

I remain 

Your Everloving Son 

Lionel 

x x x x x x x x x x x x 

27 Gumliegh Rd

Northfields

Ealing, May 22nd

My Dear Lionel 

I have just received the gift you & Edgar sent & I thank you both very much, it is awfully smart isn’t it.  I know you can’t get things where you are, I wonder you got that. I thank you very much for your kind wishes, the drawing on the postcards are excellent, I must say I was delighted with all of it, I had two letters too, one dated April 28th & one 6th May. I an ever so thankful to know you are still quite well, I am glad you enjoy the newspaper & books. Glad to hear Edgar is alright & Wallie & Henry. I am forgetting to say I received a letter dated 2nd May last Thursday & you had George Oliver with you again you said. I must tell you Mrs Tucker’s boy has just landed in France so they must have went to Egypt on purpose for training. Mrs Tucker did not want him to go there but they have got to go where they are sent. Poor boys, I wish to goodness the war would soon end for it is upsetting nearly the whole world.

Dad is still at his out of door job but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did give it up. Dad is not so strong as he was & he can’t seem to get into an easy place. Fred is still at the arsenal, he is slinging shells and painting them. He looks better than he did but he only looks half as well as he used to when he worked at the District.  Miss Rabbit would not give him a reference, the people had to write there for it. I had a headache on my birthday, that was last Friday, it is better again no, we are having lovely weather now like you had at Luxor. We had to put the clocks on 1 hour on Saturday night so everybody gets up an hour earlier & goes to bed an hour earlier to save the artifical light.  You will read about it when you get the newspaper if all is well.  Your money never can till 20 past 10 Saturday night, after we had gone to bed. That worried me, it most times come on Friday night or Saturday morning.  Once or twice it has come at 2 o/c but never so late as ten & it was posted 5.15 Friday, it ought to have come Saturday morning, it was delayed in the post. 

I think I must close, love to you & Edgar 

From your every loving Mother 

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

God bless you and keep you safe and well for me x x x x x x x x x x x

55 Copythorn Rd

North End

Portsmouth

26 – 5 – 16

My Dear Lionel 

Just a few lines hoping to find you still safe and well.  I received a field p.c. dated 8th May, so glad to hear it left you well, you were being sent back to the Base. We are all wondering where you will go to now. I expect you find the heat almost unbearable in Egypt now. It is fairly warm here now, but not so hot as it was last week, we had some rain the other night and it made it colder. We are all about the same old style here. It is nearly a year ago we saw you isn’t it, it doesn’t seem long to look back to does it, but it has been a very dreary time so many dreadful things has happened and the war doesn’t seem much nearer the end either, but I suppose there will be an ending someday.

We all had to put our clocks on an hour last Saturday night, it is fine, we don’t light the gas till just before ten o’clock.  I hope they will carry it on after the war in the summer.  Dear Li I suppose you will hear from your Dear Mother by the mail and she will tell you that Freddie is driving the Motor van again for Miss Rabbit, she sent for him and has risen his wages, I feel so glad for I think she was too hasty with Fred and he is getting better from the fumes which he inhaled and Aunty Flo and Uncle Fred are quite well. 

Dear Li I had a letter from Evie yesterday, and she told me they had just received a letter form Sid to say he had landed in France, he said he had a nice trip.  I hope he will get on alright, on thing the climate is not so bad in the summer as Egypt being so short of water makes it so bad for you poor fellows.I am glad to say that Jack is still getting a little better. Aggie has had the measles but she is better, all the rest are well now dear.

I will say ta ta with all our very best love to you 

from your ever loving Auntie F.N. x x x x x x x

So long Dear Li, may God bless you & please remember us to Edgar x x 

3603 L.F.King

‘A’ Company

1/6th Essex Regt

E.E.F.

May 29th 1916

Dear Mother & Dad 

I received your letter dated May 15th & the books this morning. I am sorry you have not had my letters as you would like them.  If you should receive them as regular as I write them I don’t think there would be any cause for grumbling. I am glad to know Dad has got another job. It looks as if it is a fairly easy one & the day work will be much better won’t it. And Fred has got into a better dept.  I hope he will get on with it alright. Fred would like the Army life in England. If the war is still on by his 18th birthday he will have to enlist & that would be plenty soon enough for him. We’ve got some lads out here who are only 18 years old. I know one or two who were on the peninsular with us. Dear Mother we have made another move. We are 3 miles away form the last place we stopped at. It is surprising how quick a battalion can shift its quarters.  We have got canteens here so it is not so bad but it is not so good as the last show.  We are paid today, I drew 16D. It soon goes here as things are so dear. We have to pay 1 [??] or 2½d for a 1d bar of chocolate.  I shall look forward to the parcel, I shall be glad when I can get a decent pencil to write with. I am writing this on the Lloyds so I can’t write as if I was writing on a table. Won’t I be glad when I can sit down in our old rocking chair. I have got quite used to eating & doing everything on the ground. Well it is getting near tea time & I must go & get my pint of tea & my bread & marmalade. We have had nothing but marmalade 

(Missing rest of letter)

27 Gumleigh Rd

Northfield 

Ealing, May 29th 1916 

My Dear Lionel 

I am starting early in the morning to write to you as I have got rather a lot to put down & I will write to Auntie & do the housework after.  I am so pleased to say I received your letter Saturday morning Dated May 12th. I am so thankful to know you are quite well, also Edgar boy. I understand how you have told me that Edgar was attached to the R.F.A. it was a change for him wasn’t it.  My Dear boy, I would tell you the things you ask me if I could but I don’t think anyone knows when the war will be over & by what I can see of it the worst got to come in France, I dread the time when they advance especially if you are sent there, it is my one & only hope that you won’t be sent to France. Sidney is there from Egypt & so is the 2/8th Middlesex the Batt Mrs Tucker’s boy is in.  Auntie said she had a field card from you & that you were being sent to the Base, so by that I thought you were being shifted already, but you never said anything in my letter dated 12th, but Auntie didn’t say when her card was dated.

Dear Lionel last Monday evening after I had your letter off, young Freddie came in & said he had had the offer of taking his old job back again at the laundry at 30d per week, he said he had met the Engineer, he said the Engineer said do you want a motor driving job at 30d a week, oh yes Freddie said where is it, so the E said come with me I’ll show you & Fred was surprised when he led straight away to the old laundry & was face to face with Miss Rabbit, so Fred wanted to know if it was to drive the Napier, the same as in the picture, so she said he could have the same place back again so Fred took it there & then. So the next day, Tuesday, he left the Arsenal (shell making) & started at the driving Wednesday at 1 o/c, Fred told Miss R that he wanted a man to help with the heavy hampers especially Monday. So what do you think she’s got a motor mechanic, so now’s the time for Fred to learn a bit more, you see Fred is the head of the driving & the other to do repairs (the car would not have to go to the garage so much) & help with the lifting, you see Lionel Fred has already had some of it so he knows what it wanted, one day ever so long ago it is, he had to carry a hamper 1 [??] & half up 6 flights of stairs & he could not hardly do it so you will understand why he wanted help.  The little man in the picture with Fred had the push straight away, he disgraced himself by taking the car out on his own & one yarn is that he was seen moving furniture, he denied having done anything amiss & he threatened to give Fred a good hiding & he said Fred went after it & I know he’s wrong there, he also threatened to smash the car & take Miss Rabbit to court. You see he was very cross & upset, but its all right they haven’t seen anything of him since & Fred & the other chap is getting on alright together & Fred took £1.3.4 wages for from Wednesday 1 o/c till Saturday so by that he is going to get 35d a week unless it is 30d a week & war bonus.  He did ask her for some so Fred is lucky after all, of course I am pleased about his good wages, but I am more pleased about his health for I think he will soon begin to look better after he’s been there a few weeks, he did really look dreadful & Miss Rabbit said you do look ill Allan, he goes by his second name up there. I think I have told you plain enough, you see as soon as Miss R heard about this other chap, she sent for Fred at once, the Engineer was coming to our house but Fred happened to meet him on the way.  Miss Rabbit told Fred he could go back there if he liked but he didn’t want to go back there to be under that other little one, what is in the photo, but go back to his own position & a rise of half of course was very different. 

Dear Lionel I do not know if I have offended Mrs Townsend or not, if I have I am very sorry, I thought I had better tell you so that if she stops writing to you, you will know the reason, she charged me 2.6 for making me two Chemise + I know was only worth 1/6 so I wrote & told her she was over charging me & she has not answered my letter, so I guess she does not kike being told off. I like her very much & I like to be friends with everybody, but I do not like to be robbed, of course I know I am free as a rule but circumstances does not let one always be able to be free & after Fred being out of work for 10 weeks, I felt her imposing very much indeed & I hope will agree with me that I am in the right, of course I am sorry but for Dad’s sake I can’t let people tread on me. Auntie quite agrees with me that I am in the right, of course Fred’s out of work did nearly put us behind shocking, for everything is so dear & that’s why I felt it so much.

Dear Lionel dad is still working as carpenters mate, it is out in the open & it is nice & healthy for him, but his wage will out any Sunday work or overtime, is only £1..16s..9d & that is not hardly enough to please dad, he gets home at six in the evening & the day work is better than night work, I am getting on fairly well, we have rather an exiting time on account of Freddie, dad & I went down to Lamas Park last evening there isn’t enough hands to keep it nice, all the men got a different employment, they all got to be soldiers. It is very bad for the people all the way round, for every one got their own to feel for. Minnie & her kitten is all gay, but Tom seems to be mopey, I got to be careful in the way I feed him or he is sure to be sick. I want to keep him till you come home, we are having nice summer weather now, like you had at Xmas at Luxor, I read that long letter sometimes now & I think of the nice long spell you had from the trenches & I look at all your photos, the little snapshot, (the one looking on is me) as well & the lovely Winter Palace too, well Lionel I think I have put down pretty well all I wanted too & I hope you will be able to understand it all. I want you particularly to understand that Fred never went after his old laundry job, it was that Miss Rabbit sent after him. All the potatoes are coming up in the garden, also the onions. 

I think I must close, love to you & all the Dear boys, especially the ones I know & that is only 3 besides yourself for poor Frank is gone & Bert at home, 

I remain your ever loving Mother

X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

I feel ashamed of Dad & Fred because they never write to you. Fred reads enough, I do not see why he could not write, he likes to hear from you though, he don’t forget his brother & we are all awfully proud of you. I did not have to wait this week for your money, it came Friday night, it amounts to £46..2..6 now. I hope you will get your parcel quite safe.

God bless you & keep you safe & well & bring you home again for my sake x x x x x x x x x x x x x

June 1916