1915 Letter 24
France
June 16, [1915]
My dearest Mother,
You'll have to excuse the battered up paper as we are sufferers from fire and flood since I wrote you last as our tent burned down last night while we were all at dinner. We are very fortunate really for Hunter saw the flames and got a crowd to work in time to save most of our things. I had all my clothes in my trunk with the exception of my raincoat, uniform cape, sweater, pyjamas etc. which were burned. My Jaeger dressing gown and Aunt Lauder's rug are water soaked at present but will not show any permanent signs of damage. All my pictures are either gone or scorched and I miss them most of all. Have you any more of Eric? You remember that one you always said looked t.b.? I had that in a dear little frame and the girls were all crazy about it. If you can find the negative send it to Roy's please and have a good picture printed from it - also the one you think looks so like Papa - And how many pictures of Eric did Harrod's send you? I have never received any and before I get after them I'd like to know if they sent you the whole two dozen. If they did and you have one left please send me it - for I don't want to order any more just now. If you have any films of Eric or Don try sending them to Roy's - for they can enlarge them and by printing them on regular photo cards they are worth having. Over here pictures are worth everything in the world and I miss mine far more than all the clothes.
The O.C. asked for an itemized account of our losses and says he will do his best to repay us and I am sure so far as mere value received we will not lose anything but all our little things are gone and we can't replace them. That pretty bag is gone too.
By the greatest of good luck we had rented a bureau from the Union Hotel and all our aprons and underwear etc. were in that - so all things considered we have a very great deal to be thankful for.
And now for our other big news - We are to move to Abbeville within two weeks. It is 7 miles from the sea - flat and very uninteresting - probably hot and smelly - very old and picturesque. Headquarters for the R.A.M.C. in France also for the D.G.M.S. and Matron-in-Chief McCarthy - centre for the Army Service big railway centre - probability of much better cases than we've had here as we'll be less of a clearing hospital. Those are most of the good and bad points - which you can distinguish at your leisure. And another thing - only 27 nurses are to go and at present we have 37 counting 6 "Queens" - so there is more food for thought. Will we all be going? And where if we don't?
Thanks to the fire we are tidied up and rid of all the extras that are such a nuisance when packing. I have stored my greatcoat at Cox's in Boulogne - that is another thing to be thankful for - for it would have gone too. I will leave it there all summer, as Abbeville isn't very far from Boulogne and it will be as safe there as any where. I am ordering a new cape at the Military Outfitters in Boulogne and am glad my old one is gone for I never liked it.
I am looking out the door of the tent at the most exquisite field - clover dotted with millions of poppies - so red and lovely in the sun. The patients pick huge bunches of them for the wards and they last much longer than the garden variety.
We are evacuating to-day and I have only 8 patients on this line this afternoon. I bought strawberries for them all for dinner, before the others left for England and it was a pleasure to see them enjoy them.
We are really awfully sorry to leave Wimereux for it is absolutely beautiful and the air, situation etc. are perfect. Abbeville is about 20,000 and I suppose we'll like it once we are settled. I am not worrying because even if it is a move we are seeing the country. It is about 60 miles from Paris - and not far from Rouen and Amiens. We have 5 days' leave due us now or in July and I would have taken mine next week as Ida Smith wants me to go with her to Rouen. She is one woman I'd love to go with for she knows the ropes - However I cannot afford it now - and have a good excuse for refusing. Later when we are settled at Abbeville - If I go there - we can reach Paris or Rouen much more quickly and see far more in the 5 days. Meiklejohn, Hunter, Blewett and Scoble all left for England on 5 days' leave this morning. They have been in France since November so I think they deserved it.
Am enclosing a couple of snaps - one of Ida Smith, Boultbee and me, and another of me taken with a patient. The film is good but they are not well printed. All the men are at the war and all the shops in Boulogne are run by the women of the family who don't always understand the business.
I saw Tommy [Butters] in Boulogne yesterday and hear all about Don. He was in La Fleche all winter too and crazy to get across here. He is attached to No. 1 General at Etaples now but has volunteered as Regimental M.O. as he wants to go to the front. He is such a nice looking boy. He says Don is anxious to come too but thinks he is foolish to come without a commission, if only on account of the comfort. However I think Don will work it out for himself - he'll have to. This war isn't going to end for a long time, I'm afraid.
I am so sorry about Teddy - boy - it is TB glands I suppose and often they leave no permanently bad effects. I'll try and write to Tootsie. Poor child she surely has her hands full.
We are not busy yet nor are any of the hospitals. We may not get any more patients now if we are to move so soon. I never felt so well, and after this rest am feeling perfectly fine. I have never regretted coming and I never yet have met anyone else who did.
I sent you some enlarged snaps about a week ago and hope they reached you as they were really quite good.
The camp is so peaceful this afternoon - the men are lying around in the sun listening to the gramophone, and smoking. Boultbee's Aunt gave a Bridge and donated the result for comforts for the men and deposited the $40 in a London bank for Ethel to use as she wished. Her uncle sent her 4 doz. pipes and boxes of cleaners and playing cards - The men were so delighted to have a present all for their own.
Aunt Teddy sent pipes and cards - and my men were well supplied. The papers are always welcome and the Saturday Posts which I send on to Eric. I have just done up a big fruit cake and cigarettes and matches for him.
Am enclosing a letter from him - it seems rather blue - and just what he means by the moralizing about "the Cat who walked by himself" I am not so sure - Do you suppose its about Jean? Poor kid, he's having his own trouble. I wrote him that I didn't know just what he meant but to remember that his interests were always ours.
Elizabeth's letter must have arrived at rather an inopportune moment. I sent him several parcels and letters for his birthday but I suppose they arrived too early or too late.
He says he'll try and get leave the next time they go into billets so I am hoping to see the boy soon.
Well I must close. Love to Papa and heaps for your own dear self-
Yours always,
Helen