Kicking Up a Shindy

Date: October ?? 1914

Address: No.1 Company, 3rd Platoon, 14th D.L.I. Halton Park Camp, Bucks.

From: Private R.Gray

To: George

Dear George

You will thimk I am a long time in writing to you. I wrote the night before I received your letter and we expected coming to camp so I waited until we got settled down. We came here on Sat and are having a lively time with looking after our meat. We are on Rothschild's estate and can see the mansion from the camp. It is a fine place. It wasn't a bit like Sunday, we were running about giving out ?? plates and basins. I was just on the sanitory squad but I have chucked that. I had to clear the lines after meals and miss our drilling. Tom is now in the field hospital as orderly on account of the heavy sickness. On Monday the men were falling down in the lines with sickness and we would not go on parade, (we struck). The Lieutenant General was sent for and we are now well looked after with our food. The officers come down and ask if we have had plenty to eat so it does good to kick up a shindy. Afer tea on Sat night we went to Andover, 2 miles from the camp and coming back we lost our Tom and also our road. We were round 3 camps but none of them was ours. We got back at 9.40, ten minutes after the last post was sounded. Tom got back at 8.30 (lucky lad). There was 14 in one tent and when we kicked up the shindy and got no more than 8 men in one tent, there are only 3 in ours. Tom would make 4, but he is in the hospital orderlys' tent. Jim is now servant for the captain and he has a good job. He looks after us a bit and brings us food if we do not get plenty. He gets paid every Sat off the captain. For breakfast we get cocoa or tea and bread and bacon at 9.00 and dinner we get potatoes, meat and carrots. For tea we get bread and jam, cheese and sometimes corned beef. We get up at 5.30 and have tea or cocoa at 5.45 so we are now getting well fed. The camp is big enough for about 10,000 men. There are the 14th and 15 Durhams and 9th and 10th Yorks. It is a lovely countryside and we hope it is not a disease that is in the camp. Tom has been talking to some patients and he thinks it is with having nothing to eat and lying on the cold damp ground. We have now got waterproof sheets to lie on and two blankets each. We expect to get another blanket. All of us have got a champion top coat each, nice and thick for the cold weather.We were sorry to leave Aylesbury and our landlady sorry to lose us, she was crying after we came away. She told us we can go there any weekend we can get off so you bet it won't be our fault if we don't. It is about 4 and a half miles from the camp to Aylesbury we were there on Sunday night and we got set half way home. Tom wasn't with us. We intend to go on Wed night and you bet we will have a lively time. I think we will get our uniform this week and we will send you a photo. I will now close as it is dinner time and I will not have to miss it. We are all keeping well here, hope you are the same.

I remain your loving Brother

Rob

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Note: Robert Gray was Tom's younger brother.