{"id":156,"date":"2013-05-06T05:19:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T05:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=156"},"modified":"2013-06-26T20:24:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T20:24:55","slug":"neil-mother-8-jul-1917","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=156","title":{"rendered":"Neil – Mother: 8 Jul 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still Somewhere or Other
\n8-4-17 \u00a0(This appears to be an error – date should be 8-7-1917)<\/span>
\nDear Mother
\nClydes birthday. (8 July 1907)<\/span> Wish him many happy returns of it for me. \u00a0I expect this will reach you just before your own (23 Aug 1861)<\/span> – the best I can wish you is that you will be able to eat as much on yours as I did on mine. (4 July 1896)<\/span> We made mine last Wednesday quite a cabin affair. There wasn’t a single member of the corps who did not glory in the fact that my happy careless childhood was gone forever. \u00a0It seemed quite pathetic to me. \u00a0In fact I wasn’t able to eat any tea. \u00a0I am not quite certain whether my loss of appetite at teatime was due to the pathos of my departing infancy or to the fact that your cake was so good that I ate not wisely but too well. \u00a0Anyway my 21st birthday suffered little [from the eating point of view] from being held on board ship. \u00a0I reverently committed my moustache to the deep just before my birthday but I shall grow another on later on and get it<\/span> photographed. \u00a0My nose is quite all right now – it has not bled since I embarked. \u00a0My ankle is still inclined to be a bit troublesome.<\/p>\n

Draughts and chess tournaments are being held on board. \u00a0I have entered for them to while away a few hours.<\/p>\n

By the way, I don’t think I ever told you to tell Dad that I got the Varsity marks he sent alright. \u00a0Things were so rushed about that time that one was liable to forget things. \u00a0Tell Roy and Gorrie that I shall reply to their letters some day. \u00a0Transport life is too lazyfying for extensive correspondence.<\/p>\n

This by the way is the second letter I have written. \u00a0News is extremely scarce. \u00a0We have seen nothing but sea and sky and ourselves for a fortnight so we have very little in the way of inspiration. \u00a0– I interval (?)<\/span> to invite ptomaine poisoning by eating pineapple out of a tin. \u00a0Funny how risks don’t matter when there are mines about anyway. \u00a0Well we’ll be safe off the boat by the time you get this.<\/p>\n

Ever yours
\nNeil<\/p>\n

Records from the Auckland museum indicate that Neil and Norman were embarked on the “Maunganui” which sailed on 12 June 1917, destination Plymouth England.<\/span><\/p>\n