Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1360/1/9
  • Title
    Letter (2 sheets) from Wilfred Hammond, marked: France. Tuesday Dear All, A short-un to let you know that I am progressing alright. I got my discharge from hospital this morning at the exam so shall be leaving the premises at about 6 pm on Wednesday. We arise at 6am, “Brekkies” at 7, bath and medicine rub-down at 8 to 9, medical exam at 9.30 to 10.30 and then we have nothing to do but eat, sleep and read for the rest of the day. We have a packet of “fags” given to us daily. Diagonally opposite to this church is a “wunswaser”[i.e. no longer] theatre, now used as a part of this hospital. One chap remarked that there was a Reading Room in this Ward, also a well stocked library containing one copy of the day before yesterday’s Daily Sketch. So I went scrounging and managed to dig up a few books. Two of them, which I read yesterday, were “Daddy Longlegs” by Jean Webster and “Spud Tamson, V.C.” by Captain Campbell and are very good, particularly the former. Another I am reading today, also “tres bonne” is “The Green Curve.” One by Jack London is a wash-out. Two excellent books that I have perused since arrival in France are “A Tall Ship” and “Naval Occasions” by Bartimeus. I got these last two from a small library run by the YMCA “Scouts” hut at (censored), the much spoken of training camp. By the way, the things you read about rats and mice are actually the truth and although I don’t expect you to believe it (as I never did) I have myself seen dozens of rats, of the same size as a small cat. There are lots of both rats and mice and at night one can see the rats trotting about the parapets in a most brazen manner while as for mice, they are saucy little devils and get everywhere. No one minds these animals and they are quite alright as long as they don’t keep one awake although I will admit that I got quite annoyed when a rat, which had evidently taken a liking to the overcoat I was sleeping in, caught the corner and took me around three bays and traverses before I woke property, ‘sfact!
  • Date free text
    n.d. [June 1916]
  • Production date
    From: 1916 To: 1916
  • Level of description
    item
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