Z1360/1/40

Letter (4 sheets) from Wilfred Hammond, marked: BEF France. 21st Dec 1916 My Dear People, I take it that, by the time you receive this you will have got through Christmas and will be getting over the ill after-effects. I hope you all had a fine time, as I intend doing myself. You will be pleased to hear that we shall be back at camp for Christmas and it won’t be my fault if some N.C.O.’s don’t get together and have a decent feed. We hear most dismal tales of England and food supplies. I know there is a sugar shortage and that sort of thing but I want to you tell me honestly how bad things are or are not. There is no sugar shortage in the army. I hope you have by this time received a card or two, etc. I know I made a beastly mess of things but this is how things came about. Around the dates on which Christmas things should have been posed we were in the line and with that admirable foresight so well known of the Hammonds, I quite overlooked the necessity of buying them the week earlier. When I did get a chance, which was yesterday, I went into six shops and could only get the one I sent to May and Eva. I am not getting stingy. I received your fine Christmas parcel on the 17th. and was rejoiced thereby. The pudding was excellent. Allow me to thank you one and all for the various items. At the time of receipt I was Orderly Sergeant and messing with the Company Sergeant Major. He has a batman who got the pudding heated and started making custard. Eventually he made some that went beautifully bumpy so I thought I would try my hand. I did everything I could have done and mine turned out not bumpy but very thin, and since then there have been tremendous arguments about the respective merits of bumpy and watery custards. On the whole I have done very well in the way of plum puddings, since when four or five mess together and all get a pudding, well we are in, Meredith, we’re in! I have had a copy of “Blighty” but if you see a Christmas number of anything in my line, I should be glad of it. To quote Bairnsfather, “I am living in a house, at present.” As a matter of fact it is a cellar with quite a lot of wall standing round it. Very comfortable too, with a table and two chairs (one of which I salvaged from a Convent cemetery) and three beds. One can also nearly stand upright in it. By the way, the sergeant whose place I was taking as Orderly Sergeant has returned and I am now doing Acting Quartermaster Sergeant, a proper cushy job. Finish now, Wilf

21 December 1916

From: 1916 To: 1916

item

Hammond, Wilfred,
Hammond, May,
Hammond, Eva,
bairnsfather

France, letters, service personnel, overseas (WW1), 18th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, Christmas, food production, sugar, puddings, custard, newspapers, Blighty, furniture