Busy as usual. Corporal Collins didn’t return until last thing. Went into town and left a note with the coroner1, who stood me a drink. Went to the guild meeting at the UMC and afterwards to Mrs Kyle’s to supper. Greece Neutral Ministry defeated2. Got pass through3.
Received letter from Charlie at Salonica4.
Coroner: odd shorthand, if the transcription is correct; if so, it would perhaps relate to Corporal Lightbody’s accident (see 1 November), though we do not otherwise know that this was fatal. ↩
“Greece Neutral Ministry defeated”: Possibly a reference to the the Greek Prime Minister’s decision to invite allied forces to set up a base at Salonika despite King Constantine’s insistence on Greek neutrality, although this had happened around a month earlier than this diary entry. The Salonika force was formed partly by forces withdrawn from the Gallipoli campaign, which probably explains Charlie’s presence there (see final note below). See also Greece during World War I at Wikipedia. ↩
“Got pass through”: ALL had, evidently successfully, applied for a second home leave. ↩
As emerges later in the diary, Charlie (fortunately) did not arrive in the Eastern Mediterranean until after the decision to abandon the Gallipoli expedition, though the last Allied troops did not leave Gallipoli until 9 January 1916. Charlie spent the rest of the War in Salonika (now the more usual spelling of Salonica), Egypt, Palestine and thereabouts. ↩