Tag Archives: Letters

Diary entries which mention letters written or received by Arthur Linfoot during his time in the RAMC.

25 December 1917; Tuesday

December 1917, , , , ,

Up at about 7.30 after rather restless night with the cold. Paraded at 9 o’clock and did a small fatigue job. Cleaned canteen and wrote up diary. Two dining sessions and I went into the second one at 1.15. Very good spread. Menu and all the rest of it. C O and officers came in and made usual speech. Room very nicely decorated. Concert at 3.30. Steve Bott and John Dory pretty good and the others pretty awful. Corporal Chapman and Cotter about the worst singers. Went to A section billet to hear the R F’s1 band. Returned about 9 o’clock and went to bed.

Received letter from home saying that they had heard from Charlie dated 18th November.

  1. R F’s: probably Royal Fusiliers ↩

19 December 1917; Wednesday

December 1917, ,

Paraded at 9 o’clock and spent the day helping him1 and chopping wood. Had good fire at night with plenty smoke. Tried to write to Sister Annie2. Had toast to tea and supper.

  1. “Him”: Probably Chapman again; see yesterday’s entry. ALL occasionally wrote up two or more days at the same time and probably did so for 18/19 December 1917. Having written “Chapman” on the 18th, ALL continued to write the entry for the 19th and wrote “him” referring to Chapman, the last name he had mentioned. ↩

  2. Sister Annie: See note on 28 December 1916. ↩

15 December 1917; Saturday

December 1917, ,

Took over at midnight. Did some French and wrote a short letter to Charlie. Didn’t sleep well all day. Warned for a new arrangement and to start at 8 tomorrow night instead of 4 o’clock to-night. Lay in bed. A few minutes later warned for duty at once and had to get up. No sooner on duty than warned to clear up and go back to bed and return to headquarters first thing in the morning. Returned to bed.

10 December 1917; Monday

Abridged, December 1917, , , , ,

Up about 8 o’clock. No rations up so we had iron ration biscuits and bully for breakfast with a drink of tea without any sugar. Paraded at 10. I reported sick and was given duty. The American officer put a bandage on my ankle. Spent afternoon writing a letter home. We tried to improve our billet but the sergeants took it from us because two officers took theirs. Received letters from Gertie, Mother, Ernie and Hilda Linfoot1 in New Zealand. Got down to it about 8 o’clock. Had a look inside of a tank. Walked round inside gate† and was very much interested in it. Quite a lot2 where we are. A rumour that some of us are going to a place on duty.

  1. Hilda Tate Linfoot, ALL’s cousin. See Hilda disambiguation page. ↩

  2. “Quite a lot [of tanks]”: By this stage of the war in late 1917, tanks were deployed in large numbers – see also note on 22 November. ↩

21 November 1917; Wednesday

Abridged, November 1917, , , , ,

Up at 7 o’clock. On parade in the morning. Wet day. I played the part of wounded man and was carried on a stretcher for the first time in my life. Football match in the afternoon between our team and the King’s Own1, first round in the cup tie – and we won 6 – 0. Received papers from home and “Everyman”2 published my letter in reply to Roderick Random. Received letter from Charlie written on the 28th October.

  1. The 7th battalion of the King’s Own Regiment was in the 56th Brigade, 19th (Western) Division. ↩

  2. The text of ALL’s published letter is reproduced here. See all diary entries tagged “Everyman” and also Everyman from the Arthur Linfoot’s library page. ↩