Tag Archives: Letters

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

20 November 1916; Monday

November 1916, , ,

Up about 8 o’clock. Laid fire and had breakfast. Mr Mudie1 arrived in the Ford car to take us away about 10 o’clock. He went to make enquiries about the people who are to relieve us. 33 F A relieved us about 4 o’clock. I walked to the cab station and Mr Mudie sent me on after Captains McCombie and Birrell to Aveluy post. There I got the Ford car and returned to the house where Corporal Chapman and I got in with our kit and returned. I received some letters, one from home telling me that Ranald McDonald was wounded in the leg and had trench fever2. Slept with the M.T’s.

La Verr3 killed.

  1. Mr Mudie: the Army convention was/is that lieutenants and 2nd lieutenants were/are addressed, and sometimes referred to, as “Mr. xx”; so although ALL elsewhere writes “Lieutenant XX”, Mr Mudie – if the name is correct – was probably not a civilian. ↩

  2. Trench fever is a moderately serious disease transmitted by body lice. It infected armies in Flanders, France, Poland, Galicia, Italy, Salonika, Macedonia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt in World War I. The disease is caused by the bacterium Bartonella quintana, found in the stomach walls of the body louse. Lice were, of course, ubiquitous as is well documented both in ALL’s diaries (for example, on 21 July 1916) and in other contemporary accounts. ↩

  3. “La Verr” is written very faintly in longhand and is barely legible. However, in the light of helpful information from a correspondent, this was very probably Private Matthew La Veere, of the 58th Field Ambulance, from Cambusnethan near Wishaw, Lanarkshire, who is buried in the British Cemetery at Contay, some 13km west of Aveluy ↩

18 November 1916; Saturday

November 1916, ,

Bedfords moved off about 8 o’clock. We spent the day by ourselves. Had roast fowl for dinner and plenty of toast† and good grub. Went to bed about 10 o’clock after writing a long letter home from a green envelope1 which we found amongst some dead soldiers’ papers. Brooks and Kinross brought rations for us in the rain.

  1. Green envelope: Letters from soldiers on active service were subject to censorship but, as a privilege, soldiers were also given one green envelope per month in which they could send uncensored personal and private letters. Evidently green envelopes were a valued resource, hence ALL’s use of this one left unused by its unfortunate owner. ↩

3 November 1916; Friday

November 1916, , ,

Up about 7.30. Dressed and shaved and helped Billington with the breakfast things as usual. Helped with supper.

Received 5 days’ letters. One from mother telling me that Frances1 had dislocated her shoulder through falling in the street.

  1. The shorthand seems to have “Francis”, but it is definitely “her shoulder”, not “his”. This is probably the Frances Cuthbert mentioned in a later diary entry and is certainly not Franchie Inwood. Nothing else is known about Frances Cuthbert. ↩

1 November 1916; Wednesday

November 1916, ,

Up about 7.30. Helped Billington as usual. Showery weather. Received letter from Metgrave enclosing other two letters referring to the rumour of my death1. Aeroplane scare at night, and we had to put out lights and the cookhouse fire in the middle of the officers’ dinner.

  1. This is the only time that the rumour of ALL’s death is mentioned in any of the diaries. Nothing more is known about it. ↩