With love to all from Geordie
The following day, George penned a letter to Charlie in which he provided a little more information than he had been prepared to share with his parents:
… Well they let all of us off at Fremantle and we had a good look around the town, it is not a bad little place, we had four hours there. Some of the men went to Perth it is not far from Fremantle. Everyone lined back at the boat in time to sail, some came back a bit merry. The people in the town told us that the last lot that went through played up something terrible. They all jumped off the boat with their rifles and bayonets and went into the shops and helped themselves. Two got the bayonet in them through breaking through the guards. The people there gave us a great rally off when we were leaving. Just after we got out of the port things were only middlen between some of the infantry and light horse men, the beer began to make them talk it seems some of the men reckoned the light horse were trying to run the show and fists were flying all roads it was good amusement for us that were looking on. The sea has been very calm since we left the west none sick at all. We have the measles on board and one chap is supposed to be dying of pneumonia. We are supposed to reach Colombo wednesday 20th after 8 days sailing from Australia. I don’t know whether any of us will be allowed off there. We get some drill each day now and some have to go on guard each day and night. We have to wash our part of the boat out each day, it wasn’t much of a game when the last meals were all over the floor but there is none of that now. We had a great concert given us on Saturday night by the passengers, the performers were mostly actors who are going to England, they shouted us drinks at the interval. The passengers are also given prizes for the winners in the boxing tournament, a prize for the different weights. There has been some good goes, it is starting again this afternoon … We have been vaxinated, I don’t think it is going to take on me, I was only done yesterday and today you wouldn’t know it was done …
Wednesday 20th
We got to Colombo tonight. We have to post all our letters on board by 8 o’clock tonight so I cant get any stamps. This is all the news so goodbye with love to all from
Geordie.
The journey to Colombo was incident-free, with Moldavia anchoring in the Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) harbour along with scores of other steamers and warships busy loading coal and tea before continuing on to Bombay (Mumbai), India. George was suffering from the tropical heat and preferred the cool of the night air on deck. Moldavia arrived at the port of Bombay en route to Aden (Yemen) and her final destination, Egypt.
RMS Moldavia
Wednesday 27th
Dear Albert
Just a few lines to let you know how things are going. We arrived in Bombay on sunday 24th. We stopped about 30 chains out on the water from the town, there is no pier there everything had to be brought to the boat on tugs. We took on a lot of stuff there. All of the tugs and boats are worked by the darkies, the women even work on the coal boats and it is terrible hot and dirty work too, a white man would not last half an hour with them. The black crew got off the boat there and a fresh crew came on, they seemed pleased to be going off. They would not give anyone leave to go ashore but over two hundred of the men jumped on a motor boat and made the crew fetch them ashore, one of the bridging train men got on a wheel and a light horseman started the engine and some did the stoking and away they went, they had about an hour to look around, they sent word after them to be back by eleven o’clock and all of them but 3 came back in time and the 3 have been left behind they will most likely have to stop in the barracks for a fortnight, One was a sergeant he will lose his stripes. A Major belonging to the English army brought them back he said we should all have been let off. All of the men that were on the Osterlg (the last boat that went through) were let off and 50 of them were left behind. The officers said they were going to make it hot for them going off the boat without leave but there hasn’t been anything said since. I like a dam fool stopped on board. They said Bombay is a very nice place it looks nice from the boat. There are forts all along the front of the town we saw a search light flash out at night. The niggers came over to the boat selling fruit, best bananas and oranges I ever tasted 1d for oranges and 6d a dozen for bananas they could sell them a lot cheaper. It was a bit of a luxury to get a feed of fruit we cant get any on board. We stopped a day longer in Bombay than what we should have done. One of the pipes burst when they were lifting the luggage aboard, and they had to put something in one of the engines. The next port is Aden I think they will let us off there. We have the measles and mumps on board, two were put off at Bombay with the measles. It hasn’t been so hot since we left Bombay nearly everyone got a heat rash on them while it was very hot. Send the addresses of some of my relations when you write. Well I will now close hoping all are well as I am at present. I remain your loving brother
Geordie
There is a yarn that we might be sent to England but I think it is like the rest of the yarns.
Later
Thursday 28th 1915
Wed Nov 3rd (Egypt)
We are supposed to reach Aden tomorrow morning. They say it is not much of a place, we have to coal up there. We wont be long now before we are in Egypt we get there about the 2nd of November. We had a concert last night, we gave one of the lady passengers a present, she has been very good to us, always giving us something, so we arranged to give her a present worth about ₤5, about 3d a man. I have been paid twice since I came on board, two pounds altogether. I was going to post this letter at Aden but they told us it would not get home any [faster] than if we waited till we got to Egypt. I will write again soon.
We have arrived in Egypt safely on Wednesday the third of November
ZEITOUN CAMP, EGYPT, NOVEMBER
In one of many entries made in lead pencil in his small, leather-bound notebook, George now added his arrival in Egypt to the details of his voyage:
Pte George T Marlow
Reg. No. 2748
6th reinftns 21st Batt sailed from Australia in the Moldavia 5th Oct 1915 transferred to 7th Batt
Sailed from Port Melbourne 5th Oct on the Moldavia
Arrived at the Suez on the 3rd November 1915
Rifle No 30997
To this he added pages of addresses of fellow soldiers, family and friends, pay calculations and notes from the various training schools he had attended. He recorded brief details of his movements, simply noting the names of places and battles with no insight into his emotions at the time. His letters home became the repository for his personal reflections. He composed a lengthy letter to his mother in which he described his first experiences in Egypt:
Yeitoun Camp5
Sunday 7th November 1915
Dear Mother
We arrived here in camp on the third of November at 8 o’clock pm. We got off the boat at Suez and caught a train there and landed here after seven hours ride. We had a very decent trip right through, after leaving the station it was very barren looking country but got better as we went on. We stopped at different stations going through and got some fruit and water melons. The huts they live in out of the towns would amuse you they are made of mud and are only about 5 or 6 feet high and all cramped up together, how they can live in them I don’t know, a white man would die within a week of fever, the fowls camp up on top of them. It is a great place for maize and sugar cane and other green stuff but mostly maize, especially around Cairo you can go for miles and see nothing but green paddocks of it. We could not see all the country going through as it was dark but what we did see didn’t look too bad. We passed three hospital trains with Australians and Indians on board. We only had half a mile to walk from the station to the camp, they soon fixed us up with blankets and something to eat, we were put in huts but have been shifted since into tents. They have special huts for all the troops to have their meals in, we all sit down to tables and do it in style. The tucker is much better than at Broadmeadows, we get curry and rice for breakfast the dinner is much the same with a little of d
ifferent kinds of vegetables and some preserved fruit. We get up at half past five in the morning and go out at half past six and do bayonet drill till breakfast time half past 8 we get a cup of tea and biscuit just after we get up. We go out again at 9-30 and come back at 11 and have an hours spell, go out again at 12 and drill again until 1 o’clock and then have dinner, we go out again at 2-30 and come back again at about 5-30, but if on a rout march might not get back until 7 or 8 o’clock, but they seem to have done away with a lot of the long rout marches, we have had one march so far, we went about 10 miles one afternoon. It is supposed to be winter here now but it is just about the same as what it is in Australia now, we are lucky to get here in this time of the year, it must be terrible hot in the summer time. It is a bit heavy drilling on the sand. At night it gets very cool and early in the morning it gets very cold. We got half a day off the day after we came into camp, we went into Cairo, it is about 7 miles from here, it only costs half a piastre (that is 1¼d) to go there. I know all their coins it was a bit awkward at first, we lose ¾ on every shilling coin, ½d on every 3d piece but with a gold coin we get a little over the value. Their coins are ½ piastre 1¼d in our money, 1 piastre 2½d, 2 piastre 5 and 10 and so on. The worst of their money we get such a lot of coins for a quid. We can get nice soft drinks and ice cream here but the beer and whisky is not safe to be drunk, but I think they can get the English drink. Well Cairo is not much of a place it stinks like the devil I wouldn’t live here if I was paid to, I did not think it was as bad a place as it is. It is just swarming with people, all sorts arabs, Egyptians and I think there are a lot of Turks there too, you don’t see many white people only a few French. One of the lady passengers that came across with us, a doctors wife invited all of the troops that came across on the Moldavia to come to the pyramids with her today and other places and she was going to pay for everything, my word she was good to us coming across she spent pounds and pounds on us. I did not go I wanted to write these letters as the mails leave here tonight. They only keep the men here three or four weeks now so I might be gone by the time you get this letter. I haven’t seen anyone that I know yet but one of my mates and I are going over to another camp this evening about a mile away, the heleopilis [Heliopolis] camp. There are a immence lot of troops in camp here, they say if you get up on the pyramids you see nothing but military camps. There are men from everywhere, Australians, English, Scottish, Canadians, Indians, Maiors [Maori New Zealanders] and all sorts. The Maiors are a fine stamp of fellows and real nice chaps too. Well I suppose everyone are very busy with the crops now, I hope they turn out well. Well I will now close, it is dinner time here and I suppose you will just about be going to bed. I write again in time to catch the next train so goodbye hoping all are well as I am at present. I remain your loving son
Geordie.
Writing to Charlie the same day, George was a little more forthcoming with his impressions of his new surroundings:
… It was very barren looking country till we got a long way from Suez station, then it gradually got better small plots of maize along the line but around Cairo it is nothing else but maize, there seems to be plenty of water, big channels running full. We stopped at some of the stations coming through, and as soon as the train stops the arabs are around you in dozens trying to sell you fruit and different things. They have very little huts that they live in only a few feet high, this is out in the country. Some of them are terrible crooks they would try and sell bad fruit and beat you for money, most of the men didn’t know anything about their money, but one chap that had been over before told some of us all about it. Some of the men made it a bit lively for them at one of the stations we had to stop there half an hour and they took the fruit off them and jumped on their donkeys and had a ride around, by jove it was funny. We passed three hospital trains with australians and Indians on board. They tell us they don’t send them home now like they use to do, they have to be crippled up now before they will send them home. The camp is only half a mile from the station and about 7 miles from Cairo. We were put in huts when we got here but we are now in tents, it is not near as good, there are twelve of us in each tent, it is too many. Every thing gets covered in sand it is inches deep and so loose and as for marching it is a bugger. We have all our meals in mess huts and have tables to sit up to, the tucker is not bad but is generally covered in flies. It is supposed to be winter here now but it is dam hot, must be terrible in the summer time, the nights get very cold. We have to get up at 5.30 in the morning, go out to drill at 6.30 for two hours bayonet drill, we have to do it different here to what they have been doing in Australia it is much easier, we had a sergeant major from England showing us how to do it, I would like to be as good as him … They showed us how to dig ourselves in, we have to dig ourselves in in 20 minutes here. We all have to do some trench digging and put in about a week at the rifle butts at shooting. We have had one long march so far, we left the camp at 3 o’clock and got back again at 7.30, I think we must have went 10 or 12 miles, there were a lot of us the whole reinforcements for the sixth brigade. It is terrible dusty marching through sand, I would not like to be here long, we will be gone to the front by the time you get this letter, they only keep the men here three or four weeks now, they are sending them to the front in thousands every week, 5000 left the night we came in and they were only in camp here 3 weeks and they are sending them over from Australia very fast, 2000 came into camp last night, I think there will be something great doing soon. I haven’t been to the pyramids yet but they say when you get up on them you can see nothing but military camps, there are troops from everywhere here, the maoris are fine fellows. The water here is not too good, it causes the diarrahea the returned chaps tell us it is one of the worst enemies of the dardanelles, they say it is very cold there at present. We got half a day off the day after we came in so we went into Cairo, a chap that one of my mates knew showed us all around the town, well I thought it was a fairly bad place but I had no idea that it was as bad as it is, it is something terrible, by jove it would open your eyes, they will say anything to you … [page missing]
Perhaps there is a reason for the missing page in which George was ready to describe to his older brother exactly what ‘they’ would say. There are some suggestions that, at any one time, there were over 30,000 prostitutes working in Cairo alone. Many Australian men were repatriated to Australia when the temptations of Cairo left them with venereal disease. Their war records were clearly stamped ‘V.D.’ and all pay would cease. While procuring a prostitute was not illegal, contracting venereal disease was considered a military offence as the soldier was then unfit for front-line service. Once the AIF moved to England and the Western Front the practice of returning men to Australia was discontinued. As soon as they were considered well enough to fight, the men were sent back to the trenches. The records of the Marlow sons have no such stamp; perhaps they chose to heed the advice of the padres and doctors who routinely lectured the soldiers on the dangers of commercial sex. Many men ignored the warnings, some naïve, others simply reckless. The afflicted presented a very real problem to military authorities as venereal disease depleted the fighting force and Australia had the dubious honour of the highest rate of VD of the Allied forces.6
Dear Mother
Just a few lines to let you know that I am alright. I have not got any news, it is a half holiday every saturday here and most of the men have gone out. I did not go out today as I had a lot of letters to write and we don’t get much time for writing other days, it is always dark when we come in from drill the sun sets very early here. I am thinking of going to see the pyramids tomorrow. It was open camp when we came here first but now we are not supposed to go without leave well in fact there is not much to see if we should go out only that I would like to go to some of the other camps I might strike someone that I know. They are a bit stricter here some of our chaps are doing C.B. already.7 I don’t know where we are going yet there is a yarn that they are going to take the troops from the Dardanelles
and sending them to Salonake [Salonika]. The war news that we have been getting here has been pretty good. They say the turks are coming to make another attack here in Egypt. Well I will now close hoping all are well.
I remain your loving son
The mails close here every sunday night, I will write again next week. We were inspected by the General yesterday morning. The Bridging Train men that came over with us left here for the front this morning.
Just where the reinforcements were to be sent was a hotly debated topic. England, France, Gallipoli and, as George mentions, Salonika (Thessalonika) in Greece, where British and French troops had been rushed to assist Serbia against a Bulgarian invasion — all were rumoured as possibilities. The uncertainty led to frustration among the men and George quickly became exasperated with the monotony of drill, sand and bad food. The town of Heliopolis, on the outskirts of Cairo, provided some relief. Constructed in recent years, it had originally been designed to rival Monte Carlo with gambling facilities, accommodation and entertainment parks, but had been refused the required gambling licence. Nevertheless, it represented an oasis in the sands of Egypt. The Palace Hotel, now converted to a hospital for the wounded from Gallipoli, contained 3000 beds. A short distance from the hotel, the skating rink, haunted house and other entertainment facilities of Luna Park were no longer bringing enjoyment to tourists, also converted to a medical facility capable of accommodating 2000 patients.
Yeitoun Camp
Sunday 14th Nov 1915
Dear Charlie
Just a few lines to let you know that I am alright. I suppose you will know the chaps in the photo you met them at Broadmeadows. Jim Gritton the tall chap that I mentioned to you went straight into the hospital to be operated on for rupture. He was bad on the way over and the doctor on board told him he would have to be operated on here or be sent back, he is getting on alright so far. One of my mates from my tent was sent to the hospital yesterday he has the diptheria. I think I pointed him out to you in Broadmeadows his name is Bill Leask he comes from near Leongatha he knows old Jim Haw. They are a lot stricter here, a lot of my company are doing C.B. already. I was going out to see the Pyramids today but have to go on guard at one of the stations, they have guards on the tram cars and every where. They have pickets to go round to all the houses every night and hunt the men home. There are a lot of troops shifting from here to another camp today. Well I have no more news this time, the mails leave here every Sunday night so I will write again next week.
ANZAC Sons Page 4