Charlie E. Marlow
In the context of the life of a soldier, the pettiness that Charlie describes will have caused some amusement, and George will probably have enjoyed Aileen’s gossipy news of home. However, her words are laden with meaning. Allan had spoken to her of his injury and its less than glorious cause. His reference to the honour of a wound incurred in front-line service is the first indication that he was planning to follow his older brother to boost the numbers of the AIF. By the time George received the letter in late January, Allan’s shoulder had healed and his plans were well underway.
ZEITOUN CAMP, EGYPT, DECEMBER
In the lead-up to Christmas, George struggled to cope with his distance from home during what was an important traditional family celebration. He was now not only writing lengthy letters home, but also sending numerous postcards with views of Egypt and greeting cards with Christmas wishes. One simple card, bought from the AIF Gifts Store at the Savoy Hotel in Cairo, bears the outline of a boomerang on which are written the words ‘I go out to return’. An irony existed in the original verse which mocks the hope of return:
… Our lands of freedom over the sea,
Our homes and our bright blue skies,
The sweeping plains and the dear green trees;
We would give our lives and soul for these
And we’ll fight to the last man dies.
This was a Christmas card featuring appropriately patriotic words, although I doubt it brought great comfort or joy to its recipients. For many families the poem would come to represent the realisation of a feared prophecy.
December 4 1915
Yeitoun Camp
Dear Albert,
Just a few lines to tell you that I don’t think there will be any more Australians sent to the Dardanelles till after the winter, that will be feb. or march. Lord Kitchner has just been over there and now they are going to send the Australians back to Egypt and put Canadians in their place as they are used to the cold climate. There are some back already, they will have to make some fresh camps I think this one is full right up now. I think they are going to send us back to the Suez, as the Turks are going to make another attack, it will be a proper one this time as they have built a railway up towards the Suez, they tell us that when they attacked before they were about 200,000 strong but had to go back as they had no way to bring provisions up. We might be formed into a new brigade, there is a yarn to that effect. I received your letter also one from Charlie. It is very cold here in the night now but is warm in the day time. On the first of December it was field day. A big crowd of us left here after breakfast, bringing our dinner with us and marched out over the desert had dinner and made an attack on another lot that went out before us, it is a bit tough charging up sandy hills, we arrived back at the camp in time for tea. The next night we had another attack and Friday we went for a rout march, by jove there was a string of us about a mile long in fours. I went to the Pyramids last sunday and climbed right up to the top of them, it takes a fair while to go to the top but they are worth climbing, get such a bonzer view, but it is a wonderful affair, how they got such amense blocks of stone up there, and is built so well. I went inside apart of the way but was too hot and crowded to look right through it all, have to crawl a long way in before you come to a chamber, my word it is worth seeing I intend to go in again some other time and look right through them, it took an hour to go out and an hour to come back. We passed the zoo and gardens going there they say they are well worth seeing I have not been there yet, we also crossed over the Nile it has a bonzer bridge over it. The Mena camp is right close to the pyramids and also the hospital. A lot of the chaps in my company are getting the mumps, there are three gone out of my tent to the hospital with them, two of them are mates of mine they are kept there for about five weeks. Well I have no more news this time. Hoping all are well as I am at present.
I remain your loving Bro
Geordie
There are some more mails coming in tomorrow.
Sunday Dec 12th, 1915
Dear Mother and Father,
I received the letter from you and Jim also one from Charlie and from Auntie Etta. I hope Dad has got rid of his rash by now, one of the chaps in my tent had a rash on him much like the one Dad gets. I am very sorry to hear about Beat Saville being dead it must have been very sudden. Glad to hear the crops are so good. Tom Jackman has just landed here, he says the crops are looking splendid. I suppose Amos and Ray will soon be here, now that they have had their final leave. There were a lot of men come in lately, the new brigade and about 1200 remounts have just arrived here. They will have a big crowd of troops here now that they are not sending anymore to the Dardanelles till after the winter, a lot have been sent back some have gone into hospital with frost bites. They have just had a tough fight at the front, we heard that the Turks mined two companies 23 and 24 and blew them up a bit and that the Australians won it back and also took some hill and 3 miles of railway, a lot of wounded have arrived here at the hospital. There were four companies took part in it the 21, 22, 23 and 24, and one of the men in my company got a cable from his father in Australia telling him that it is rumoured in Melbourne that the 6 of the 21st were in it, so it shows you how yarns get about. We might have to fight here yet, we have all been formed up into a battalion ready to go in case we should be wanted. They say that the Turks have built five railways up towards the Suez, the British are building a big railway now. If we don’t have to fight here it will be a long while before we go to the Dardanelles. I heard that little Tom Lowe has gone back to Australia and that big Tom is in a London hospital. Charlie Cockcroft is in the hospital with the mumps, I got a letter from Downie who is in there too, saying that he happened to mention my name and Charlie heard him, no-one is allowed in there, or I would go and see him, Downie says he is alright and as fat as a pig. A lot of men go out looking for beads and different things each sunday, there has been a city buried many years ago, it is only half a mile out from the camp, it is part of our drilling ground, there was supposed to have been a great battle fought there once and is covered with deep holes full of bodies, all that can be seen now are bones. There is a chap in my company, his name is Bush he says he knows Dad he used to go up to Dripps for his holidays, he comes from Moonee Ponds.9 Well I havent much news but will be writing again next week to Jim. I hope you are getting all my letters. They have mail bags in Cairo by the thousands but cant sort them quick enough. I will now close hoping all are well as I am at present.
I remain your loving son
George
They are wanting horse drivers, stretcher bearers and boot makers here now.
In his letter to Charlie, George typically included more detail:
… I suppose you have heard about the 2 or 3 companies of Australians being blown to atoms out of the trenches, we heard here that there were about 600 killed and 1000 wounded and that the attack was at that Lonesome Pine … A lot of the wounded have come in to the hospital from this last attack, those that saw them say that they look terrible wrecks … The returned chaps here don’t think there is much chance of taking the Dardanelles. None of them are anxious of going back to the front … Ken Laird had just left here for the front when we arrived here and young Hill from Calivil has only just left here too but I suppose they will both be back again soon because since Kitchener has been over there they are sending them back again … We were getting very little tucker here for a while but are getting more now. The lice are very bad, they call them sand lice they are about as big as dog fleas they give us hell at times …
16/12/15
Yeitoun Camp
Dear Jim,
Just a few lines to let you know that I got a letter from you yesterday also the one last week from you and mum. There was another lot of letters given out today but nearly all of them had been addressed to the Broadmeadows camp. I thought I might get that one from Chris, but no luck. I have received 4 from home, 2 from Charlie & I from Allan. One of my mates that has
been with me ever since we left Bendigo says that he went to school with some of the Alfords, the elder ones, ask them do they remember him, his name is L [erased]. Glad to hear that dad is getting better again. You will have a lot of work this harvest and wont have too many horses either. Must have had a great feed of peas, we get some here in the stew but they are hard ones, they are picked too late. They grow a lot of vegetables and fruit here, there are some big gardens with orange trees in them and other fruit trees. I don’t know what to write about, we are not allowed to say much now all the letters are to be handed in unclosed and are censored now. Yesterday it was field day we left the camp at 8am and took our dinner with us and marched out over the desert and attacked another party of troops we all had blank cartridges to make it a little like real, we arrived back in time for tea, we don’t get out this afternoon till 5 o’clock and go out on a night attack till 8pm, tomorrow afternoon is a rout march. The new brigade and 1 200 remounts have arrived here and some other troops came in last night, one lot is the 7 reinforcements of the 21 Batt. They are getting very particular here about the way to dress and so on. We are to keep hair cut short and to shave every day and have to wear our tunics all the time while we are drilling and it is dam hot with them on from about 10 am till about 3pm then it gets a little cooler, at night it is very cold and there is generally a thick fog in the morning. I suppose Amos and Ray will soon be here now, Charlie Cockcroft is in the hospital with the mumps I haven’t seen him yet. Tom Jackman is here in the remounts, they are mostly old chaps and the rejects. Well I have no more to write about this time so will close hoping all are well. I remain your affectionate Bro.
George
Christmas arrived and departed with little fanfare. It was probably the first Christmas that 23-year-old George had spent without the company of his family.
Dec 31st 1915
2748
6 rfms 21 Batt
6 Inf Bgde
A.I.F.
Egypt
Dear Charlie
… I don’t know what your Christmas was like but it was a fairly quiet one here that is in the camp but in Cairo things were lively. We had a flash dinner salmon and bread & jam but in the other camps they got a fairly good dinner, there were a mob of geese round by the cooks the day before xmas but I think the sergeants got them. We were given xmas boxes but no billies but all the troops in the other camps got billies and boxes, in the boxes were were 2 packets cigarettes, 2 cigars 1 tin tobacco and some post cards, I heard that we might get billies New Year’s Day, tomorrow. I believe that one chap got a ₤10 note in his billy. I went into Cairo in the afternoon and into Heliopilis in the evening, it was lively in Cairo in the afternoon and evening I cant tell you what happened as these letters are censored now. I am going to see the Zoo tomorrow. I went to see the gardens on xmas day they are got up very nice I think they look lovely. Well I suppose you have seen it in the papers about the troops being withdrawn from the Dardanelles, a lot of them are here. I met Tom Gray the other night he has been over in the trenches for about 2 months he was only kept here for a fortnight, he looks thin on it, he said he had been crook over there with the mumps and something else. He says Les Whitfield, Ryans and all the Mitiamo and Pyramid light horse chaps are back in the Heliopilis camp with him. I am going over one day to see them. Ray Leed and the others must be here now Archie Bailey said he met Dennie Hardiman. I see by this morning’s paper they are going to make it compulsory in England and call up the single men first so I suppose they will do likewise in Australia. The light horse and some British troops are fighting on the Western Frontier Egypt. It seems they are having a very severe winter in Russia. I am on guard duty today at the detention guard the prisoners, there are 15 of them here with a barb wire fence around them, we are getting a lot of guard and picket to do here, I was on picket on Sunday night in Cairo, we have to march up and down the streets with a red & white arm band around our arm, each company get it to do, they have pickets on the trams stations and in the streets etc. I am very sorry to hear that you hurt your foot, it will be a bit awkward for awhile with all the work to do, but hope it will soon be better. You remember Downie the tall chap from N.S.W. that is with me, well he just came out of the mumps hospital after being there for five weeks and was only out 2 days and was sent back into one of the other hospitals I haven’t heard what is the matter with him yet but he has a bad cold and coughed up a cup full of blood he has had no luck since he joined up the military. Evans is still in the mumps hospital. Young Gale the married chap is alright but often says he wishes he was home, there are a lot that way, I am quite satisfied here but wish they would send us to the front somewhere, it is monotonous drilling every day. It is a lousy joint here they are crawling all over us at times especially in this guard tent where we are today. Jim Gritton that I pointed out to you in the theatre in Bendigo has been crook nearly all the time since we came here he went under an operation but they didn’t do him any good and is in there again, it is a rupture of some kind. I don’t think I have lost any weight I weighed in Cairo the other day and went 13 stone, so am not doing too bad although we were not getting enough tucker but is a bit better now but I cant tackle the curry stew they give us for breakfast. A fellow wants to be a sergeant they get good tucker. I ought to get a letter anytime now from Pearl, I have written about four to her.10 I believe Eddie enlisted again but didn’t pass.11
I hear there are a lot to be married up there soon what has come over them all. The government are getting a bit hot ‘aint they, putting the price on the wheat and buying it themselves. I am glad they are getting my pay alright. The letters from Australia are not censored I got yours the day after xmas. I don’t want any money although we are always broke before every pay one shilling a day don’t go far here and if you were to send money I might not get it because we might be going at any time but where I know not. They are holding sports here on Sunday I don’t think I will be bothered going. We had a drop of rain here on xmas eve only about 30 points they say it is the third drop of rain that has fallen here since the first Australians came. Well I have no more this time so will close hoping all are well as I am at present. Wishing George, May & family and yourself a merry and prosperous new year.
I remain your loving Bro
George.
As the sick and wounded soldiers from Gallipoli began their recovery in nearby hospitals, their mates made the adjustment to camp life after months clinging to precarious positions surrounded by unburied corpses, living with the constant fear of attack and being shelled day and night, even on the beaches at Anzac Cove. For the new recruits, the reality of war was clearly visible in the maimed and emaciated Gallipoli veterans. Although George remained keen to escape the monotony of drill and to see some action, for others such as ‘young Gale’, the initial enthusiasm with which they had enlisted had turned to regret and a longing for home.
PART TWO
1916
TWO
I WISH THEY WOULD SEND US OFF
SOMEWHERE OUT OF THIS …
MOLOGA, AUSTRALIA, JANUARY 1916
The lists of casualties from Gallipoli sent shock waves through the young Australian nation. For many, despite their unswerving loyalty to the mother country, the appeal of fighting for king and country had been undermined by the awful cost in life and limb. Many families quietly prayed that the war would end before their sons were old enough to enlist. However, the recruitment campaign continued relentlessly and the prospect of conscription was now being openly discussed by a government desperate for men. Britain, faced with a recruiting crisis, introduced conscription in late January.
It was inevitable that more sons of Sarah and Charles Marlow would go to war. The harvest was completed, Allan’s shoulder had healed, the papers and posters all demanded it, and even the Church of England voiced its support for the war. Charlie attempted to enlist a second time and was once again rejected. But this time he was referred to the local dental board, a dental service established to treat pr
oblem teeth and ensure that conditions commonly referred to under the broad banner of ‘bad teeth’ would not prevent otherwise fit and healthy Australian men from seeing active service. Allan now arrived home with the news that his medical examination had declared him fit for service. With the original physical height requirement of 5 feet 6 inches now relaxed to 5 feet 2 inches, Allan’s twin, Percy, at five feet 3 inches, also managed to scrape through on 15 February, just four weeks after Allan.
ANZAC Sons Page 6