EnvelopePostmark 6.45pm 1 Jun 1917
Glen Lea, etc.
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LetterDover 1 June 1917
Dear Father & Mother,
I have arrived here safely. It was quite an uneventful journey down. I reached London at a little after 6.30, then went across to Charing Cross by Underground. After making certain of my Dover train I went to the Little Theatre YMCA for tea, and dropped you a line from there giving my address. I am living in room G1, so please put after No 7 Company, "Room G1".
Our special train got us to Dover at 11 o'clock, and I got up to camp at quarter to twelve and went straight to bed.
This morning I saw the S.M. and he has told me to report to the doctor tomorrow (Saturday) morning about my eyes, so I cannot tell you anything definite in this letter, but will keep you well informed.
We cannot get to know where the draft is going to; they haven't told them from the orderly room yet, but it is probable that they will move off on Tuesday. I sincerely hope I shall manage to get left behind. Even if I don't, I am confident that my good luck will follow me through, as it has done for the past twelve months now.
I have received the letter, tobacco and sweets quite safely. With what Lilian sent me I have quite a large supply now.
Don't think there is anything more this time.
Love to all, from
Yours affectionately
Alvin
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Letter CardPostmark Dover
6.45pm 2 Jun 1917
Glen Lea, etc.
Dear Father, Mother & Margaret,Dover 2/6/17 Saturday
I am still hanging fire here, but am another step nearer. This morning went to the eye specialist and he again told me that my sight is not fit for category A. I had quite a decent little talk with him and told him that previously our medical officer took no notice of that when I was examined before, so this morning I asked him to put it into writing this time, which he did.
Tomorrow I have to report to our medical officer and I should then get to know something more definite, and I hope to be able to send you some good news.
I am hoping everything will go all right.
Love and best wishes to all from
Yours affectionately,
Alvin
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EnvelopePostmark Dover
7pm 3 Jun 1917
Glen Lea, etc.
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LetterDover
3/6/17
Sunday
Dear Father & Mother,
What a relief!
When I reported to the Medical Officer this morning he had no alternative but to mark me now T.M.B. for B1. It was a good job I got the Eye Specialist to put his recommendation into writing, or it would have been the same tale as before. The fact that he didn't do it before has given me a comfortable three months anyway. Everything seems to be working out for the best. I always touch lucky.
This T.M.B. means that I shall have to go before the next Travelling Medical Board which sits here, and they will no doubt mark me down as B1 in accordance in accordance with the eye specialist's recommendation.
Now don't you all feel relieved? I tell you straight I do. It wouldn't have come off if I hadn't stuck to my guns. A soldier seems to have very few rights, and if he doesn't stick up for those he won't get them. However, they won't beat Alvin so very easily.
Seeing this is my third letter in three days, you can't expect much news can you? I will therefore close with love & best wishes to all of you from
Yours affectionately,
Alvin.
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Envelope Postmark 7.30pm 6 Jun 1917
Glen Lea, etc.
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Letter
Dear Father & Mother,Dover 6 June 1917
Thanks for your Sunday's letter enclosing Lilian's letter which Newman had sent on for me from St. Margaret's.
Yes, I quite agree with you, that before I go away a few of the Cuthberts we know should have a turn. I wouldn't mind going on munitions for a change, and let somebody else have my khaki suit.
Well, I suppose you would feel more relieved when you got my Sunday's letter, telling you that everything is going favourably. My luck is still sticking to me, and I hope and trust that it will continue to do so.
No, I haven't caught cold through changing my clothes. The weather has been beautiful since I came back here.
I hope, with you, that the war will be about finished in July.
I think I dropped you a line to say that I had received the pants all right.
We are very busy here in the office and the draft leaves tomorrow (Thursday) and there is a tremendous amount of clerical work to do in connection with it.
You say you won't neglect to write me if I get sent away; well I am pleased to say that eventuality is now passed, for the present, at any rate.
Yes, that little slip was for my chum Newman. Poor chap seems quite lost without me, doesn't he? No he hasn't got married, but it seems that the idea was that his wife had come down for Whitsuntide, and he hasn't made anyone any wiser. Didn't I tell you when I was over that his girl had been to see him for the weekend, and that I had just had tea with them when I was fetched away to Dover?
I think this is all the news at present.
Love to all from
Yours affectionately.
Alvin.
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Letter8 June 1917
Dear Father & Mother,
Thanks for you Wednesday's letter.
Yes, I know you would be relieved to learn that the eye specialists had recommended me for Category B1. If I hadn't got him to put his recommendation into writing I should never have got the medical officer to put me down for the T.M.B. Still, he's a good man who can get any change out of your Alvin, when it comes to a case of fair & square dealing. You know it is still the same medical officer who was at Dover when I came here in February, and he puts all the difficulties he can in the way of a man attempting to get his rights, but when I handed him that note he said nothing but just "All right - you'll be for the next T.M.B."
So, even our Margaret knew everything would be all right, did she? Let's hope things will always keep so. For myself I don't care what happens, but on account of the anxiety it would cause to Lilian and you I don't want to be sent over the other side. And then when one thinks of the Rabbits and the Cuthberts, one is bound to think that they in all fairness should go on and do a bit, while some of the soldiers have a try at Munition making, etc. Keep on wearing your lucky beans by all means, but don't trouble to send me one on. I frankly trust to my luck on its own.
You ask me if I run short of anything to let you know. Well I am short of nothing at all, but someday when you have a little time, I wish you would make me a date cake like the one Aunt Maggie sent me, that is if you have the recipe. Now don't go and send a big parcel (taking a yard because I give you an inch) but just one or two of your home made fancies. Now this is only for a change mind you - not a regular thing.
Well, at last I have been promoted to be a Lance-Corporal. I now wear a stripe on each arm. If I can't have the stars I must have the stripes. Perhaps in the end it will pay me better to do without a commission and go on as a ranker. When you write to me now, you must no longer address me as Private, but as follows: L/Cpl A.Whiteley 41739.
The big draft that it was intended I should go with went across to France yesterday. They left the barracks at three o'clock in the morning, marching to Folkestone to embark.
This is all this time, so I will shut up.
Yours affectionately,
Alvin
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EnvelopePostmark Dover 6.45pm
12 June 1917
Glen Lea, etc.
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LetterDover
12 June 1917
Dear Father & Mother,
I received yesterday the "Courier" and your Sunday's letter for which thanks.
Please don't swank so much about my promotion. It is only one step, but it gives me certain privileges. Yes, as you say, it may turn out to be all for the best that my application for a commission has been turned down.
Mr Stockton soon seems to have got into it; still he ought to be all right in the Engineers.
You included that slip about Butterworth in one of your previous letters and I saw it again in the "Courier".
No, I don't want you to send my stick. Didn't I tell you when I was home that we are not allowed to carry full size walking sticks in Dover; we can only use those ridiculous little swagger canes.
I wrote Aunt Maggie yesterday, telling her all the news of my recent exciting adventures. And really it was rather an exciting time, wasn't it? But once more things seem to be running smoothly. On Sunday I went over to St. Margarets and spent the half day with Newman and one or two other chums. Poor Newman seems more fed up than I do myself at my papers having been turned down. He doesn't seem to have made a friend of any of the other chaps like he did of me. I too am fed up at being in Dover on my own. went to the pictures on Saturday by myself. Wherever you found one of us you generally found the other.
We had a jolly good do on Sunday. We spent the afternoon on the beach, then had as much tea as we could under the food regulations - two poached eggs, two ounces of toast and tea. Well, we could do nothing else but go to another place (The Green Man) and have another tea, this time bread & jam and biscuits. In the evening, about nine o'clock, we had a slap-up burst in my old room at Morley House. Newman, Batstone, Hickman and of course myself. Batstone had a tin of herrings in tomatoes left over from a parcel. We went out and bought a loaf, quarter pound of margarine, one shilling's worth of tea and four buns. Quite one of our old time feeds. I had a midnight pass, so didn't leave them until nearly ten o'clock, getting back to the schools about quarter to eleven.
Oh! By the way you omitted to put on your last letter Duke of York's School. This is important as there is another battalion of Fusiliers in Dover (the 6th at the Meadows where we used to be).
Lil tells me that they seem to have got an epidemic of the flu at Delph Hill. Her Father, Gertie and Dora, all are in bed with it. I hope to goodness Lil doesn't go and get it. They will be having quite a busy time.
Love and best wishes to all, from
Yours affectionately
Alvin.
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EnvelopePostmark Dover
16 June 17
Glen Lea, etc.
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LetterDover 15 June 1917
Friday night
Dear Father & Mother,
Many thanks for your Wednesday's letter card and the parcel containing two returned letters from East Africa - I shall be glad when I get a few more returned. I got your letter card Thursday night and the parcel came this evening. We have only two collections & two deliveries a day here; the last collection is 5.40, so I couldn't catch that after I got the parcel. However, it has reached me safely and I thank you very much for it. Everything is just splendid. The chocolate and the pasties are finished; Corporal Taylor (my office colleague) and I have just made a jolly fine supper of them. He had a splendid parcel from home about a week ago, and of course I helped him to devour it. I have left the date cake untouched, as that will keep best, and will last a day or two as an extra for breakfasts and tea; then when that is finished there is the blackcurrant jam to fall back on as a sweetener. We two have our meals fetched into the office, so we bought a jar of marmalade about a week ago - it just puts a finish on to your breakfasts and teas, and is well worth the slight expense. Don't you worry I am looking after myself, and consider I have got a nice cushy berth here; if I can only manage to stick to it we shall do, shan't we? You ask me am I sleeping in a tent - certainly not! This is a splendid place, right on the hill top, about a mile & a half from the cliff edge and 2 ½ miles from either Dover or St. Margaret's. It is beautiful up here now, while down in Dover it feels very close when you go down. Our grounds extend about half a mile one way and a quarter mile the other - bigger than Savile Park. It used to be a large school for soldier's sons before the war, and is a very new and up-to-date model barracks. All the buildings are cement and brick, very light and airy and extremely clean, floors are parquet blocks, and all the buildings are steam heated. We have a church in the grounds, rather bigger than the new St. Hilda's church, and a hospital about the same size. Our sergeant-major's office, where I work is a nice room like this
Drawing of office including desks and beds for
Alvin & Cpl Taylor.
We only put our beds down at night of course.
You see we are quite nice and comfortable. I am sincerely hoping that I shall be settled down out of the Army by winter, but when winter comes ours will be a nice comfortable room.
I am surprised at Aunt Etta's coming back to their house. I wonder what their tenants have to say in the matter.
Hooson's jolly well ought to catch it, but not the way they are doing. The couple of them should be sent to the worst camps in England (not a good one like ours - it would be too good for them) and have a few months roughing it, just as a taste. Please don't bother yourselves about them. I shall be all right and even if eventually I should have to go out, well I shall do my best at whatever job I am put to. One can't do more than that; then when all is over I can come proudly home and settle down comfortably, with the knowledge that I have served my country. Even if I left the Army now I consider I have done my duty all along, and taking the rough with the smooth I cannot grumble at my experiences,
Last night I met my Bradford sailor chum by appointment, and he brought another Bradford sailor whom I knew and two other chums; we spent a very pleasant evening together finishing up at the Naval Rest with a high-class supper of bread & cheese & pickles, washed down with plenty of tea.
Earlier in the evening we had had lemonade with ice-cream in it. And I don't feel any worse, so I think I don't ail much now. I am probably going to see the same boys on Sunday, when I hope to have another good time.
I shall probably be sending home some of my surplus stuff some day next week, so don't be afraid when you see a parcel, please. I will try to remember to include a Fusilier badge for our Margaret, and a shoulder title for you.
I think this is all this time round, so good-night and God bless from
Yours affectionately.
Alvin.
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EnvelopePostmark Duke of York's School
9.15 am 20 June 17
Glen Lea, etc.
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LetterDover 19th June 1917
Tuesday evening
Dear Father & Mother,
I was glad to receive tonight your Sunday's letter and Monday's letter card, also the Courier.
Yes the Health Salts are very nice - just the thing for this weather. We really could do with some rain, but I suppose when it does come it will be too heavy to do good. It has been very hot here this last week or so.
I am glad to learn that Charlie is free until August and hope he will manage to keep out longer than that, even if he doesn't get total exemption.
Yes. I think I told you I got the parcel safely, and I enjoyed it very much; the only remnants are a little of the black-currant jam and a little of the health salts. That date cake was scrumptious. I think you made it extra good, didn't you Mother?
That air raid on London, was just too awful for anything and I am against our airmen doing the same to German children, but if by doing it we can just show the Germans the horrors of war perhaps they will realise what a terrible business it is and be as eager for peace as we are. The people living in Germany don't realise what a ghastly business the war is, nor will they do until they get it brought home to them, then perhaps they will be quickly clamouring for peace, and on that account I say let's have reprisals every day of the week until the Germans ask for peace. It will mean slaughtering innocent people, but come to think of it aren't all our soldiers innocent people too, even though they do wear khaki. We don't love fighting and are only having it to do at the behest of the Kaiser and his madmen. Our members of Parliament would be red-hot for reprisals if someday a German aeroplane should drop bombs into the Houses of Parliament and kill one or two of them. Then when they got hurt, perhaps they would give our airmen a free hand to smash German cities wholesale.
I am sorry to learn that George Eastwood is having to go. Doesn't it seem so very strange how so many of the best men have to join up, while a lot of the scum and dregs manage to keep out and save their dirty necks?