Dear May

Just a letter to let you know that I am in the pink, and hope you are the same. How are things going at Wolverton? Is Wolverton still as quiet as usual? How is "Barbers Picture Palace " getting on? Do they still have full houses Mondays and Saturdays? There's no picture palaces, theatres, or anything here. The nearest Y.M.C.A. to us is a long way away but we have a village near us. The people round here don't worry about the war. The girls and women do all the men's work here, and they are a lot stronger, and hardier than English women. They are polite, and got cheek enough for anything.

The sergeant's just gave me one of your letters, and by the date it's taken 3 days to come, but I can't send this tomorrow so I shall put tomorrow's date on it. Notice how long it takes this letter to reach you. By the way, our officer told us to tell our people not to put France in the address, but just B.E.F. I don't know why this is, but obviously they have some crack idea for it. I had a letter from Violet Cox two or three days ago. Her letter was addressed to Aldershot, and then sent on from there with Aldershot crossed out and just B. E.F. on it. I've had about a dozen letters from Violet altogether, and you can guess I've sent her about 13. She is having a fine time with the Countess de Carlisle. I haven't wrote to you very much lately, but as Violet asked me in her last letter you must forgive me, but I haven't half been busy the last week, up till today Sunday. The worst of it is they don't give us enough grub to do it on. We spend most of our money on coffee, ginger beer and chocolate. We still get our 3/6 a week as yet, but that does not go very far. I shan't stop in the army after the war, it's not good enough. Our sergeant who has (censored) says the grub is good, but there's not enough of it. We don't get so much as we did at Aldershot. If you don't keep your eyes skinned, you don't get any at all (censored) the Rfm. go in permanent. The last lot had a hot time of it, too. But they managed to go through it unscathed. According to our N. C.O's, the Germans are an artful lot. We shall be popping away at the Germans pretty shortly, and as long as I don't get popped it will be alright, I guess. I wonder how many Germans Reg. has popped? Aunt told me you had heard from him, and I was very glad to hear of it. I think the war will be over by Christmas. There's always plenty of aeroplanes fighting round here, and we can frequently see aeroplanes with shells bursting all round them. Once or twice we have seen raids on the firing line with about 10 aeroplanes. Everywhere we go we are billetted in farmhouses. By the way, I shall be pleased to have a photo of you as it is a long while since I saw you and perhaps I shall have my photo taken here, there's a shop the other side of the road. They all have the idea that soldiers like having their photos taken.

Some of the French villages have shops which have English names, for the benefit of the English. Soldiers who have been out here 6 months can speak French, and some of the French can speak English perfectly. I can speak just a little French now. In most of the Y.M.C.A's at Aldershot ladies teach soldiers the French language free of charge. You can get 1d papers here with pretty well everything you want on it. On one side of the paper there are articles, and in English, opposite the English names, are the French names, which apply to the same article. Nutty idea isn't it. Most of the shop people understand English a little, but if they don't understand you they say "Me no compre", when you say thank you to them they jabber something in French which you can't understand. It rains very frequently here, I don't know whether the explosion of the shells have anything to do with it. The French money is very difficult to deal with, for a start they have half franc notes which value 5d, and I've seen about half a dozen of half-franc notes, and they are all marked different. It seems each district has its coins and notes marked different to the other districts. Tell Dad and the boys I will write to them shortly. By the way I am sending these 2 stamps as they are no use here. How is George getting on with his job? It's his birthday next Sunday isn't it? I must go and see if I can get a bit more grub from somewhere now, or I'll go on strike.

Well, dear May, I must come to a close now, with my fondest, prettiest, beautifulest, loveliest love to you.

From your loving Brother Albert

K I S S

P.S. This is a new invention for closing letters invented by soldiers.

P.S. I have just received Aunt's letter all righL Tell her that I wrote to Reg Timms 3 days ago, and that I have seen my mate who joined the West Kent several times out here.