Letter to Mother from Milford, England
[no date]
North Whitley Camp
Milford
England
Dear Mother:–
Our Camp is well to tell the truth I can’t tell you all about the camp until the next letter we are two miles about out of Milford. The road is very pretty all the way out, the trees often meet over head and they are so high and nice. I like the camp oh so well you can’t tell how I feel by what I say, but it is just perfection all around. Our bunk house is big enough for 32 men. Our cots are are about six inches off the floor the boards run lenth way and spring good resting on horses under each end. perfect ventilation and a good stove to light on chilly days. I am second bed from the stove,
Sanitary conditions are perfect, Canteen has a good stock and cake is 2¢ a cut instead of 10¢ at C.H. bananas 2¢ each. At C.H. 5¢ and etc. but on the boat and at the station the little boys did soak me sine thing offal on my candy. The scenery is great in Eng. the land is level with good drain and nice trees all over, you never see open country for miles in any direction, there is very few barns and no big ones at all. they hay stacks are put up like cakes of butter and thatched on top. The is a lot of cattle and sheep and they are very fat. There is very few horses and no poneys no Autos. I have only seen one, yet the people are out by the thousand walking around. The roads are lolof[sic] times foot pathes and you see men going home with packs on there backs. There are lots of bycles used and the roads that are good are stone I think the ones we came in on from Milford.
The bread is heavy but very sweet and good, but the bread on the boat was not so sweet it was I think a little sour but I eat it by the pound, I surely ate an awful lot but never felt like I quite should now I felt like running every step I go. The old pack is coming as natural to my back as if it grew there. The English coaches are made big enough for 7 people who face each other in this manner
The freight cars are 6-8 and 10 tons capacity mostly all of the men we see are over 30 yrs and an awful big % are grey haired men. The houses are all brick and there is room to walk between the back door to the ally and room to drive for a street in front, I have seen hundreds of thousands of these houses and there was not one change in any one of them, no residential district every thing the same as far as you could see and if there was 2 feet square any where between the different things that constitue the back door yd off about 20 feet sq. There is a good green tree, girls and children are in abundance but no young men, anywhere but in Quebec X. You never see a light in the citys after dark and all coach blinds are down after sun down. I think things couldn’t be made better here for the soldiers than they are there are two Y.M.C.A near here in the camp I will get some pictures in a few days and send them to you, you will have to let the other folks read the letters I don’t know when I will get time to write the other folks but if you could all read the letters I send home it would be good because the letters are going to be different than they were some time ago when only took two days to write a letter home.
We are going down town for a chace this a.m. they an’t working use very hard yet but it will come, we are 8 hour off the Battle front now so our work being layed out for use little by little, but I am game I feel more like it every day day, we saw lots of good wheat and oat crops here and say they would yield twice per acre what our Sask crop would. We don’t starte to work our land out there they use two and three big horses on a binder here a boy rides the lead horse.
Well good bye Mother and all best wishes and love to every one
your loving son Laurie
#782373 Pte L. D. Cunningham
D “Co’y” 128th Batt.
C.E.F. North Whitley Camp
Milford
England
I have to go to get out of the road of the lad who is sweeping the floor.
[Saved as 16-09-11, to allow a day of recovery from flu before move to new camp.]