France 7/11/1916

My dear Mother,

Probably when this reaches you, Xmas and New year will have passed, but nevertheless I wish you the usual Compliments of the Season. Your parcel to me has not so far arrived but of course it is a little too early to expect it yet. When it does arrive I will notify you. The weather is still wet and in fact I do not think it has ceased raining for about six weeks. The roads, fields and trenches are in a fearful state, trenches especially are up to the knees and in some places up to the waist in slush and cases of trench feet are plentiful. Trench feet are really waterlogged and are very painful and sore. I had a touch of them up at Ypres but used plenty of whale oil on them- with the result that the pain wore off and my feet got right.

At the present moment I am in Hospital at [censored] but am all right again. I caught some illness called Pyrexia which made me wish I wasn’t born for a few days until I could get into a nice warn clean bed and rest. It is a sort of nervous influenza like I had at Peak Hill that time, only worse. I had not been in the trenches this time as I thought I would when I last wrote. I have been within coo-ee of them though and was employed on fatigue duty building huts to be used as winter quarters when I got sick and had to leave.

I suppose by now Horace is a married man, as he was to be married in September was he not? I would have liked to have been there to wish him luck but will have to leave it until I get back. I have not heard from Aunt Clara for a week or two. She is not sending parcels now as I do not seem to get them and I asked her to stop forwarding since I could not see the sense of feeding some octopus or other in the postal department. Australian parcels and letters always turn up A.l. so you need not have any fears about my not receiving your letters.

With love from your son,

Walter.