Ismailia, Egypt 15/1/16

Dear Mother,

I sent a cable last week to say I was all serene. We are camped about two miles out in the desert on the bank of a fresh water canal which runs back from the town and eventually meets the Nile somewhere about Cairo.

I received your parcel of underclothing all right. It arrived at a most opportune time as we had brought no clothing off the Peninsula with us. Since then we have had a lot of gift stuff given to us and now we have a plentiful supply of socks writing paper chocolate etc.

The Sevenths and some of the Eighths arrived last week. Gordon seems to be in good trim. I saw Will Schaumann and Thomson the other day too, they seemed to be fit. The old hands are getting a few days leave in Port Said five percent at a time. I hope to be able to go soon. I am buying a vest pocket camera and intend to carry it with me in future I often wished I had one on the peninsula. The weather here is fairly warm at present but the heat is not yet oppressive though it is becoming warmer daily.

Love to all, your affectionate son, Rawei

[From Rawei's photo album, labeled "Catholic Church, Ismailia".]

Egypt, 4/1/16 (No. 2)

Dear Dad,
I wrote you in a separate letter today. Things have been happening during the last fortnight.
Three weeks ago today we were in the trenches wondering if there was anything in the evacuation rumours. By 3 a.m. on Monday the 20th every man was off the Peninsula.
Our Gun Section left on the last night one gun was amongst the last party to leave. Everything went off without a hitch. Someone will no doubt be decorated for engineering the movement. To withdraw about forty thousand men from about a twelve mile front was a ticklish job and it was nothing short of a miracle that allowed us to get away without Jacko suspecting anything. We learnt on arrival at Lemnos that preparation had been made there to receive from ten to fifteen thousand wounded. Our casualties on the last night were three wounded- it took five nights to effect the evacuation nothing can be done on the beach during the day. When we first learnt that the evacuation was a certainty we were at first incredulous and afterwards a bit downhearted most of the older hands would rather have gone through another advance it seemed hard to withdraw after all that had been done there. However we soon came to understand that it must be for the best and everybody entered into the spirit of the thing and put in their spare time preparing surprises for Jacko when he came over. Devices, some worked by candles some by drips of water were rigged up to fire old and broken rifles hours after the last man had left the trenches. Bombs which explode on a spring being released are in all sorts of odd places. Altogether the first party of Turks that came over were due to have a few casualties. About the second day of the evacuation our men on Walkers Ridge stopped firing for about three hours. Jacko became curious and sent over some armed parties to see what was wrong. They all got wiped out. On another occasion we stopped fire on the whole front for 48 hours. This seemed to puzzle the Turk and we were sorely tempted to let fly when Jacko's curiosity bid him to show his head and shoulders over his trench. We were then in hopes that he  would attack but he was not to be drawn.
On our arrival at Lemnos we recieved a big mail and all hands ate a good deal more cake than was good for them. We made up for this on our trip to Alexandria however when we lived on Bully & Biscuits and had to wear lifebelts night and day as they feared submarines. We are now in Egypt and are soon to be joined by the sevenths and eighths so that I should see Gorden in a day or two. I have receieved a good many parcels so far all in good condition the parcel of clothing arrived today.
Love to all
Your affectionate son,
Rawei

Canty Machine Gun Section, Canty Infty Batn, Egypt 4/1/16 (No. 1)

Dear Father,
I enclose a letter which I wrote from Gallipoli after our advance in August. It came back to me again in Lemnos about 24th Dec having been missorted in Alexandria. How many more letters have gone astray I don't know but I have often thought that I all that I have written did not reach you.
With regard my leave from the Bank I applied in October for an extension from 6th Jan to 6th July and have a note to apply for a further six months before July.
I am writing at greater length by the same mail as this.
Trusting that all is well with you at Alexandra.
With love to all,
Your affectionate son,
Rawei

In future I will No my letters this is No. 1.

[Note: The brochure shown below was included in with Grandad's letters, and accompanied  parcels from New Zealand for the Christmas of 1915. If you are having trouble reading the writing, it says "One of these was enclosed with each of the parcels we received from the people of Canterbury".]

Cheshire Ridge, Anzac, Gallipoli, 9/12/15

Dear Bob,
We have been back here from Lemnos now for about five weeks and expect any day to find ourselves in the middle of winter. We had a fall of snow a week ago which made things very disagreable for a day or two and which sent a good number away frostbitten.
I recieved your parcel of butterscotch a week ago it was very welcome and did not last long I can tell you. I noticed that although it was posted in Wellington it bore an address in Mother's writing so presume she has been paying you another visit.
The weather just now is quite mild again and it is hard to imagine that only a week ago we were stamping round in an attempt to keep the ciruculation going. Waterproof capes have been provided for those men actually in the trenches and we are promised gumboots so that the next fall of snow should not inconvenience us a great deal.
Our tunnels for which we are digging for winter quarters and as protection from high explosives will soon be finished so that we will be fairly comfortable by Xmas at the latest. To get underground is the only real refuge from the cold winds that we sometimes have here.
There is a big mail in and we are all eagerly waiting for it to be sorted.
I trust you are all in good health again and that Neil and Marjory are quite recovered. Tell Elsie that I received a parcel that other day that had broken open in the post. All that reached me was a big woollen scarf and one mitten tied up with a bit of string with a label attached. The label bore a Maori Hill postmark so that I presume the parcel was from the McNicols. The scarf was very handy on the cold nights we had.
The position we are in now is about the softest one we have been in yet although it is at the same time one of the most interesting. The Turks are about 300 yards away. There is a steep scrub covered gully inbetween and we have to keep a sharp lookout. We have a fine view of all the country from Anafarta to the Salt Lake and behind us to Imbros and Samothrace, our trench being about 500 feet from the top of '971' or Chanuk Bahr [sic] so it is variously called (the maps in the papers mark it '974').
Well I must not say to much or I will offend the censor.
I will close with best Regards to Elsie and yourself, Marjory and Neil.
Rawei

Cheshire Ridge, Anzac, Gallipoli 8/12/15

Dear Dad,
We have now been back from Lemnos about five weeks and thanks mainly to the cold weather we are as fit as ever yet. Last week a couple of inches of snow fell and we had our first  taste of a Gallipoli winter. If it was a fair sample we are in for a rough time. The cold wind which came after the snow and blew it about was the worst part of it and the only really warm spots were underground in the tunnels we are digging for winter quarters and for protection against high explosives. The trenches soon got muddy and things became wet and afterwards froze hard so that it is not surprising that a number went away frost bitten. We have since had waterproof capes issued and hope to all have gumboots soon so that we will not dread the next fall so much. Just now the weather is mild again and the nights warm and except for the few nights the snow was on the ground we have not had any frosts although we are 600 to 900 feet above the sea. The Salt Lake which was dry all summer is now full of water and the flat land around it must be very wet so that although we do have a few cold winds up here our position on the hill tops is the more comfortable one of the two.
There is a big mail in for us and we are all waiting for it to be sorted. So far I have received two Witnesses and am waiting for some letters to come to light.
9/12/15
The post we are on now is a fairly interesting one we are about 300 yds away from "Jacko's" nearest trench and the Gully in between is covered with thick scrub. We have patrols out every night and have to keep a fairly sharp look out but on the whole it is the softest job we have had as yet.
From what I gather  from your letters it would seem that some of my letters have never reached you, whether they have gone down or have not been passed by the sensor will I suppose always be a mystery. We have a good view of anything that is going on from our position here. Some of the shellings our warships and batteries give the Turks are terrific.
The Turks use their field guns (75s, etc) with some effect but do not seem to have the quantity of high explosives that we have.
Well there is not much that I can write so I will close with Best Regards to all.
Your affectionate son, Rawei

Cheshire Ridge, Gallipoli, 22/11/15

Dear Mother,
It is now dark about six o'clock and I am writing this in our bivouac by the light of a lamp we have rigged up out of a two ounce tobacco tin, a bit of string and some bacon fat. It is not a bad light though hardly one candle power.
The weather is turning cold here now and we get a sprinkling of rain sometimes. We are fairly comfortable where we are now and are busy tunnelling into the hill digging our winter quarters which will be in galleries well undergound. Orders are that everyman is to be fifiteen feet undergound before the cold weather sets in we ought to be warm enough down that far.
We are being fed fairly well now. The Machine Gun Section has a cook of its own. Our Bill of Fare runs something like this.
Breakfast: Bacon, tea, bread or biscuits
Dinner: Tea, rice and a tin of bully beef if you feel like it.
Tea: Tea and stew (bully beef, rice, dried vegetables).
Sometimes we get fresh meat our supply of this depends on the weather. Often it is too rough to land stores, then we go short of fresh meat and bread. Besides this we have sugar, jam, milk issued daily and at present we have any amount of raisins. We are only waiting for an issue of flour to try our hands at a plumduff.
We are back here in much the same position as that we left when we went away for our spell and as far as I can see are likely to be here for the winter.
I received your letter in which you asked me to wire about the warm clothing. Cabling from here means writing to someone in Alexandria and enclosing the money and asking them to send it. For the present I am fairly well off for clothing and if it becomes very cold one can always put on his change of clothing besides what he wears ordinarily. That would mean a little more time spent in the daily hunt for lice and fleas. The trenches and bivouacs are all infested with these vermin and all one can do is try and keep their numbers down.
Both an outgoing and incoming mail were sunk last week; but taking it all through we do not lose much mail in that way.
I hope this finds you all in good health. I am at present in good health and spirits and now that the flies and dust have gone should be able to keep fit.
With love to all,
Rawei.

Gallipoli, 14/11/15

Dear Dad,

Here we are back into it again feeling much fitter after our spell. Winter is coming on us here and we are having fairly cold nights with winds but little rain. Except when we are in the trenches at night the cold will not trouble us much as we have very comfortable dugouts to live in and are well supplied as to food and clothing for the winter.

From our gun posse we have a fine fiew of the country towards Suvla Bay from Anafarta on the right to the island of Samothrace which lies out at sea benind us. The gun I am on at present is only mounted at night otherwise the Turks would spot us and shell us out of it, so that I have time to do a bit of writing in the day time.

I don't know whether you have ever received a letter that was written under fire before. This one was, at any rate the first part of it. I am sitting down on the bottom of the gun pit Jacko is putting over shrapnell and bursting it round about us we get the smoke blown down to us. It has a peculiar resiny smell. If I ever get through this the smell of burning resin will always recall the bombs and shells of Gallipoli to me.

I am finishing this in our bivy. There is not much I can write of. From here too we get a great view, we look towards the sea and have all the country towards Suvla Bay at our feet. The hill we are on is variously known as [censored] we are about 3/4 way to the top our top trench is known as the Apex we are a little to the left on "Cheshire Ridge" and have a good view of the shipping the beach etc.

With best regards to all,

Your affectionate son,

Rawei

[The postcard below is annotated "ANZAC Cove Gallipoli" on the front, and it's blank on the other side. It's in the pile of Grandad's letters, but I'm not sure where it fits in- that is, whether it was Grandad's or whether it was obtained later from somewhere else.]