Letter to his parents detailing the declining living arrangements in camp. A conditioning in anticipation for trench warfare conditions; no beds, 2 blankets per man, no clean drinking water, rough food cooked on open trench fires, no camp cook and only 'Skilly' to eat as an evening meal (a thin soup or gruel). They are to have another bivouac the following Thursday, followed by an inspection by the King at Clacton-on-Sea. A Colonel J.B. Pollit has retired, and been replaced by a Lt Col. D. Nelson, wounded at the Dardanelles, but 3 English bullets were found in him, and the men wonder what kind of man he is. The whole Battalion has had to have their hair cropped short.
Dated at: Wivenhoe Park Camp, near Colchester, Essex.