Where girls are few
Letter from Lance Corporal C Moss reprinted in the Auckland Chronicle
Chester-le-Street soldier’s experience of life in Egypt
Lance Corporal C Moss, 18th DLI, Durham Pals, from Egypt to Mr W Lowes, Front Street, Chester-le-Street says:
You need not send more soap. We only get two pints of water per day now for a tent of 10 men to wash in, and so you may judge what it is like when it comes to the turn of the last man. This allowance will probably be reduced later.
The nearest women are 30 miles away from us. I have only seen three since we left England, and they were on passing liners. We have transformed the place we are camped from a lifeless waste of sand to a moving town of life.
Men (there are now women at all) from the Eastern world have joined men from the West in the middle of the world, and it is most interesting to see the contrasts of conduct. For specimens of full manhood the Chysore Lancers are far away the best. They put most of the British troops completely in the shade.
The more I see of them the more passionately fond of them I become, and one of them is bent on taking me to India with him after the war. We had a treat the other day, as the passengers of a liner homeward bound from the East sent ashore any amount of tobacco, cigarettes, sweets, and biscuits for the troops.
Date: 9-Mar-1916
Author: Auckland and County Chronicle
Reference: Ref: D/WP 4/39 (Microfilm M61/38)
Where to find this: Durham County Record Office
Contributed by Durham County Record Office