Letter from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas. [France]. Describes naming of guns / conditions / abilities of the men / possibility of moving out but unsure of what the destination will be. Archival reference: 424/1/1/1/1/223
Dearest We had a change today, with some work overhauling guns and (illegible) injury (illegible). It was not so cold and a morning out of doors was quite a luxury. The question rose what to name the guns. I won for George, Andrew, Patrick and David, mine being David, but perhaps this is a little grave.

I told my sergeant to settle it with the men. His name is Stenlake a Devonshire man, engineer, dark, middle height, lean, pale, married aged about 30, a very capable nice fellow: but he wants to take a commission and is applying for one.

Newham has hideous overemphatic politeness that comes from self consciousness, a humble heart and rustic breeding. Also he is always half in a hurry when he starts from the tent to the latrines he always begins
by [illegible] a few [illegible] His [illegible] with looks as if he [illegible] just going to run the [illegible] on his toes and bobs, leaning forward a little with pale [illegible] face set. His politeness is so absurd that it makes me aggressively rude. Nor is it real politeness because he is so very unobservant when caught lacking he apologises extravagantly
Sunday

Now I can't write more we are very busy . We leave for up country tonight and we don't know anything about where we are bound for.
Alls well It is fine and cold too cold for a long railway journey

Edw