Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), Monday 2 February 1942, page 3


LETTER FROM OVERSEAS Mrs. J. Holmes, of Gorae, has re-ceived a letter from Private T. M. Holmes (Murray), from somewhere in the Middle East, in which he des-cribes camp life, with its lights and shadows, one of the highlights being Christmas dinner, which provided a completely different menu from the daily rations. They had ham, turkey and plum duff, instead of the con-tinual stew and rice. Another relaxa-tion from the daily round and com-mon task was that officers did the serving and the men gave the orders. While they were enjoying these good things they did not forget the source whence they came, and rejoiced that there were kindly disposed persons and societies at home who sent such good things to the boys overseas. He asked that the best thanks of the re-cipients should be passed on to the Gorae Friendship Club for their very welcome parcels. Murray was then in Palestine, after being in the A.G. Hospital. A similar letter is acknowledged in the "Albion" from two Coleraine boys, now in Palestine, who also enlarged on- the wonderful Christmas parcels provided for them in hospital. Driver, Les Hutchins, in his letter mentions that they had a very wet Christmas, about five days of continual rain, and "wherever you looked there was a sea of mud and water," .said he, "but nevertheless, the sisters succeeded in putting on a very satisfactory dinner for us. No doubt the sisters here are wonderful, the way they look after us. We had turkey and vegetables, plum pudding and sauce, sweets, fruit, dates, and nuts, also a bottle of ale per man. We also. had a man-sized Father Christmas, complete in red robes andtwhite whiskers, who handed us all a Red Cross parcel. We also had the wards decorated with streams, telloons, etc., so you see we had a reasonably good time."