Trp Walter Boys (Seville), 8th Light Horse Regiment: Is evacuated to hospital in Kantara, Egypt suffering from Rheumatism. They must have looked after him well here because he later called his property in Girgarre ‘Kantara’.
Trp Bert Hutchinson (Lilydale), 4th Light Horse Regiment: In camp in Palestine. In a letter to his future wife, Jessie Mackenzie of Yalca, Vic – ‘The mate I lost was killed in action and his brother is leaving for home in the next boat. Wish I was with him. Another one of my mates lost his life during the recent operations. He was the third in the family to be killed in action. Some families do more than their share of fighting. The boys in France are kept busy and it is an anxious time for those at home. We do not take any more risk than we can help. I wish the war was over and that we were all home again but it does not look like an early peace.
Pigs run wild in the Jordan Valley. I have not seen any myself but a couple of pigs advanced on an outpost and were mistaken for Turks at first. The outpost did not capture any of the pigs. Snakes, scorpions and other pests are very common in the Valley but we do not trouble them. The weather is rather too warm for comfort but we must expect hot weather for another month.
Did I mention that all along the road to Jerusalem and on to Jericho that working parties are kept busy. These parties are employed keeping the road in order. The majority of these parties are girls and they work hard and appear very happy. When we were at Jaffa we were very anxious to get on a little further but I’ve seen all the places I was anxious to visit. We like to be on the move (I don’t mean fighting) as it gets monotonous if we stay long in any camp. I wonder if we will suffer from this roving spirit when we get home. Its time I was home again’.