Henry Thomas Norton - Letters

Contains photocopied material. Letter (photocopy) from Harry Norton, B Company, 7th Reinforcements, Trentham Military Camp, New Zealand, to his wife, dated 15 June 1915. (4 leaves plus envelope)

The following extracts have been taken from pages 1 to 3:

"My Dearest,

We have had a splendid day and I have charge of our tent of 8 men. Each tent has to have a leader and his duties are various and many. We had a little meeting last night and I was unanimously elected to the position this morning and the boys call me 'King' and every one of them refer to me for things, from stamps to Nugget. I tell you I have a lot to think about and am doing my best to look after them and they are a good lot. I have to see that they turn out to parade in time and are neat & orderly. I have to see that they all shave. To tell off 3 men to go for the meals and wash the dishes to see that the tent is left clean & tidy, and I am responsible for the behaviour of the tent. I have to report to our Lieutenant 3 times a day, and he asks me if I have any complaints to make & how the men all are. I will have this duty for good now and although it entails a good deal of careful thought to study each man, yet it is the first step up to promotion and I seem to have got it very rapidly.

[Page 2]

We have had all day to fix our tent and tomorrow we start drill in real earnest. We have to rise up at 6 and have coffee & parade at 20 to seven. My first duty is to light the candle & get the boys all up & see that they make their beds. It was very cold out here last night but I slept quite warm and we get plenty of good food. Can you imagine me having butter 1/2 inch thick? We have so much that we have it on as thick as the bread, and tonight we had a real nice joint of beef for tea & plenty of baked potatoes & cover them with butter. The tea & coffee is not so bad but it is only luke-warm. Every [thing?] is run by rule out here & works very smoothly and is so regular and I feel fine & fit. I do hope Dear, you are quite well & looking after yourself and don't work so hard, and I hope the children are good, and tell Leonard I hope he has taken my place as I trust him to look after you and tell Jean I feel sure she is doing all she can for you

[Page 3]

& Dear look after yourself for my sake, don't worry about me. We have a busy day but not at all hard, and I am amazed at the consideration shown to the men, in fact after the Volunteering experience I had we are coddled & pampered. We are extremely well looked after and I was having a talk with our Lieutenant and telling him how surprised I was as he said that every man was very valuable & he felt it his duty to do all he could for to make them happy & he is a most comical chap and will be very popular.

We have got a fine set of officers & can you imagine seeing one of them using a pick? he sent for 'that man' meaning me to come & see if I would arrange his tent, he had it full of Camp furniture, and I had 12 men on the job pretty quick and my luck was as usual I had to work for him 1/2 hour overtime to get done, but he thanked me and said he would ask for me again."