George William Thomson - Papers

Letter from Thomson, Ismailia, to Mary, dated 7 January 1916, concerning Gallipoli. (8 leaves)

The text reads as follows:

"Dear Mary,

Once again I have a chance of writing you a few lines. No doubt you have heard long before this about our evacuating Anzac & Suvla. We left the Peninsula on the 14th Dec. & believe me we were awfully glad to see the last of the place, although we were sore at heart to think of all our dear friends who are lying there. I went round & tidied the dear old Colonel's grave the afternoon before we left but I was pleased to get away from the place with a whole skin. The Turks started shelling the place just after I arrived there & it was awful. I began to wonder if I was going to be unlucky enough to stop one at the eleventh hour but thank goodness I am here safe & sound & with a whole skin. We have all had dozens of narrow escapes & I hate to think of what might have happened dozens of times. At times a chap felt more like

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saying his prayers than working but still the game went on. I must confess though that the Turk is indeed a clean fighter. We heard all sorts of dreadful things about them at the first; but having been there for 5 months I must confess that they played the game. On one occasion though, just 3 weeks before we left, they shelled the 16th Casualty Clearing Station out. It was a dreadful sight, Mary. The Hospital was full of sick & wounded at the time. Lots of the men had frozen feet (we had had a fall of snow a few days previous). The Turks gave us 48 hours' notice to move the hospital because they intended to shell an Army Service Store in that vicinity but we like fools (pardon) took no notice of the threat & the consequence was that they carried it out. We were all scared to death, when we heard the first shells coming & absolutely terrified when they burst. They were the biggest shells the Turks had ever put over & the burst sounded like an awful ripping of the air -- it was too awful for words. They

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'put over' 70-odd shells inside an hour & a half, & by the time they had finished the whole of the station was blown to pieces. In one tent alone 9 poor men, who were waiting to be evacuated to the hospital ship, were blown to pieces & 12 wounded & there were over 40 tents in the hospital so you can guess how we fared. Nobody knows how many men we lost that Sunday. They lost trace of some of them altogether. They were blown to pieces. A man's leg & foot landed just outside our tent & there were pieces of man everywhere. I hope you don't mind this class of talk. We are all used to it now-a-days it's a case of the survival of the luckiest ones there. We were expecting our Dental Hospital to be blown to pieces any minute; but no, they thought better of it so we returned to business, with badly shaken nerves & I'm not as honest to own it. Nobody could possibly stand it.

I will tell you a little about our evacuation now On Dec 13th we

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received orders to pack up all our essential gear as it was possible we would be moving. We got a bit of a surprise & of course wondered what the game was. Next day about 12 noon orders came for us to pack all our personal gear to be ready to move off at an hour's notice. The order also said that we were to make our packs as light as possible & we were only allowed to take one blanket each. It was jolly cold too at the time. At 7 o'clock another urgent order came through for us to meet the Field Ambulance at 9 o'clock at No. 2 post. (We did not know then even, that we were going off the peninsula, but we guessed all sorts of things). Punctually at 9 we joined the Ambulance & to our great surprise, there were thousands of other men there. It was a very impressive sight to see all these men lined up there in the moonlight & in full view of the Turkish trenches (in daylight) Strict orders were issued that nobody was to smoke or strike a light

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or in any way to create any disturbance -- it was part of our little scheme to keep quiet. The Turks trenches were only about 750 yards off at this point. We left No. 2 Post at 9.30 pm for the wharf at Walker's Ridge & did not arrive there until 3.30 next morning. It was dreadfully slow walking down the sap & we were all dog-tired when we reached the boats. You should have seen the pack I carried down it weighed fully a ton (?) by the time we reached the boat many a poor old back was nearly broken. I had a big kitbag strapped on my shoulders, a haversack full of stuff over each shoulder, a water bottle full of water, 48 hours food, blanket, waterproof sleeping bag, overcoat & last but not least a piece of lovely cake Mother had sent me. I had that tied to my belt in an iron ration bag. I could not let Johnny Turk get that. In my pack I had all my personal belongings so just imagine how relieved I was to get the lot off. Well we got on board our

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transport & off to Lemnos just before daybreak & disembarked about midday. On arrival we had to walk about 2 miles to our temporary camp. It was deadly but one good point was we could walk about without ducking & side-stepping from the bullets all the time. We slept in tents that night, for the first time for 5 months. 2 days after we arrived there the covering party came off the Peninsula it was a wonderful piece of work the way they got so many thousands of men off, without many casualties but we lost thousands of pounds worth of stuff. Stores of every description were stored on the beach (including the Dental goods) & the last party to leave put a match to it. It was an awful shame but it would have cost too many valuable lives to have attempted to save the stuff. Well on Xmas eve (6am) we received orders to freshen up & to be ready in 1 hour to leave for a transport. We left

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Camp at 7 30 a.m. & got on board our transport about 12 noon. Our boat was a captured liner named originally 'Derfflingh' but since renamed 'Huntsgreen'. You will notice the new name begins with Hun. All the captured boats are renamed that way. Well we left Mudros that night for Alexandria & what a Xmas we had. Our food was awful, we had bully beef & biscuits for dinner, plus a very second class pudding (cooked in a hurry) not even a piece of bread, but everything went off very quietly & we arrived at Alexandria on Tuesday 27th Dec. There I was lucky to meet Billy Willsteed [possibly 8/2371 William Bennett Willsteed], he is quite well again I'm please to stay & looks bigger & brighter than ever. We caught the train that night for here & it is a deadly place. I thought we had done with the sand for good but as far as we can see we are here for a long time this trip. I went down to Cairo on New Year's Day to see about

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more stores & as far as I know we will be starting business here in a few days. Things are just the same in Cairo still [?] old boot-blacks & still the same old bustle. I had three very enjoyable days there & was sorry to come back to the camp. Well Mary, before I go any further I must congratulate you upon your new position. I was not surprised when you told me you had left the Dr & sincerely trust that your new position suits you, wherever you may be. Are you at the exchange yet? Also I must thank you very much indeed for the 2 parcels you all sent me from the rooms, it is awfully kind of you & I did enjoy the contents immensely. It was a very welcome change having luxuries, after army fare. Well I'm afraid I must conclude now as I want to write a letter to England. Kindest regards to Tom & Mrs Turner & Yourself of course from

George"