OSE WWI Transcriptions from the Archives

19: H. S. Jeffries – [Ascension Island] – Undated Dear Mr Sing,

I was immensely pleased to get a letter from you the other day sending us all manner of good wishes and congratulations on hearing of our little daughter. It was indeed very good of you, and it is a great pleasure to think that you were so interested. The babe is a lovely creature and has brought a heap of new interests into our lives : I had no idea how very engrossing a baby so young could be, but speech by no means is a gauge of intelligence – in fact it is frequently a disguise – and I think there is not the slightest doubt that this youngster has quite a number of ideas for the she appears to seize upon all manner of small points that she was not supposed to have noticed, and later used them to her advantage in a disconcerting kind of way. I feel I owe you an apology especially after your very kind letter now, for not having written to you before but at the same time life moved so fast before I [The top of the page is missing, possibly torn by censors]. At the outbreak of the war I rushed enthusiastically to Scotland and built a hospital there – that is to say I enlisted as unqualified Doctor and was sent to the R.N. Hospital Rosyth which, however, was non-existent at that time; by our united efforts we made quite a respectable asylum for the sick of H.M. fleet at sea and were immediately dispensed with so that we would qualify as doctors and rejoin at an increased value. After a purple 9 months I pulled off, so to speak, the degree L.M.S.S.A. [License in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries] which is the Diploma of the Apothecaries Hall and entered the Navy as “Surgeon R.N.” [Royal Navy] (!) a couple of days later. I remained at the London Hospital – according to the routine line they adopted with all newly-qualifieds – until the end of 1915. At the beginning of 1916 I went to Haslar Hospital, and it was then that it struck me that I ought to get married. True, I had only got my prospects for my capital, and no job – being only temporarily in the Navy, but I was on the verge of any adventure on land or sea and at any rate there was scarcely any chance of seeing my betrothed for at least a year. Well, since the outlook was separation, we agreed that it would be more palatable to be fixed in a definite relationship – so that Jess could say if I perished “He belonged to me”, and do so on, it is a longish story. We left just enough time to call out the Banns, then I got 4 days leave and we married at Trantham (my wife’s old home) and spent the rest of my leave in London. After that we went down together to live in digs handy by Haslar in the village of Alverstoke until I should be appointed to a ship. We arrived on a Sunday; my appointment came down the next Saturday and we left on Monday and sailed together for this remarkable island on the following Saturday. Just imagine the change that had come about in that small fortnight; to my mind it is one of the most wonderful stories I have yet heard of in this war. To begin with it was the merest toss up whether I went into the R.A.M.C. [Royal Army Medical Corps] or Navy and it just happened to be the time when so many men were giving up their commissions after a years’ service because they were tired of having nothing to do, and I was of course fearfully keen on the Navy; tho’ 2 or 3 months later I should not have hesitated to join the Army because they were calling for men so badly, so that many who had fallen out rejoined. Then secondly, we might very easily not have married, in which case this billet would have been a very different life. Thirdly this appointment must stand alone I should think, tho’ the fact that we could live together anywhere would have seemed wonderful enough, but here from so many points of view we have reason to be most profoundly thankful. Everything seems to have been worked together to bring about this result, and this too at a time when so many lives are being apparently spoiled and horridly mangled. I have felt at times that it is hardly right for me to be here not only safe but happy, but one can only do what one is told, and a man can no more choose a good billet than a bad one. All of which is a longish story, and I can only hope that it is legible enough for you to read without much difficulty. Now I must tell you something of our home and life; I scarcely dare say more of the family without wearing a species of handcuff worked on a time-fuse to safe-guard you from the new-born father!

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