COU-06

Ship Street Barracks
Dublin
6^th Nov. 1914

Dear Mr Elliott,

I have written so many letters recently that have forgotten exactly when I wrote to you last, but as my slack time is now nearly ended I want to get as many letters away as possible. On Wednesday morning I had my second dose of inoculation against enteric.

I think I had told you how very bad my first dose was but this time it did not cause me any inconvenience at all. Most of the men in my platoon, however, were completely bowled over & all parades with them had to be cancelled for two days. Hence my rest. By tomorrow however, they will all have recovered & our work will commence again in real earnest.

I will not be able to attend any marches because the last long march I did gave me a badly rubbed heel (I was wearing new boots) & the socks stick to it. I had to see the Medical Officer & he forbade me to wear a boot this week at least. I am not sorry to miss marches just now because the streets are incredibly dirty. We come home muddied up to our belts, back and front.

Although I have had no parades to attend these last few days I have, still, been busy. We have a considerable amount of book learning to acquire & lectures both to hear & give. At present I am very busy learning the use of the prismatic compass & map drawing & reading. This is one of our most important duties, because every officer in the field as soon as he takes up a position draws a map of his surroundings, takes the ranges of all the important features in sight & marks them on his map. Then all our lectures to our platoons have to be prepared, because very often they are on work which we know nothing about.

My extra work as a captain is now ended. It was very interesting, very valuable experience but too heavy a responsibility for one of my experience, especially as I had to carry on my duties as a platoon commander at the same time. I am very glad, however, it is over. I am quite willing to sacrifice the pay for the freedom.

On Tuesday I went with the battalion to a Requiem Mass for one of our officers killed in action. Archbishop Walsh was there & several other notabilities. We all came away rather saddened by the thought that there may be another similar service which we will not attend. However, soldiers are all optimists & this feeling soon passed away.

Now I must close as it is getting so late. Late with us means 9 o'clock, after that time we find it very hard to keep awake.

Please remember me to Mrs Elliott & your family & the staff. I hope Goldsbrough is well. I must write to him as soon as I can.

With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
T Coulson
Lieut. RIR