COU-07

Dear Mr Coulson,

Thank you for all your very interesting letters, including the one of the 6^th inst., ⁸⁰ received yesterday.
I presume all the men going to the front will be inoculated against enteric. I hope you will come through your vaccination all right. You should be careful about your heel. I don't know what kind of socks you wear, but I should advise you to soap them well, especially at the heel, and even to soap the heel of the boot. I know when I did some walking tours many years ago, that was what my friend and I used to do - soap the soles of our stockings, and our feet were the better able to bear our long marches.

I presume you have heard that Mr Simpson⁸¹ has got a temporary commission as second lieutenant in the 2^nd Battalion of the Tyneside Scottish, and is just now acting as orderly officer at Tilley's Rooms, New Market Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He informs me that he is in charge of 300 men who are coming in daily in fresh numbers, and he has got to look after their comfort, issue supplies, make out pay-sheets, appoint non-coms, guards, policemen, fatigue squads etc., interview members of Committee, in fact he is performing the duties of half-a-dozen ranks, including adjutant, in addition to drilling and route marching. It is a long day's work, 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., and often later, but he appears quite happy over it all. He says there are very few Scotsmen there, the majority being miners with quite a number of better-class men and all as keen as possible to learn. He expects to go into camp at Alnwick in four or five weeks' time.

You are both evidently fully employed with plenty of work, and I trust you will be able to stand it comfortably.

Your map work will be very useful to you.

Regarding the Falls, I don't know whether you have any correspondence from there, I suppose you have, but Courtney is now underway altering the counter, and I was up there last week giving some directions about the patent doors. Moore⁸² has got the cards on the classification shelves and things are progressing. It is now especially when these things are going on that you are missed there. However, you have very important work on hands, and the whole United Kingdom is aroused to its very heart, and about a million and a half of its sons are drilling night and day, and every man you meet in the streets is in khaki uniform. The nation is with our soldiers and sailors at the front as well as those training in camp.

With kind regards,
I am,
Yours sincerely,