Basingstoke

Hants

Jan 1st 1919

My dear Sir!

I got your letter of Dec 5 this morning for which I thank you so much. I am pleased that Karl has got home safe & sound I might say that I am well & happy in so far as I can be on this side. I cannot tell as yet when I’ll be returning home. I trust that it won’t be long before that comes, because I have had enough of this nomad life.

I think your letters must have gone astray somehow, because I really had thought everybody had forgotten me. I was looking for my membership card for 1918. You see. I got my card in the trenches 1917 & I am keeping it as it is a souvenir to me. I tell you that card has opened home to me that would have been closed otherwise because of the name the Can Corps has got where ever it has been stationed. But then boys will be boys & I will never be too hard on them. The life that they live & the uncertainty of it all was enough to make them wild & irresponsible. Yes! I agree with you that Mrs Bonds has got a great charge & lots of women would have shrunk from it But she’s splendid & great although she is little. Please give my kindest regards to Mrs Irwin Karl & the rest of the boys & pray that God will bless you in your work for Him. So wishing you a happy & prosperous New Year. I will close. Kind regard Spr Bonds.