23rd Battalion,
Dibgate Camp, Shorncliffe.
June 29th, 1915.

Dearest Mother:

I shall not have time to write you more than a few lines, but there is a Canadian mail tomorrow morning and I just wanted to let you know as soon as possible that I have your letters. Mrs. Smith arrived on Saturday afternoon late and is staying about a mile from here on the seashore. The Major got leave for a week-end, returning last night with my "packet". I was wonderfully cheered to hear from you all again. It does seem to take such an unconsciously long time to get anything across the ocean nowadays. Such a big packet of letters! I spent most of the morning reading and re-reading them and almost imagined that I was with you all again.

This week we are having night operations every night. We leave the camp about 8.00, march for a couple of hours, and when it is dark take up a line of prepared trenches or dig ourselves in. Last night we took up trenches and were attacked by another company quite unexpectedly. We just happened to see one of their scouts crawling forward in the dark; crawled out and took him prisoner much to his surprise. We arrived back about 1.00 a.m. very tired. No drills this morning and musketry every afternoon at the Hythe ranges about three miles away. So you see we have very little time on our hands. I should have written at more length, but had some work to do this morning, but will have another try tomorrow for the next mail.

I am so glad that you liked our wedding present. I didn't realize that the date was so near, but Fernie seems to have done what I should have wished.

Yours with love to all,
Errol.