We go out tonight. Done good work this tour, and lucky in the weather, only one wet day. 14 out of the 22 with 2^nd R.I.R. [Royal Irish Rifles] have, I hear, arrived at the Transport. Dull, cloudy day, but warm. Quiet night and day so far. Glad to say my new hut at R.L. [Red Lodge] is now ready for occupation. One new officers’ hut also up. We ought to have a quiet relief tonight. Corpl. R. [Robinson] is going on well, but still in danger. Padre saw him yesterday for a minute. Wonderful man, Padre. He left here at 9.00 a.m., visited hospitals and various units, returned at 7:30, went off up the line at 10.45 p.m., and returned about 1.00 a.m.; started off at 8:30 this morning on his tour of 11 services. Have you read “A Student in Arms?” Much of it very good. Someone sent it to the mess. Relief night is so boresome, waiting about when everyone has gone, and nothing to read.

Footnote

‘A Student in Arms’ was the nom de plume of Second Lieutenant Donald William Alers Hankey, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, who wrote a series of essays that appeared in ‘The Spectator’. He was killed in action on 12 October 1916 during the Battle of Le Transloy; he has no known grave and is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial. A first volume of his essays was published in 1916 and a second volume was published posthumously in 1917.