Pte WN Collins No3904
C Company
3/4 Seaforth Highlanders
Fort George Scotland
8th June 1915
Dear Father and Mother
I have found time at last to write you a letter. I am now in Fort George, an old condemned fortress. I stayed with the Cameron Highlanders on Sat. night and Sunday. On Sunday night I went to Dingwall about 40 miles north. I got my uniform there and was billeted at a Sergeant’s house with 8 Leeds and Sheffield chaps. We had a fine time. The kit is much better than that of the regulars. We are given
Glengarry hats
Tunic
Trousers
Puttees
2 pairs of thick socks
Pair tan boots
Overcoat (a beauty)
2 pair thick linings
2 shirts
2 towels
Wool helmet
Highland stockings
Red fancy garters
Cardigan wool jacket
Tommy tin and case etc
We are expecting the kilt etc within a few weeks. Up here they are all kilted regiments. I had to pass two doctors up here. Last night we were sleeping on iron bedsteads with two blankets. It is rough but I am enjoying it. We have just got our mattresses or “biscuits” as we call them. When I slept with the Camerons I had a fine time. A mattress and 4 thick blankets. Nearly all the Camerons were wounded at Neuve Chapelle. There are about 1,000 wounded in Inverness. The daily routine of the Seaforths is 6am the pipers wake you up playing “music”. Fight your way to the wash basins, wash yourself and keep an eye on your soap (we buy our own).
7 am 1st parade drill and run until 8.
Breakfast.
9.15 2nd parade until
12.30 Dinner
2.0 Route march or drill until 4pm
Teas and swim
9.30 in billet
10.00pm pipers play ‘lights out’.
Wednesday 7.30 continued.
This morning we go on a route march about 16-20 miles so will not be back until tea: set off at 9.30am. The food is fine, but we are on half rations. Breakfast 3 or 4 kippers or plate ham, tea. Half a loaf of bread to last a day, butter.
Dinner. Meat, potatoes and bread.
Tea. Tinned salmon, jam, cheese, bread, butter, tea.
Will you please send me my pillow and that leather belt with the split ring on. They are both at Hesleden. 2.30pm Just returned from route march. Feel very fit but feet blistered, so please send some boracic powder and a pot of Vaseline for face as the sun will peel it. I haven’t received any money yet. The commissioned officers are fine but we have some awful sergeants from India.
Evening 8 June 1915
Will you send the things in a tin box so that I can keep my soap and shaving outfit in it etc. 50% of this battalion are Irish. They are big thieves. A quarter are English and the rest Scots. I feel as fit as a top. Marching thro’ fine woods etc. We get 1 shilling a day but will have to have 6d of that for food as we have to buy supper, 4d and anything we want to drink after dinner. We are not allowed out of the fortress except with the regiment so we can buy nothing as the nearest village, about three miles away, is out of bounds and if we were caught there it would mean a week’s pay stopped. Here are a lot of things I need.
1 padlock
1 boot brush and polish
Vaseline
Boracic powder
Needle and cotton
Black wool
Piece of looking glass
Polish for buttons.
I believe I returned some gloves, if so please send them. I don’t suppose I will get any leave for 3 months and then it will just be a weekend so I will not be able to get home. It is a proper regiment and doesn’t play at soldiers and will make a man of me.
Well ‘Ta Ta! the noo’ as the natives say here. I will write every week. The regulars here who have been to the front from the beginning think it will all be over in 3 months.
Your loving son
Norman
9th June 1915
Dear Bolton
How are you blowing?The country up here is lovely…..I have been on a route march today for about 12 miles. We have a fine band, 4 pipers and drummers etc. The bagpipes have a wonderful effect when you feel tired. The fortress itself is an awful hole. I hope we get moved soon. The only shop we can go to is the barbers.
Can you send me notepaper and postcards as I haven’t much money to buy them and a ‘London Opinion’ or two. I haven’t seen a paper this week also please send my pipe as I am not going to buy cigarettes.
The officers here are gentlemen. I am billeted with some Leeds chaps, decent chaps. Inverness is a fine town. I think I will go there when I get a couple of day’s leave. It is rumoured that we are going to England to train…
Ta Ta! More drill tomorrow
Best Love Norman.
Friday 8.30 YMCA Tent, Camerons Camp. 11.6.15 (Postcard)
Dear Bolton
How goes it? I am in full war rig. Tartan kilt, red and white stockings etc. I think I will get permission from the C.O to go to the village and have my photo taken. We are not allowed to go more than 1 mile from the fort, and we are miles from anywhere. I have put 30 hours drill in up to now. Fit as a top. Please write soon.
We have heard there has been an air raid in Hull. Please send me a paper.
Nairn is 10 miles from here. Scenery lovely.
June 12th. Sat. 3.30pm
Dear Father and Mother
I have just received your letter. It was very welcome. I will just give you my weeks ‘work’, then you will have an idea what life in the army is like.
Arrived in Inverness 9.0pm. Saturday and was taken to the barracks by a wounded Cameron. The sergeant gave me a bed and I slept with my trousers on. Most of the men in the room were recovering from wounds. Next morning a Leeds chap lent me soap and towel and I had a wash. For breakfast I had tea, ham, bread and butter. Then I spent an hr or so picking the blanket fluff off my trousers.
Then I walked along the banks of the Loch Ness and on to the Islands. There are about half-a-dozen small islands covered with trees and spanned by trellis-work bridges. On each side of the Loch the hills rise, covered with pine trees etc and lovely villas and cottages and snow on the summits. The sea birds are so tame that they will perch within a few feet of people. I wasn’t very hungry so I just had a glass of lemonade and a few biscuits for dinner and had a walk round. I then got a train for Dingwall. Next morning I [enlisted and] was given my uniform all but the kilt. (We are supplied with trousers or ‘trews’ as they are called). I saw the army tailors making kilts. A full kilt had 16 yards of tartan in it at 6 shillings per yard. The kilts now have only about 9 yards in them. The tartan is blue, green, red and white, with a sporran of black and white horse hair. Red and white stockings and khaki spats. On Monday afternoon I was playing football then we were marched down to the station carrying our kitbags weighing about 80lbs. Arrived Fort George about 7pm. We were too late for tea so we went down to the canteen (teetotal) and had potatoes and sausage 4d with a bottle of lemonade. We are sleeping in bomb-proof cells in the fort. I didn’t sleep much that night as we had no mattresses. Tuesday, the pipers played at 6am, parade at 7. For an hr we run around the ramparts to give us an appetite for breakfast. Every day a man is made ‘orderly’ for his room and has to bring in the breakfast, dinner and tea and wash up for the men in his room. He has also to sweep out the room.
Breakfast at 8, then polish your buttons. Parade at 9. We are taken outside the fort and drilled on the moor with about 1000 men, until 12.30. Every day it has been blazing hot.
Dinner at 1pm. Parade again at 2pm. Drill or swim until 4pm then finish for the day. It is very monotonous at night as we are not allowed near the village. On Wednesday we went for a route march into the country for about 15 miles. Today we have just been for another one and we marched back thro’ the nearest village of Ardersier. What a relief it was to see a civilian again, f
or I have not seen one since coming to the Fort. Every night the pipers play ‘lights out’ at 10pm. What an easy time the ‘English’ regiments have. Going to theatres etc. I prefer being here tho’, the air is so healthy. My face is beginning to peel with the sun, and I have never felt so well before. The food isn’t bad but some days we do not get sufficient while today we had too much and had to waste a lot. One thing I miss badly is fruit. We never see it as there are no shops to buy it. I could do with a tin of fruit salts every week, to make up for it. Every day is much alike. The officers are very nice. Our commanding officer has risen from the ranks and his nephew is my Corporal. He lends me his kilt to go swanking up to the Y.M.C.A tent in the Cameron Highlander’s camp. There is great rivalry between the two clans. There are only 3 of us in our room who can claim any Scotch relations and only one next door out of 30 men. The others are Leeds. Their awful Yorkshire ‘twang’ gets on my nerves. They go ‘in’t’ or ‘tit’ or always do a thing ‘right’ well. I will write twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday. I was drilling 20 men the other day. I have just been up to the Quarter-Master’s room getting an enamelled plate and mug and he gave me two new bath towels. You might send me 2 or 3 sweat rags for washing up. Also some of that tape with my initials on. I think you get it at any drapers. We were paid yesterday. I got 4 shillings. I will need to buy stamps, boot polish, brass polish and supper out of this for the week so I will not be able to send any home this week. Supper is 6d (2 slices bread ld, potatoes and sausage 4d, lemonade ld).
After his first promotion; Norman as an 18 year-old lance corporal.
It is surprising how warm the kilt is. It is a little strange at first having no trousers on, but the kilt is far more comfortable. Our 2/4ths are sleeping on the ground without tents. At the front the men have no blankets, only waterproof sheets. It is very strange that we can see snow while we are roasting in the sun. Church parade tomorrow. I am going to the Presbyterian church. A mouth organ would be very useful. I have received 2 parcels of papers and 2 letters.
If I had not been perfectly fit I would never have got into this regiment as the [medical] examination is very strict. Two chaps in our room were passed in Ireland and rejected here. I passed the eyesight not very well without glasses. After 2 months I think we are given a free pass for 7 days. In about a month’s time I am going to try and get two days’ leave and go to Inverness with my corporal.
I would like to come and see you but of course it is too far. I will not touch alcoholic drinks at all.
Well ‘Ta-Ta the noo
Your loving son Norman
Sunday 7.0pm
20th June/15
Dear Father, Mother, and Bolton
I hope you are all keeping well. Are any of my letters and cards reaching home? The last word I received from Hesleden was 9 days ago, a week gone Sat. I have been here a fortnight and so far have got one letter from Bolton and one from Father.
A middle-aged recruit undergoes a medical examination. Early on in the war the army could afford to be selective until the number of willing volunteers began to dry up. IWM Q30062
Thank you very much for the Daily Mails, London Opinion etc. On Saturday I sent off a Seaforth sporran and a cap. They are my own and you may keep them, also the towel. The cap requires a good wash and new ribbon. If it is of no use burn it and keep the badge. Please let me know by letter if you receive them, not on an open card. I got them from a chap going to France in another battalion of Seaforths. Altogether I have four towels like that one. This week we were supplied with a razor, brush, toothbrush, comb in a hold-all; some canvas shoes. All our dirty clothing etc is washed for 3d a week. My shoes cost 4 shillings to mend. Every day we get more than we can eat. Every Sunday we have tinned fruit. Please send my bank-book off and let me know. If you take the number off it, it can’t go astray. I have been on 7 route marches, a total distance of over 100 miles. The big chaps always knock up first. They often faint with the sun. It is laughable to see some chaps hopping along, I saw one chap crawling on his hands and knees. I have never felt fitter and my feet are quite hard. My face has nearly completely peeled. The skin comes off in chunks. Fred Chiverton sent me a lot of books yesterday. Every week we scrub the room out and it is closely inspected by the Colonel. What I don’t know about washing floors, greasy pots etc isn’t worth knowing. We are not allowed to sit down to meals except in full dress. Can you send me anything that will take stains off cloth (grease stains). Our rifles make a mess of our shoulder straps…
On Sundays I attend drum-head service with the Presbyterians. All the Englishmen here are Church of England or Roman Catholics. We are not allowed out of the Fort until 5pm and then limited to a mile. Of course we are training all day on the moors and do not feel like doing much walking afterwards. One day is very much like another. We have a boy of sixteen in our room and an old soldier of fifty-five. I don’t know how they got in. The ‘General’ as we call him is a useful old chap and has served about 20 years in the army. He looks after the hot baths and for a ‘pint’ he will have the water boiling and the bath scrubbed out. Every night he has from 8 to 10 pints of beer yet he is never in the least drunk.
It is a great mistake to think that the Highlanders are tall men. As a rule they are about 5 foot 6 or 7 inches, average height and stockily built. Not one in 100 are 6 feet high in all regiments I’ve seen.
If you will write once a week it will be very welcome. I got the Daily Mail tonight that was posted on the 19th. Fred Chiverton tells me that 50 people were killed by Zeppelins in Newcastle.
Well there is no more news except that it will be a long time before I get tired of this life. I am looking forward to drill etc tomorrow.
Will you send me 2 or 3 tins of Cold Cream as if the blisters on my face burst they will leave marks. Some chaps’ faces are full of small holes with blisters. Ta Ta!
With best love Norman
I haven’t come across a mean Scotchman yet. The Yorkshire men are very mean.
I was pulled up the other night for having one hand in my trouser pocket!
July 1 1915 Thursday 8.30
Dear Bolton
Recruits practise a bayonet charge. IWM Q53752
Just received your letter. Thank you very much. I don’t know whether I will be promoted any more. You see I am so little and young compared with some of these chaps. Tho’ my squad is the best drilled in the company we are never singled out to be the ‘awkward squad’. If a squad blunders it is sent to ‘form fours’ and right turn etc for 2 or 3 hours and is called the ‘A.S.’ I am getting quite a ‘voice’. ‘Double up! Double up! Left right! Left right!’ etc. My throat is very sore to night with shouting. I have [n’t] fired on the range yet, but have used blanks to learn rapid loading and firing and I am now on with bayonet fighting. There is a lot of work about a service rifle, it holds from 6-11 cartridges and is very heavy. At first I could hardly lift one with one hand. We learn sighting and rifle drill. I am also getting lessons in bayonet work. It is great, tho’ very tiring. Right guard, lunge etc. We learn to fight men on horseback. It is surprising but the man with the bayonet can nearly always get his man. It is a very deadly weapon…
Thank you for the papers. I have been very seedy up to today, never had so much pain in my life thro’ these terrible germs the doctor injected into me. Inoculation costs [the army] about 10 guineas tho’ and prevents fever. Well ta ta old cock for the present. Walking in a kilt at first is just like going to the office with nothing but your boots, shirt and jacket on and a belt round the middle. After a route march we are covered with dust from the waist downwards, as we sweat and the dust clings.
Rather draughty as well.
Best love Norman.
Undated
Thursday 3.30pm
Dear all
A column of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders wends its way through the Scottish countryside. Frequent and exhausting route marches quickly made recruits extremely fit.
Just received your welcome parcel. Every
thing in it is good. It has come very quickly you will notice. I don’t suppose you would have received my letter until this morning. I have just come off coal parade. We N.C.O.s have an easy time on Thursday afternoon, just looking after the privates carrying coal.
We have some very inexperienced officers. I could teach a lot of them how to drill. We have one who is 6 foot 6 inches high and as thin as a lath. His legs are no thicker than my arm and he does look funny in the kilt. He knows nothing about drill. A lot of chaps here have applied for a commission and some can hardly spell their own names and are very uneducated. I might have a try myself as I think I would have a very good chance if I could get some one to speak for me. This morning it was raining heavily and we did not go on parade until 10 o’clock, so I had the room scrubbed out and the tables and forms scrubbed. They are nice and white now. I have just enjoyed a banana. Up here the fruit is very dear. A cart comes near the Fort once a week with oranges etc. An orange is 2d and bananas 2d each! Here lemonade is 2d a bottle. A loaf of bread is 4d in all the villages. I think this is on account of the cost [of] railway freights so far north. Yesterday we were on a route march with full kit. Valise, haversack, trenching tool, bayonet sheath, water bottle ammunition pouches etc. We look something like this:
6.0pm I have just had a swim and then my tea. The boracic powder is fine for keeping the feet dry on the march.
Yesterday about 3000 ‘kilties’ marched to Perth. They will take about 4 days to get there. A 4/4th Seaforths has been commenced at Dingwall so we are expecting to move soon. I hope so as it is rather monotonous here. There is no more news at present. I am in the best of health and hope you all are.
With best love Norman.
July 1st 1915 Thursday 7.30
Last Man Standing Page 4
