Moore Barracks Hospital,
England, October 9th, 1916.
Dear Dad,
I was unfortunate enough to-day to have my pen stolen from my tunic pocket, on the ward so am reduced to steel pens. It had my mono in white on the end too, but there is no chance of getting it again. My other pen has not arrived from Montreal yet, I am writing Watermans about it to-night, and will buy another (No. 12) in the meantime.
We are working very hard, and will likely have to work harder, as those belonging to the 8th Stationary, will have this hospital this week, and red cross men are very short here now.
The way things are looking here, there is quite a possibility that we may be taken over to Eastern Europe, and will have to leave here very soon, if we are going. We will not know where we are going, but I will cable that we are leaving, if anything comes, of it. Will also write before I leave if possible, and during the voyage. Possibly we will have before you get this letter, and if so, as soon as you get this, start sending me packages of food, every two weeks, and such stuff as will not spoil in at least six weeks, as the food supply may not be the best. If the cable comes after this letter, do the same thing. As we will probably be moving soon any way, I will cable likely to what part of England we are moving. Of course, remember that I know nothing definitely as yet, but it is understood that No 8, will go to Roumania. They are greatly in need of hospitals there, and also here. We need a great many more men for this work from Canada. Returned soldiers who are not fit for the front, but in fair condition are being used for hospital work here. We have over a hundred here.
The time certainly goes quickly when you are busy. A week seems like nothing here, and we surely do some work in a week.
It will surely be funny to have empty stores there. Hope they are soon filled, altho it is hardly likely they will be before the end of the war. Some change in the Ford agency too. I thought Fred Mabee would continue that. Warner will be in as bad a fix as ever if the boys leave his garage again. I don’t think they will tho, Warner’s cars are better goods to work on, and they should be able to get more money out of them.
We see a pretty good line of surgery here. The patients we get in, are either from the units camped around here, or Canadian casualties who have been thought better, but their wounds begin giving them trouble again. I don’t think we ever get any wounded, right after they come from France. Many of our patients have year old wounds, and we do the best that can be done for them, which often is not very much, I am sorry to say. Lately we have had a great run on appendicitis and hernia cases, and we sure have enough of them.
Rumor has it, and I think it is right this time, that we are going inside to live to-morrow. Some are going into wards, they have cleared out for us. I hope we get into a ward. Under any circumstances we will likely have a kind of mattress, possible even a cot, which will be fine.
Your affectionate son,
Worth.
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