263740 Lt. George Heriot Pitt British Army Royal Garrison Artillery from:Marylebone, London On 19th of February 1917, George Pitt wrote to his family;
9.2.17 No. 2 R.G.A.Cadet School
Marefield Park
Uckfield. My dear Mother,
I am glad to say everything has improved vastly and will improve even more. At first the prospect was dreary and the outlook grey, but, as I said before, things improve. They have opened another dining hut so that the meals are greatly improved, the menu is rather monotonous and not costly, but it might be worse, - so I am told. Today we started our drill and Duty. I have been put in E squad, with about 15 other new arrivals; there are 6 squads and you move up one every fortnight, so you see my term of imprisonment will at any rate be a fortnight less than it might have been. We get up at 6 am and have to be in bed and lights out by 10.15 pm. They give us about 6 – 7 hours work per day, and the work varies according to what squad you are in. To-day we did chiefly the principles of Infantry work to start with, and the maths master, [an awful old dry-out] took about an hour to tell us what an angle was.
The country round here may be very lovely, - everyone says it is one of England’s beauty spots, in the summer – but I have at present not had a look at it, and as yet I don’t know much about Maresfield or Uckfield, except that they are not very large, and that you cannot get very much that you might want. So if I may I will ad two or three things that I should like. Firstly a metal soap box, in which to put the soap as you have to carry it down to the wash house and it gets dreadfully sodden. Secondly a small but hard clothes brush: the mud here is bad and it seems quite fond of raining. We are all gradually settling down, and the only thing that rather puts a fly in the ointment, is the fact that we don’t get any leave, but I am told that at the end of the course you get anything from 10 days – 3 weeks leave. Stop. a third request – tooth powder in the tube form, it carries so much easier and it won’t upset.
The different types of men down here are awfully funny, some stock-exchange men, others bombed out of the Admiralty and places, and some who stump me completely, they are in a large majority. They speak with the most extraordinary accent, [out of kindness, I call it north country] and they can’t speak without using the most inappropriate adjectives – on the whole they are not bad, and nothing if not cheerful. One thing which is very remarkable is the amount of smoking, nearly all start before they get up in the morning and don’t stop until lights out at night. So far I have been very good. I have hardly smoked, it is the only way to keep out of it. There is however little chance of drinking as all you get at lunch is water or stuff that has the cheek to call itself lemonade, and the Y.M.C.A. hut only sells tea and coffee, the most poisonous stuff, - no, I can’t speak evil of the Y.M.C.A. – again, this hut is an absolute God-send to this place, cinema pictures, hot stove, and Sunday Service all free, for nothing.
Please thank Dad for his letter, somebody else by the name of Pitt has been good enough to open it for me, and he had not even removed the stamps. If I am not going to get uniform for another 10 days perhaps it would be as well if I had the old flannel trousers and sport coat to wallow with in the mud in, instead of these browns.
Much love to all from
Your loving son
George.
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