That They Might Lovely Be by David Matthews

Author:David Matthews [Matthews, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-624-7
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2017-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

Friday, 30 October 1914

Malton Park

Dear Anstace

I am writing from Malton Park. It is a sprawling encampment of long wooden huts and rows of sand-coloured canvas tents. I am in one of the former with about twenty other men of all shapes and sizes. I thought camping out in a tent might have been preferable but already there are complaints about the mud and backache from the camp-bedders so I have probably drawn the long-straw.

It is as well that I had not set my sights on becoming an officer. They have a list, you know, of those schools which are of sufficient stature to begat officers and my grammar school, ancient establishment though it is, is not on it. It is the absence of an Officer Training Corps apparently. The army has been pouring resources into the public schools, it seems, for years for just this eventuality. It was an investment which did not stretch quite far enough to embrace grammar-school boys like me. To an extent, it is reassuring that they are giving commissions to men who have played at soldiering throughout their school-days but, I have to say, at Cambridge there were dozens of chaps from the ‘better schools’ who would not be able to command a queue for the omnibus let alone a company of soldiers. I have decided to keep Cambridge to myself. I don’t want to risk stirring up any unnecessary social preconceptions by letting on that a university man is in with the ranks.

Actually, it is quite easy to put one’s past completely behind one. There are enough novel experiences to talk about when ‘off duty’ to allow the men here to keep their former life private if they want to. I think many, like me, are choosing to be guarded about the lives they have left behind. It might change as we get to know each other better but, to my mind, running ‘what once was’ alongside ‘what now is’ would be very difficult. The contrast would be acute. This regimented (literally), communal life is so very alien. Everything I valued is missing and I have not yet learned to enjoy what I have chosen instead. I expect this is the same for most of the men.

In contrast, I think that many of the officers, particularly those newly commissioned, have slipped easily into army life. Most of them would have boarded at school, and would be far more ‘at home’ with dormitory living than the men I am now living alongside. Many of us have never had to sleep a few feet from another man, in a room full of other snorers and dreamers. However, I doubt that a suggestion that we swap accommodation with the officers would go down very well!

Most of our time at present is spent in getting fit. I expect we are a most peculiar sight when at exercise. There might be eighty or so of us in one particular unit all performing the bends, jumps, squats and stretches which the officer takes us through.

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