A Soldier's Letter to his Mother, 1890
by Jim Statter
I knew I wouldn’t be a miner all my life.
When those four miners got killed it ended my days in the coal mine. It could have been me if cousin Tam hadn’t shoved me out of the way. Then him getting a lung full of gas. It finished him as a miner.
But it is a lot harder than I thought being a volunteer. A few of the men who enlisted with me have gone home. They found the discipline and route marches with heavy packs on their backs trekking over muddy fields too hard to take. You fall asleep as soon as you get back to barracks.
I’ve still not got my kilt as there has been a lot of recruits these past few weeks. I am in the next batch of ten to get them. I have tried one on and they’re warmer than you think.
Will you send me a sketch block, a pair of woollen socks and two flannel shirts. I have not done much soldiering this week as I have hurt my foot because my boots don’t fit and I have been put on guard duty, it gets cold at night.
The doctor who treated my foot made me scream with the knife he used to release the puss. I didn’t want to go into hospital as it is dirty, smelly and there are a lot of men dying there.
Four men tried to desert by going over the wall at the magazine down at the far end but they were caught and now in the guard room awaiting trial.
An old soldier of the regiment came to give a talk. His name is Mathew Desmond Murphy of the 93rd and he is the only one left of the Thin Red Line who fought the Russian Cavalry in the Crimean War.
I will write to you again dear mother your loving son...
