Letters From the Front
Dr. A.J. Fisher
Letter from England
New Liskeard Speaker Published:
Note: any spelling errors, etc. are as they appear in the original article.
Dated:
Letter from Capt. A.J. Fisher
Risboro Barracks, Shorncliffe,
Jan 13, 1916.
Dear McCullough:-
I just received your letter of Dec. 12th and, it is the first and only letter I received from Canada since I left. You may be sure I was pleased to get it. Mail is very slow in getting here. We get all the leading Canadian dailies at the officers’ Mess and they are usually three weeks late but now that the Christmas glut of mail is past we will probably get it more promptly.
I commenced duties here on the 22nd Dec. and certainly have been kept pretty busy. My first duty was inspection of soldiers’ quarters as to their comfort and sanitary conditions. There was at the time a considerable outbreak of meningitis, the most fruitful cause of which is over crowding. My recommendations of allowing each soldier 40 cubic feet of air space had been accepted. There has also been a great amount of influenza amongst the soldiers, weather conditions no doubt being the cause. The first month there were only about three days that it did not rain and these days were dark and foggy and almost constant high winds. The only reason we are not up to our eyes in mud is that there is so little to make mud of. Shorncliffe is beautifully situated on a high range of hills and the roads and paths are all solid stone and fine pebbles from the sea shore and the soil of a light sandy porous nature.
I was appointed Medical Officer to Napier Barracks which is made up of the Army Service Corps Casuality Section, light and heavy and horse transport, Engineers Artillery and Machine Gun Sections, in all 2600 men, so you may see my hands are pretty full. Besides looking after the sick men, have to examine recruits and all drafts going out every few days for overseas service and in addition am taking up the Course at the Training School and attending lectures from 3 to 5 every day.
The Barracks are about a mile and a half from the mess and sleeping quarters and a hill to climb about four times as high as the Hospital Hill and as steep as the roof of a house. I make the trip on foot twice a day as physical culture is part of the training. I am getting in pretty good shape, especially my leg muscles. Officers of the C.A.M.C. must be trained combatant officers plus the medical knowledge. I have asked to be sent to Egypt. There will probably be something doing there by Spring. If I don’t get an opportunity to get to the front, I will probably go into the hospital in the Spring as that is the time active work will start on all the fronts and transports of wounded will be coming in then and the best work will be done here. We have now about 700 beds and expect 1100 by Spring.
Transcribed by: Dion Loach
