25/9/41                                                                   Q.X. 11656

                                                                                                            Pte Wotherspoon D> J>

                                                                                                              D. Coy.  2/15^th Bn

                                                                                                                A.I.F. Abroad

My Dear Mother,

                        Well old Darling I received your ever welcome letter yesterday, which makes the total (3) I have of yours. This one was written on Aug 26 and I was so pleased to receive it & learn that your Dear self Liz and Vi and all the family are well. I have just returned from a swim, and feel a lot cleaner, but fairly tired, it’s a fair stroll, did you ever wash clothes in salt water without soap Mum? Well we do here, they mightn’t be real clean, but it’s surprising how much dirt & dust come out of them. Also our bodies, also our dixies & eating irons. I just got word there is a concert on tonight for our mob, the Padre runs them, he always gets me in for a turn, mostly recite. Did I tell you I recited in front of thousands Mother? Well I did on the boat coming over. In the big ship’s dining room, with the Officers & nurses in the front row & over two thousand Diggers behind them. I was in four Concerts all told coming over, no kidding. I was the Star turn. These are funny little Concerts here Mumsie, no big flash halls or dining rooms but down in one of the few gullies on the premises, & there beneath the stars, with only a few hundred cigarettes glowing, we do our stuff as the Padre calls us up. But no one ever listened harder or give any great artist a better hearing than the boys here give us here, & don’t the Cooee & whistle for more. They all like the Western Poems.

The only thing I’m crooked on here, I have to stand up without a (Bracer).    No grog, beer or wine here Mum but I guess you’ll say Good Job to. Some nights we get a nip of Rum, but not every night.

Page 2.

Mother Mine, it is now next evening & I will finish off for this time. Well I recited at the Padre’s concert all right last night, 4 Poems all told, so that went off all right. I have been walking about all day today visiting mates. I had dinner with Jack Coyne, he is a Platoon cook, young Lex Stamer is with him, he is a Sergeant. (Like Dad). He asked after you all again & said he wished he was back there playing the Violin. He is a very nice young chap, & we three had quite a yarn about Rhmd. Sending you a snap or two of a joker over here, they are just Photos, but they were the best the young chap could do. Now Mother mine I will close for this time, so do believe me old Darling, I am as well as can be, & I sincerely hope you are all the same at home & away, give my love to all my sisters & brothers & I hope Vate came through his Op all right & that he is getting about OK again now, tell him I got landed that night when I went back to camp, for being AWL, & I was Chasing the Bugle, for the remainder of my time in Redbank, so I couldn’t possibly see he or Ford any more. Cheerio Mother Dear, & fondest love old Darling, write often & often to Your loving son,

                                                                                                                        David.

With a bib big bag of Kisses old Sweetheart.

Send that cake whenever you are ready Mum, I am ready for it. 

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