Letter of May 7th, 1916 from Thomas Percival Elder to his mother. Transcription: Dear Mother, We have at last arrived in England, having finally been established in camp at Bramshot. We sailed on the 26th April from Halifax, though we were on board since Sunday the 23rd. We arrived at Liverpool last Thursday (May 4th) at 7 p.m. after a very tedious voyage. Took the train Friday noon, and arrived here yesterday morning at 3a.m. Had a two mile march in the dark with our equipment & blankets. We are now in huts, holding between 30 & 40 men, there being 30 in ours. Our quarters are much more comfortable than they were at Hastings Park in almost every way. We had mulligan, bread & coffee when we arrived here and since then we have having a little, only a little at each meal, our own rations no having arrived. But we are very lucky considering what some Battalions get when they arrive. All the tales we heard about Canadians being heldup are very true, only the conditions are worse than expected in that respect. We have paid more that we did in Vancouver. Last night I got out for the first time and struck a good place, one of the soldier's clubs. I had 5 eggs, 2 cups of coffee, pudding and bread & butter, and paid 39 cents for it. It was certainly fine. The first real meal since I left home. The meals on the train were fairly good, but on the boat they were not up to much. We had good weather and as calm a sea as we could wish for, on the way across. I did not feed the fishes as very many did. We have just been fooling around so far not having got settled and all our bed & blankets issued, but in a short time we shall be all o.k. I expect. I have taken a few pictures -3 films, and will send them on to Vancouver to be developed as soon as I can. I don't know how the regulations run. Everything is very green here, trees in leaf & blossom. So very different from any place in Canada. But it is just as cold, in fact not as warm as either Kamloops or Vancouver. Hazelmere is about 2 miles from here and several other places about the same distance or less, but that is the only place worth going too. Half the Battalion gets six days leave this week & half next week. A.B companies go first. A bunch of us are going up to London to have a look around. (Tuesday). As I am in charge of this hut, I am interrupted about every 5 minutes when I sit down and since I started this it has been [? fierce?]. We get our six days leave starting Thursday morning and shall leave for old London town as I said. The mail leaves every two days, I believe it left at least 2 days ago and again to-day. But you will have got word of our safe arrival. We never saw anything even. We have 4 blankets each & I still have my private one, but as I managed to get hold of a dandy rug worth a pound I shall keep it and hand in my own when the time comes. We get paid to-morrow about 6 or 7 "pounds". I have to perform mental gymnastics to know where I am at with this English money. You can send this on to Jean [?] and I shall try and write a long letter to her while I am in London which she can send on to you. One letter can do for the two until we get settled. I shall write to Bert within the next two days. Your son, Percy Address: Bramshot Camp Liphook, Hants England.