David to May                     Sheerness                           Thursday [20th March 1919]

My Darling,

I got back here just before 10 o’clock last night, looked in to the mess to see the orders for today, which practically consisted of nothing, & then went along to the billet.

Just after I got in, the landlady brought me up a cup of cocoa, so I sat down & ate your orange, (it was a beauty) & drank the cocoa, having quite a small feast.

Then I read your two letters through again, got into bed, cuddled you up close as I could & was soon asleep.

I have been thinking, – if the loyal & trusty railwaymen should strike again, I do hope you won’t work late next week & also I should not go to Days, as you may have a big job to get home & the earlier you start for home the better. Better still I should go to Balham if you think you stand a better chance of getting there & take Ethel along there too.

In consequence of that crowd of officers being sent to Rugeley I have had orders to give up my billet & go into barracks, as of course there are a number of empty rooms there now.

However the room is not so bad, might be a good deal worse.

If the railway people strike, of course there will be no leave & it was useless asking today as they don’t know is likely to happen & headquarters here have been told to hold themselves in readiness in case of trouble. But seeing that there are only about one man & a boy here I don’t see that we can do much.

However they will perhaps send a few men to the station although that won’t be necessary as there are scarcely any railwaymen here.

In consequence of all this we were treated this morning to a lecture by the commanding officer on what we may do & what we may not do.

It seems to me that we are allowed to do anything we like, but if we do do anything at all, we get a court martial directly after.

We were told that we of course had to obey orders but if we did & things went wrong we of course would get hung etc etc etc.

Anyway what is most important of all is that it is going to stop my weekend as those officers who went away on leave during the week have been recalled.

This afternoon I took up my quarters in the barracks & spent partly in reading the guide book (this time Falmouth) & partly in sleeping.

Last night at Victoria I waved to you & thought you waved back & then I watched you until you got as far as the bookstall but I lost you then.

I have read both those lectures. Mr Robertson’s is most interesting. I will return them when I see you so will you remind me.

Goodbye, Darling, give me a good big hug & now one more kiss. Thanks that’s lovely.

David