‘It is extraordinary how callous one gets, and how natural everything seems to be.’
RI MS RCB/A/09
July 30th 1915, to William Lawrence Bragg
This is the only letter in the collection from Robert to his brother, although it’s clear he expects letters to be shared around the family. It’s written while at sea en-route from Alexandria to Lemnos on the H.M.T. ‘Enkosi’. Much of it recaps what has been happening so far: mentioning the camp at Alexandria and the journey from there and he’s much happier on board without the horses.
A/58th Bgde RFA / 11th Div / Brit Med Exp Force
July 30th 1915
Dear Bill
I don’t know whether you have read any of my previous letters to Mother and Dad, I hope they have sent them on to you. We are at present on the high seas and very close our final destination Whether we shall go straight to the scene of action or disembark on one of the small islands I don’t know. We have had a glorious run so far. Deep blue sea perfectly calm and dotted all round with rocky islands that rise straight out of the water to a height of several thousand feet I should say.
It is a great relief not having any horses on board, we have had quite a joy ride I have thoroughly enjoyed. It is extraordinary how callous one gets, and how natural everything seems to be. We have had enough excitements & changes during the last month to have filled quite an interesting year of normal life; yet now nothing seems strange & everything is taken for granted. We have a good many unattached officers on board; some of them have been out 4 or 5 times already, wounded etc.
We had quite an amusing time in Alexandria. The heat & glare for the first few days was terrific but I found that I got used to both very quickly. We always rose early & exercised the horses at 6 am & did most of our jobs such as signalling & gun laying? Breakfasts on return & an hours stables. We then did nothing else for the rest of the day except odd jobs. Everyone slept in the afternoon & we still do. Its perfectly fatal as soon as you start siestas, you cant keep awake after lunch. Its getting much cooler as we go north & ought to be quite decent up there. Everybody says that it is a very good climate, like a good English year.
Alexandria is very full of hospitals & convalescent homes, jolly nice places some of them looked too. The convalescent officers seemed to be having a jolly good time, when they got better they were billeted out on people & were escorted down to bathe every day by numerous fair females. What are you doing now. In a letter from Mother I heard that you were going to be offered some sort of research job on war material. I hope you get something good.
Well Cheer Oh Bill. I expect the fun will begin a day or two.
Bob.
Photos courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. RI MS RCB/A/09
Notes and General Information
William Lawrence was not sent overseas until several months after his brother: he had been appointed to a Commission as 2nd Lieutenant, Leicester Royal Horse Artillery, a division which supported the cavalry rather than the infantry. This was another territorial force called up full time in August 1914, but it seems that Lawrence was still at training camp when Robert’s division left. In fact, shortly after his brother shipped out he was seconded for special duty to the Royal Engineers and sent to France to train.
While Robert was still a student, Lawrence was a fully-fledged academic and this may have been partially why he was held back for particular duties. He eventually became part of a Sound Ranging unit charged with locating enemy guns on the Western Front.
