A "Temporary Gentleman" in France

"A Temporary Gentleman in France" by A. J. Dawson is a series of letters written by a Temporary Officer of the New Army during WWI. The writer has introduced this «Temporary Gentleman» to many good fellows in England, France, and Flanders, and is very anxious to introduce him on a really friendly footing to all his brothers-in-arms across the Atlantic; from New York to San Francisco, and from Quebec to Vancouver Island, also.

Excerpt:

"THE FIRST LETTER

Here we are at last, «Somewhere in France,» and I suppose this will be the first letter you have ever had from your «Temporary Gentleman» which hasn't a stamp on it. It is rather nice to be able to post without stamps, and I hope the Censor will find nothing to object to in what I write. It's hard to know where to begin.

Here we are «at last,» I say—we were nearly a year training at home, you know—and I shall not easily forget our coming. It really was a wonderful journey from Salisbury Plain, with never a hitch of any sort or kind, or so much as a buttonstick gone astray. Someone with a pretty good head-piece must arrange these things. At ten minutes to three this morning we were on the parade ground at – over a thousand strong."