July 9, 1915

3d KAR
Nairobi
British East Africa
9/7/15

Dear Father,

I am still in Nairobi & it looks as if I were going to be here sometime as the Coy I have to join is coming to head-quarters, but I don’t expect they will be here long as they keep shifting them about all over the place.  I am at present doing machine gun training as there is one machine gun officer for each Coy.  I shall be glad when I get away from here as there is too much formality & expense about the place considering that it is war- time.  We have got to put on mufti after coming off parade in the afternoon as we are not allowed to appear in uniform in the town when off-duty & then we have to change again for dinner.  They have a guest night every Thursday when they dine in great state with the band in attendance.  We get free rations when out on safari as they call it & a ration allowance when staying at headquarters which only amounts to about one third of your mess bill.  We have got no pay yet as they have got no information from you how we are being paid.  I arranged before I came away to get half my salary paid into Cox’s bank & the other half over here it will be pretty tight work to make the half go the full length out here if I have to stay at headquarters long, the actual food does not amount to so very much 3 ½ rupees per day but there are so many extra things that you have got to stump up for which runs the thing up very considerably.  When on safari they have no expenses at all.

The war at home does not seem to be improving much & it looks as if there would be another winter of it.  If I go out on safari soon it will be some time before I can get the chance to write again & there is sometime no mail boat for a month at a time.

Yours Aye,

Tom