I found one (I suspect he means a letter) just as we got to our tents & it seems singular. I had a letter from our Kate (I remember her as an old “aunt”, very thick Irish accent) to say they were both here, Ted & Tom (these are friends or family members from Sheffield) & that they had met. Of course Tom took me to see Ted and we spent several nights together but we were soon split up, for Ted was ordered away further inland but Tom & I were together every night up to time of writing this.    I am waiting by for a draft back to my unit, but this is not likely to develop yet.
March 8th. Both me & Tom have had a letter from Ted & he is going on all right. I have had three letters today 7th (of March). from Bert Albert & Sal (family members at home). It has got to the hottest weather here now. I am glad to hear my baby son (my father who my grandfather had never seen) is going on well & I forgot to mention he is six months old last Monday.      I have answered letters to all received to day 8th & just as I was ready to post them I got one from Beat (my Grandmother, his wife Beatrice) with handkerchief in although it had been opened it was otherwise untouched. As letter to Beat was sealed I have sent word to Sal & Albert to say I got it all right. Me & Tom & 2 of his mates went down town this is the first time since I have been here had a good night & heard of Portugal at war with Germany.

March 11th 1 got a link of beads to send home.
Sunday 12th heard of Turkey asks for peace through Switzerland.
Tuesday 14th ... (?) Topy sun helmet again heat tremendous. I am for Guard on  compound (cannot decipher which compound) 18th. We had been paid on 17th St. Patrick’s day (my Grandfather’s name was Patrick, and the family were from Ireland). I was in a bell tent when the Captain came & put me on a charge of quitting my post. I was put back by Coy Officer for C.B. (Confined Barracks) & he gave me a Court M. (Court martial) I am now in Guard tent this is 20th. Next day 21st was put back & on the 22nd Wednesday my C.M. was washed out & I got 8 days C.B. This was a surprise & a lenient sentence & I took my first punishment with a good heart & to make it better it only meant the 22nd & 23rd two days for me were to fall in at 6pm for the Draft.

I got a letter the same day. Fell in at 6 & boarded train about 10pm. Arrived 5-30am 24th Blazing hot here & bags of work. This place is called El-Firdan & our camp is just on the banks of the Suez canal trenches everywhere & still making more.
27th A boiling hot day reveille at 5am & off digging by 6 about 3 miles to walk & trench digging till 11. We went with our coats on this morning for it was cold but coming back it was a scorcher. We are to hand our rifles & ammunition in & we are likely to remain here for a while yet. 28th ditto except that in the afternoon we had our clothes fumigated.    
29th A scorcher till 10-30am then a sandstorm caught on it cleared up & we parade as usual for digging. get tired out I don’t know where to find our Ted but I know he is only about seven mile away & if we could get time I should find him but we are not allowed out of camp. 30th another very hot day. 31st a cool day with nothing of importance to relate.
lst April cool & still on trench digging. my last letter from home was 26th. On the 24th diphtheria broke out but it was confined to M.G. (? machine gun group) I got a letter from our Tom & he has had one from Ted. This is now Thursday the 6th & things are about the same. You will not be any wiser as to the next few days as they passed uneventful but on the 10th Wednesday I was warned for outpost Piquet up the Suez & it was a bleak and dreary job & to make things worse it was a rotten night it blew a gale & rained hard for my first 2 hours. We had 4 1/2 mile to patrol up the canal side & then same again. We got paid before we went but as there is no place to spend it here I have decided to send 10 shilling home. I have not had a letter for a fortnight from home but got one from Albert. I have been sent to the grenade school to go through a course of bombing.
14th of April this will last 10 days. I got a letter Monday 17th & one from Kate wrote to Tom & to Beat the same night. I have not entered anything in for several days. I got a letter from Tom Sunday 3rd April. I might mention that while throwing a bomb on Thursday 20th April I twisted a ....... (?) or something in my neck & it gave me trouble for a day or two, but it is all right now & we have been firing a course this morning.    

Easter Monday & though it should be holiday this afternoon we have to parade. With Beats last letter I got a photo of our baby & what a beauty he is. (What is real nice is that we also have the actual photo of my Dad that he received)     It is a long time since I entered any note in this book but as this is most interesting I must refer to it. This is the 28th June & since my last entry we have left El Firdan & to Railhead where I went in the trenches twice the 1st time for 4 days the 2nd for 7 days & we were relieved on the 20th June. We came back to El Firdan till the 26th. We entrained on a luggage wagon & traveled all night reaching Galbery (??) on 27th at 4 o-clock am.

Embarked on the Oriana no time to answer Toms letter of the 26th sailed on the morning of 28th but cannot say wherefore. We arrived at Malta ... June. Left same day for Marseilles 3rd July 3 o-clock. Got off boat next day 5 am & took train for .... we spent 48 hours in the train transiting night & day   ......  through the length of France we eventually left the train & marched to billets 4 miles away the name of this place was Grosiet (?). We were only here two days, we set off on the march on the 10th & after 14 miles we stopped at Ternus (?) for the night. Set off at 8am 11th to Dainville (?) (in the Battalion diary they set out on the 10th, his dates are 1 day late after leaving the train.  The town they reached was Duneville) 17 miles further on & immediately behind Arras which has been taken over from the French. We are in billets here at the time of entry. 14th we are for the trenches to-night for a short spell.