WWI Gallipoli Campaign Letter
Sulva Bay, 1 December 1915
By an officer of the 5th Royal Irish Fusiliers attached to the 9th Lancashire Fusiliers
Original handwritten First World War letter dated 1 December 1915, written by 2nd Lieutenant Litellus Russell Muirhead while serving with the 9th Lancashire Fusiliers, 11th Division, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Sulva Bay during the final weeks of the Gallipoli campaign. The letter was written to his cousin Langdon Muirhead, serving with the Royal Artillery in France.
A transcript of the letter and war service details of Litellus and Langdon are shown below,
Muirhead gives a vivid first-hand account of the severe winter conditions affecting the troops, describing rain, snow, wind, flooded dug-outs, rheumatism and frostbite. He also records men working fatigues on the beach in bitter cold and mentions hopes that the unit may soon be moved elsewhere “to pull ourselves together a bit more”.
A Gallipoli campaign letter illustrating the physical deterioration and hardship endured by British troops shortly before the evacuation of the peninsula.
Format & Condition
Two sides written neatly in pencil. Original folds, light creasing, loss at edges which does not affect the content of the letter. 20 x 15 cm.
TRANSCRIPTION
attd. 9th Lancs Fusiliers
11th Division
B.M.E.F.
1.xii.1915
My dear Lang,
December has opened as auspiciously for us as November ended dismally. To-day the weather is bright & sunny though rather frosty, but it is just the sort of weather to put the heart into the men & make them work well. The past few days of rain, snow & wind rather took it out of them; and I can’t wonder when some of them not only got soaked to the skin, but even had their dug-out flooded with all their spare stuff inside. We have you can understand been rather troubled of late with cases of rheumatism & frost bite. However we have pulled ourselves together now & are getting on with the fatigues on the beach.
I believe there is a good chance of our going where Uncle Bunchar is, in order to pull ourselves together a bit more; when this is announced as a certainty it will be great news. I haven’t received a single letter from home yet but in another 10 days or a fortnight I should be getting letters which left England addressed to the 9th L.F. I did yesterday however get
[page 2]
one letter from my late servant Mackin who is on his way somewhere in a hospital ship probably to England. I hardly know whether to call him lucky or not; at any rate he got away from the eternal bully beef & biscuit diet. I don’t know why they don’t land any other stuff here now; the sea is as smooth as glass.
I was on fatigue last night from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. with 100 men & I can tell you I had so much work to do that the 4 hours passed like one. Not only did I have to divide my hundred up into three parties but extra parties kept being temporarily required for odd jobs so that I was on the keen jump the whole time. Just as well perhaps for it was as cold as death, far too cold to sit still for any length of time. I’ve got and inspect rifles now but will carry on later.
It is now later. There is however nothing more to write about, so dull is the life out here.
Yours oh so sincerely
Litellus R. Muirhead
LANGDON MUIRHEAD
Langdon was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He was killed in France on 29 September 1918, aged 20.
MILITARY SERVICE
Litellus Russell Muirhead had an exceptionally wide-ranging and active First World War service, spanning multiple distinct military fronts across Europe and the Middle East. Detailed official biographical details and wartime records map out his active service between 1915 and 1919:
Regiment and Commission
Chronological Service and Theatres of War
Muirhead's military history shows he participated in nearly all the major Mediterranean campaigns before deploying to the Western Front: