"Over There" with the AustraliansKnyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
History
"Over There" with the Australians
Knyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
When the ship drew in at the Melbourne wharf I made up my mind to escape
the fuss and hero-worship, as I was a Queenslander and knew that none of
my folks were among the crowd waiting at the gates. I went to the
military landing-officer and asked him if I could not go out another way
and dodge the procession. He said the orders were that every officer and
man was to be driven in special cars to the hospital. I then went down
onto the wharf and approached one of the ladies who looked as if she
would play the game and I said to her: "If I ride in your car, will you
promise to do me a favor?" She said: "I would do anything for you." I
then said: "Well, let me out as soon as we get outside the gate." She
demurred a good deal but I reminded her that no Australian girl I knew
ever broke a promise. When we got outside I boarded a tram-car, which
had not gone far before it had to stop to let the procession pass. Of
course, every one would see that I was a returned soldier, but there was
nothing to show that I was _just_ returned. I stood up in the tram-car
with the rest of the passengers and cheered and threw cigarettes and
remarked loudly to all and sundry: "Some more boys come back, eh?" But
my well-laid plans were entirely spoiled as my friends in the automobile
called put, "Here, Knyvett, you dog, come out of that! Here's your
place!" and I disgracefully subsided with many blushes, and had to endure
all the way up to Melbourne the whispers and concentrated gaze of the
whole tramful. I also "fell in" in another way, for when I rang up my
uncle I found that he and his daughter were looking for me down at the
wharf gates.
Two years ago the site of Caulfield Hospital was a wilderness of weeds
and sand. Now it is an area of trim lawns and blazing gardens,
bowling-greens, croquet-lawns, and tennis-courts, with comfortable huts,
the gift of the people of Melbourne to their wounded soldiers, costing
several hundred thousand dollars. As I had served with Victorian troops
I was assigned to this hospital, although my home was over a thousand
miles away in the northern state of Queensland. All who were fit to
travel were given fourteen days "disembarkation leave" to visit their
homes, but twelve of these days I had to spend in travel and only had two
days at home after such long absence.
My wounds had healed but I was still paralyzed in my left leg, and the
only attention I required was daily massage for an hour, and then another
hour in the torture-chamber with an electric current grilling me. After
this was over, I would go into the city, do the block, have afternoon
tea, give an address at the Town Hall recruiting-depot, go to a theatre,
and then as there seemed nothing else to be done, would return to the
hospital. Such was my programme for ninety days. Sometimes I varied it
by visiting the Zoo to commiserate with the wild animals on being caged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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