he effect was
remarkable. All screwed themselves up before falling. They were all
lightly wounded.

RED CROSS

About the middle of July I sent a corporal and two men over to
Heliopolis with a letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Barrett, asking for some
Red Cross goods. I had already received issue vouchers for two lots,
but these had been intercepted in transit, so the men were ordered to
sit on the cases until they gave delivery to the Ambulance. Fifty cases
came, filled with pyjamas, socks, shirts, soap and all sorts of things.
The day they arrived was very, very hot, and our hospital was full of
men whose uniform had not been off since they landed. No time was lost
in getting into the pyjamas, and the contented look on the men's faces
would have gratified the ladies who worked so hard for the Red Cross.
Talk about peace and contentment--they simply lolled about in the scrub
smoking cigarettes, and I don't believe they would have changed places
with a Federal Senator.

Those Red Cross goods saved one man's life at least. All the unopened
cases were placed outside the tent. One afternoon a shell came over
into a case of jam, went through it, and then into another containing
socks. A man was lying under the shelter of this box, but the socks
persuaded the shell to stay with them, and thus his life was saved. It
was on this day that my nephew, Staff-Sergeant Nickson, was wounded.
He had just left his dug-out to go to the dressing station on the
beach when a shrapnel shell severely wounded him in the leg. The same
shell killed Staff-Sergeant Gordon, a solicitor from Adelaide, and one
of the finest characters I knew. He was shot through the spine and
killed instantly. Two other men were wounded.

Our Ambulance was ordered to pitch a hospital up Canterbury Gully to
provide for a possible outbreak of cholera, as almost every writer on
the subject stated that, when European troops occupied trenches that
had been previously held by Turks, an outbreak of cholera invariably
followed. Major Clayton was detailed for the work, and soon had
accommodation for a hundred men. As there was no cholera, the sick men
were kept here. We had been so long in this place without a change,
and so many troops were crowded into such a small area, without a
possibility of real rest, that the men began to get very stale.
Sickness was prevalent, and this hospital seemed to help them a great
deal. It was a picture to see them all lying in their