Harrogate Herald - 4th July 1917

W H Breare letter

Private J Jackson, who is in Egypt, has sent a snapshot of himself and his friends. I hope to publish it. I am obliged to Gunner H Whitby for a copy of the "Balkan News". It is a bright little paper and quite interesting. From it I see that, with the idea of relieving the camp monotony of camp life, the officers of a certain rest camp near recently had an essay competition. One of the essays is published under the title, "Our Mascot". It is very funny, though the spelling is highly phonetic. The mascot was a tortoise. To prevent it wandering, the boys made a hole in its shell, and put a string through, and tied it to a post. The end was tragedy. One day it twisted the cord round its neck and hanged itself. Accidentally, of course. The boys were not so bad as to drive it to suicide.