Hut 19, N.Z. Convalescent Hospital, Hornchurch, Essex, England. Nov.
27 [1918]
Mr. Wm. Mitchell. Dear Sir, Having seen in the N.Z.E.J. Chronicle an advertisement re
information concerning Mr. Mitchell late of Kelvingrove, N.E. Valley, Dunedin, Otago, I
think I can give you a little information concerning Mr. Mitchell's family only as both
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell died some years ago.
I am a grandson of Hugh and Janet Muir, and if you communicate with my grandmother whose address is c/o Mrs. M. Aitchison, 2 Douglas Terrace, N.E. Valley, Dunedin, N.Z. she will be able to give you all the information you require. Mr. Mitchell's family all reside in Otago and there is a Mr. Runciman also living in Dunedin.
My mother is the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Muir and she used to say that she had relatives in Scotland but did not know the address and I am sure my people would be very pleased to communicate with you.
If you require any further information from me, reply immediately on receiving this as I am going on leave prior to going back to N. Zealand. I was wounded two months ago and am now in a N.Z. convalescent hospital. I have another brother somewhere in France at present and another one with the N.Z. troops in Palestine and I have been the unlucky one as neither of my brothers have been wounded as far as I know. I am going up to Scotland for my leave as I don't want to go back to N. Zealand without seeing my parents' native country.
I am very pleased to have been able to help you in your search for your relatives and any further information you might want, I will only be too pleased to give. I am, Yours faithfully, W.H. Aitchison.
New Zealand War Contingent Association, Codford March 9, 1919
My dear Cousins, I think it is about time I answered Ina's letter and I hope you will
forgive me for writing on a Sunday but I take it like all the other diggers the better the
day the better the deed.
I am glad to hear that Bill had got home again and that Mr. Collins didn't disappoint you. Ina was telling me what a good time you and he had while he was staying at your place. I am glad he was a decent sort of a chap and by Ina's letter, she was thinking about cutting you out so you had better keep your eye on her.
I had a letter from Mother tonight and they are all well at the time of writing and she was saying she had a letter from the sergeant of Bill's platoon and one from the chaplain telling where Bill was killed and buried so that was some comfort to her. She didn't say anything about the paper with the advertisement in, so she could not have received it or she would have mentioned it in the letter.
This will be the last letter you will receive from me in England as I am due to sail on Wednesday the 12th by the Corinthia so I will take the opportunity of thanking you for the great kindness shown me while in Scotland and I will never forget the pleasure I had on meeting you all and I would very much like to see you all again in N.Z.
I haven't received a letter from Allan since I returned from your place but Mother was saying that he had malaria fever and was in hospital and was expecting to be sent down to Cairo to a convalescent hospital in a few days after he wrote to her so I hope he has recovered by this time.
If possible I will write on the voyage home and post it in some of the American ports if we go through the Panama canal or, if we go round Cape Horn, I will post it at Cape Town or some other place we happen to call at.
Well, dear Cousins, I will have to ring off now as my news is exhausted. Hoping this finds you all in the best of health as it leaves me at present. I am with love, Your loving Cousin, Walter. Write soon. P.S. I will be in N.Z. when I get your next letter so don't be long in writing as it is a long time to wait until I get one in N.Z.
65 Chambers Street, N.E. Valley, Dunedin, New Zealand. October 4th,
1928
My dear Uncle and Cousins: On looking through some old letters today, I noticed one from
you, Mary, written in 1919 but I can't say if that is the last one I had from you people
away in Scotland but it seems such a long time ago since I last heard from any of you that
I am wondering what has become of you all, as the last one I wrote you was when my
Grandmother died but I never had any answer, so wondering whether you had moved from
Troon.
However, since you heard from me, we have had the misfortune to lose our Mother who passed away on June 4th, 1928, aged 70. We miss her so much that the house seems empty without her as she was a good Mother to us all and we were lucky to have her so long, as we have all reached manhood and womanhood, even Roland's boy, Walter Junior, is now twenty and still lives with us. Ours is a small household now, as there are only Roland, Nettie, Walter Junr, and myself left; all the others have married and gone away. Mary, the baby of the family was married 2 years ago and has a boy about a year old, who she calls Neville and lives in Wanganui in the North Island. We are expecting to have her down at Xmas time as we would like to see her as she hasn't been down since she was married. She has been waiting till the baby was a little older for travelling as it is a long way from there and would take her 3 days to get here; also a 12 hour trip on the boat across the Cook Strait.
We have kept the home going until Nettie's marriage which should take place any time now and that will leave me the only one enjoying single bliss, which I might say won't be for long as, with any luck, I am getting married sometime next year. I am enclosing some snaps of the girl and so I hope you will like your new cousin. She lives in Invercargill which is 140 miles from here so we don't see each other very often during the year. The large snap was taken last Xmas at Stewart Island, the most southern place in the world and a great holiday resort. The smaller ones were taken in Queenstown, another great holiday resort in the famous cold lakes and fiordland districts in the South Island.
About 2 years ago I took a six months trip to Australia and had a great time. I had promised myself a trip there for years so, as last, I managed to get there. So now I am quite satisfied and contented to settle down. I visited my Uncle and your cousin, Jack Muir, who now is living in Sydney. He has been there 4 or 5 years and is quite acclimatised now. He is the only one of the Muir boys living as William and George died within the last 3 years, quite young men and in their prime as they were both in their early fifties, not a great age. Mother was the eldest of their family and she was only 70 while Grandmother was 87 when she died, evidently much tougher than her family.
A cousin of my father's from Australia was over your way at the time of the Wembly Exhibition. I gave him your address but was not quite sure if he said he looked you up or not. His name is Robt. L. Gray and is an old man round about 80. He is retired and living is Sydney where I looked him up while I was there. I think he told me than that he had seen you. I think he was all over England and Scotland seeing different people and looking up the parents of home brides who lived near him in the waybacks of Australia.
There is a terrible lot of unemployment out here just now and the government is still bringing out immigrants and flooding the labour market. I think it is a shame the way the government is promising them positions etc. when there is hardly one to be got and, consequently most of them are stranded with no money or anything else. Most of them would go back home but haven't the means. Of course, they all come to the cities and won't go to the country as the majority come from home cities and therefore not used to the waybacks. Anyway it is a hard life away back in backblocks, cut off from civilisation and it is not everybody who could stand that life. I know I couldn't - so, if you know of anyone leaving a good position to come out to the colonies, you might advise them to stay where they are until things brighten up.
I am wondering if all of you are still enjoying single life or if any of you have married. We have a few more nephews and nieces since you heard from us. Elizabeth has 3 boys and a girl. The eldest is 16 and the youngest 4. Daisy has 3 boys and a girl, the eldest is 9 and the youngest, one. Isabel has just the boy and a girl. The boy Ronald is 19 and the girl, Aileen is 11. The rest, Jack, Allan and Mary has a boy each, so you will see none of them have very big families. Big families seem to be out of date nowadays.
Well dear cousins, I can't think of any other news to tell you this time. Hoping to hear from you soon and trusting this finds you all well and happy. If some kind person presents me with a fortune, you might see my on my honeymoon; otherwise we won't see you till you make up your minds to come out. I am, your nephew and cousin, Walter Aitchison.
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