TCD MS 10821 folio 2 recto
[May 29th 1916] off to get some luncheon at the Hotel de Paris, where the food was not at all bad & the Barsac quite good. After a good meal we drove round the town & also paid a visit to St Aubyn in his Censors office, where he seemed very fed up with his job. At five we returned to the station & found a special train waiting for us, which took us at a very slow pace to Etaples, a little over an hours run. Here I hurried out & saw the R.T.O. who shewed me where to report, which I hurried to do, arriving first & getting it over. Two hours later I passed the place & saw officers in line <still> waiting to report. All the luggage was dumped down into one place, some six hundred valises, so there was much trouble in finding it in the dark. We found ourselves posted to the 12th. Divl. Camp, three of us to a tent, so we are not over crowded. The mess that [was] built to accommodate about 40 had to provide dinner for about 150 & very nasty it was. I was lucky in getting my valise as everyone did not find theirs. I tried my new air mattress for the first time, & found it quite a success.
May 30th. After a fair night, we awoke to the sound of battering rain on the tent, which laid the dust outside. Breakfasting at 7 am we had to parade at 8 & go down to the training ground. For over two