TCD MS 10823 folio 22 recto
[April-Sept 1918] There were two tennis courts outside the camp, made by the labours of the officers who had excavated them out of the hill side and made the surface for them. These were much used all through the summer months and several tournaments were held on them.
Besides outdoor sports it was necessary to have some form of mental occupation in order to prevent one’s brain from vegetating, and so classes of different kinds were arranged. The German classes were taken by the Censor, <who was a German Pole &> who spent too much time with the classes, with the result that we had to wait a long time for our letters.
Besides the German there were French and Italian classes, mathematics, shorthand, bookkeeping, in fact whatever we could find instructors for. These helped to pass some of the time away, though in the fine summer months, the outdoor attractions often proved too strong.
We used to take in most of the leading German papers, but as very few officers knew German, it was necessary for some of us that knew the language to translate all the events of importance that had occurred and <to> put up the news in English on the notice board, as well as to move the pins on the large scale maps of the battle fronts either backwards or forwards. The Berliner Tageblatt and The Frankfurter Zeitung were as a rule the most moderate German papers and they often had the greater part of the English and French Communique’s in them, so that we felt we could trust their news fairly well.