TCD MS 10821 folio 4 recto
[May 31st 1916] fuss we & others made yesterday, & some were put on bombing & Lewis Gun. I was put in charge of a party of over 100 officers of which over 50 were Australians. They were most of them quite good & the work was not very strenuous. We got back to camp about 2.30 pm & had a very nasty lunch, after which we took the train from Etaples to Paris Plage. It was about 5 km away & the road led through very pretty woods most of the way. Paris Plage on arrival turned out to be a quite new seaside resort, but on wanting to bathe we found the tide very low & we should have to have walked nearly a mile across wet sand to get into the sea. There was a big steamer on the sands, broken in half, probably torpedoed I should think & then beached. After tea we returned to camp by the train & finding there were no orders for us, went out to dine at the Club in Etaples, where the food was quite good.
June 1st [1916]. Slept very well on my air mattress which is a great success. We are lucky in having such delightful weather which makes life in camp very pleasant. Went off as usual to the training camp where we spent a peaceful morning with the Lewis Gun & doing bombing. The Major in command of the training camp was at times offensively rude to officers. In the afternoon we went off to Paris Plage where we had tea in a bakers shop & also got a good