Home sought for WW1 letter

Sue Cameron-Duncan holds the letter from Private Edgar Newman, 8th Reinforcement, 35th Battalion,...
Sue Cameron-Duncan holds the letter from Private Edgar Newman, 8th Reinforcement, 35th Battalion, Australian Imperial Forces. Photos by Rebecca Ryan.

An Oamaru woman wants to see a letter from an Australian soldier in World War 1 find its way back to his family.

The letter is addressed to Althea Stack in Longueville, North Sydney and said to have been penned by her cousin, Private Edgar Newman, 8th Reinforcement, 35th Battalion, Australian Imperial Forces.

Sue Cameron-Duncan was given the letter by her neighbour Dave Evans, who is a stamp collector.

''He bought a box of stamps about two years ago and in the bottom of the box was this letter,'' she said.

''I'm Australian and the soldier is Australian, so he said 'here, have this'.''

Pte Newman, whose camp was near Salisbury, wrote the letter dated October 22, 1917, from a military hospital in England, where he was suffering from the mumps, but making ''very favourable progress''.

''In fact it has only been a holiday to me here, as I haven't had the mumps very badly and I get no drill to do here, get plenty to eat, plenty to read, nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in,'' he writes.

He writes about his aunties Ida, Ebie and Ella and asks for their addresses to he can write to them, too.

He expected to get six days' leave soon after writing the letter and hoped to go to Southport and London.

The letter had been sitting in a cupboard at Mrs Cameron-Duncan's house.

''But of course, 100 years since World War 1, I thought `I wonder if we could find someone','' she said.

She has contacted the RSL in Australia, but has not had any response.

''So I don't really know where to go from here,'' she said.

''I know it would be quite cool to get something if it was [from] my great-granddad or someone.''

rebecca.ryan@odt.co.nz

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