Pte R. H. Eastaff, R.A.M.C., who is doing hospital work in connection with the Mesopotamian Expedition Force, has sent letters to his mother at Collinwood, Reginald Street, Luton, describing conditions he was facing. In one he referred to a plantation close to the hospital.

He wrote: "The plantation is fine just now - the peaches and apricots are ripe, and the limes, pomegranates, almonds and grapes are coming on splendidly. Of course we have to be content with the sight of the fruit. To eat it would be to court arrest for stealing and, worse than that, cholera. So we look on and admire, but keep at a safe distance.

"We are much less bothered with flies this summer than last. I suppose improved sanitary arrangements are chiefly responsible for the happy decrease in the pest. Last year they were incredibly horrible; this year we can even eat our food with a fair degree of certainty that we are not eating flies as well.

"Of course at night the sand flies, mosquitoes, spiders, grasshoppers, praying mantis, locusts, scorpions and other freaks of nature too numerous to mention, and altogether beyond description, swarm as before."

In a second letter Pte Eastaff wrote: "Another week nearer the end of the war - and all that that means. Summer conditions are with us now once again. Today there is a rather unpleasant sandstorm and everything is coated with fine dust. Oh for a drink of home-made lemonade!

"One good thing will come out of this experience for those of us who have been to this dry old land - we shall appreciate the simple little luxuries of the homeland a hundred times more than we did before. Such things, I mean, as a glass of clear cold water, a juicy apple, a cup of real fresh-made tea (the poison we get is usually stewed about three hours before we get it!), and a slice of bread and butter (we get no butter now, you see we shouldn't recognise it if we had it - we might think it hair oil!)

"Oh well, all these delicacies will be ours again soon. At any rate, we keep cheerful and enjoy remarkably good health, and, after all, get not a little pleasure even out of this life, comparatively unfavourable though it be."

[The Luton News: Thursday, July 19th, 1917]