Letter to Frederick Orpen Bower from James Montagu Frank Drummond

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Letter to Frederick Orpen Bower from James Montagu Frank Drummond in which he explains his delay in writing to Bower as due to the big offensive taking place on the Western Front. He tells Bower that he is now back at general headquarters as he has not been physically fit since his battalion left the east. The strain of the summer offensive has taken it's toll, he tells Bower that he was lucky to get 3 hours rest out of every 24 hours. He states that his commanding officer has put his name forward for the intelligence corps but he thinks it unlikely that there will be any opening for him there unless they push forward into Germany. He tells Bower that he is vexed at giving up the regimental corps but knows it is the right decision and is relieved for his wife's sake that he is out of the firing line. He states that he managed to get all his botanical specimens from central Palestine back to Britain but that the specimens from Southern Palestine and Egypt are still in Cairo as he could not get at them before his battalion left and a friend who was going to send them to Britain for him was prevented from doing so by a regulation. He debates whether the war will be over soon but states that he doesn't think "the Boche has had a good enough hiding yet" and that they should hold out for an unconditional surrender. He tells Bower that he is looking forward to getting back to botany and that he thinks that physiology will come back to him easily, even after so long.

• Military Intelligence
• Offensive (Military Science)
• Physiology
• Plants, Collection and Preservation of
• Western Front
• World War, 1914-1918

• Bower | Frederick Orpen | 1855-1948 | regius professor of botany, University of Glasgow
• Drummond | James Montagu Frank | 1881-1965 | regius professor of botany, University of Glasgow

• Cairo (Egypt)
• Egypt
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Palestine