Source 1: Censorship, January 1916

As a regular writer of letters home, communication was difficult for Douglas for a number of reasons – in January 1916, he was on board ship on his way to his posting at the port of Basra and secondly, he had to be careful what he said.

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View the timeline for an outline of John Douglas Hume's life.

Transcript

At Sea [SS ‘Huntscastle’]
22 January 1916

My Dear Mother

Safe so far. The censor allows me to say so little that
I can merely state that the submarine danger is over though we’ve
had a bad time looking out for them - 4 hours on & 4 hours off for
4 days during which my diary has been altogether given up.

The weather has been fairly good, though once I was constrained to consign
my dinner to the deep. The food is quite good & extravagantly varied
but the cooking is not very! I have only once had well cooked potatoes.
I am not allowed to cable.

Much love to all
Douglas

(National Records of Scotland reference GD486/98)