Christmas Day
This was first Christmas Day the Australians experienced following battle. The bruising Gallipoli campaign was only just behind them.
The Red Cross had helped distribute Christmas billies to Lemnos. Packed with treats, the billies offered some excitement and connection with home, and perhaps were a reminder of normality.
Captain George Furner Langley wrote that his men were ‘just like children with Christmas stockings’.
‘The boys hung up their socks, and I had to sneak round at 3am and fill them with toys and sweets. Two men saw me and said Father Christmas had a white cap and gown on. There was great excitement in the morning.’
– Staff Nurse Evelyn Davies, letter, 15 Jan. 1916
‘Never will I forget my Xmas Day of 1915 on Lemnos Island. We were all issued with billies and a plum pudding on the morning, and if you could only have seen the rush and intense interest shown in the opening of them all, I guess every dear Australian who so kindly sent them could not have been more satisfied.’
– Private Roy Malcolm, Riverina Recorder, 8 Mar. 1916
