The battalion went back into the line on 30 December [relieving the 8th Queens in the left section of the Hulloch sector], and Sherriff dashed off a short note to assure his mother that he was ‘quite well’, but ‘very busy’, and ‘until I have done the tour in the line I won’t have very much time for writing’. He explained why:

‘You see, dear, you are on duty at various times and when you are off you feel so sleepy that you have to rest, and it is a great tax on the brain to write long letters – but directly I am out I will make up for lost time with some good long letters’.

She was not to worry about him, however: he had enjoyed two months ‘rest’ with the Tunnellers, and although ‘the harder time naturally comes as rather a strain…it will do me good to work harder.’

[Next letter: 2 January]