I have been wondering a great deal about Mick’s course [musketry], and must ask him how long it will be. It seems to me that if the officers taking this course are all ‘selected’, and expected to do well, it must be much more than the ordinary routine or something just to fill up time for the wounded officers recuperating, and I cannot help thinking it possible that if Mick gets his “D” [distinction] – if he does not it will be owing to the stupidity of the examining brand – he might perhaps be retained here or at some other base as special instructor, which I should no greatly regret. Mick, one knows, is ready for any duty, but he has risked his life already more than once, and [?] his little bit, and if he were put on other duties just because he could do them better than others, I should be the last to regret it.
March 14th 1916. Extract from a letter from John Sampson. [John Sampson Archive: SP8/1/2/11/29]. This week’s war: 85.
