| Surname: | Gillings |
| Initials: | E A |
| Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Army Number: | P/2193 |
| Notes: | MFP. Awarded the Victory and War Medals. First served abroad (4a) Africa, 24/12/1915. 1915 Star on medal card struck through not entitled to 1915 Star. Extract from the Todmorden & District News, 20 October 1915. MILITARY FOOT POLICE. PC Albert Edward Gillings, of the Todmorden Police Force has enlisted in the above corps. Prior to joining the police force a little over four years ago PC Gillings had served in the Fourth Norfolk Territorials. He has enlisted for duty in connection with the guarding of the lines of communication in France Extract from the Todmorden & District News, 24/3/1916. Ex-Police Constable In East Africa. Of the Todmorden police constables who lately joined the fighting forces, PC Gillings is now a lance-corporal in the Military Foot Police, which is attached to the Indian Expeditionary Force now engaged in the conquest of the last of the German colonies - that is East Africa. In letters to one of his police comrades he says the voyage from England took over a month. Gilling's experiences at Christmas time he hopes never to have to repeated. he says: "On Christmas Day everyone thought we were going to the bottom, the sea and the weather were so terrible. Is smashed some of the horse boxes to matchwood, and two horses had their backs broken and had to be shot and thrown overboard. The following Sunday it was even worse, and the thought we should never weather through it, and it continued almost as bad until we reached Madeira." The he goes on to tell what a contrast came after leaving Madeira, of daily concerts and dancing, only that the weather was too hot to be able to enjoy the as they would have done otherwise. Arrived at Durban, they soon found the effect the was had on prices: beer 6d per glass (and the stuff only like warm tea), mineral waters 4d a glass, cigarettes 6d per packet of 10, and son on. The second letter is dated a fortnight later than the first, and tells of a casual meeting with an ex-West Riding policeman named Bracken, who was on the way to rejoining his regiment, who had been in the country a while, and said he had been down with fever five times in ten months. He and Gillings camped in the same garden one night - "among the potatoes and the lemon trees," and he adds "we did our share at the lemons as they make a very good drink in this dry place," where a bottle of bee costs 1s 4d in English money. Although he makes a half apology for having to little news to send and begs for a newspaper to be sent he winds up his letter by saying: "We see plenty of wild animals in the bush. Since I came a Lion took away a horse. |