Private Oscar Thompson, 56th Battalion, 20 May 1916

WARNING: Contains words which may be considered offensive, but may have reflected the author's attitude or that of the period in which they were written.

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Nepean Times (NSW)
29 July 1916

From Egypt's Desert Sands.

Private Oscar Thompson, A Coy., 50th (sic) Batt., 14th Brigade, A. I. F., writing to a friend in Penrith from somewhere in Egypt, under date 20th of May last, describes training life in Egypt as "interspersed" by athletic meeting of the troops, music by regimental bands, and visits to Cairo and the Pyramids, etc., as more "agreeable than irksome." 

The gallant young Penrith soldier, however, in unison with his home experience of modern sanitary arrangements, has imbibed a "holy horror" of what he calls the "disgustingly filthy condition" of Cairo's ancient quarters. In fact, he says, "Cairo is really the dirtiest place I have ever seen," and infers that if entered in the most malodorous "pigstye" competition it (Cairo) would win "hands down". The nomadic, and altogether nondescript native population of Cairo he aptly describes as "trying to exist on backsheesh every third or fourth day, and, for the remainder of the week on the refuse "food" they (the 'niggers') "loot out of the garbage tins." The writer amusedly says it's a wonder that fever hasn't "a mortgage" on every house in the villainous native quarters, where whole families of "niggers" share a "so-called tent with half-a-dozen goats and a few fowls." 

Private Thompson, who is a son of Mr and Mrs Thompson, of Jane Street, and brother of Lieut. A. Thompson, expected at time of writing to be soon bound for the Western Front, and probably is in the vicinity of Herr Hun in the Australian sector of the Somme line, at the present moment. The writer desires to be remembered to all friends at Penrith.

Soldier Identified: Private Oscar Norman Thompson, Service No. 2457, 56th Battalion, A.I.F. Returned to Australia, 1 April 1919.

Brother: Lieutenant Arthur Oswald Thompson, Service No. 3459, 53rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, A.I.F. Returned to Australia, date unknown.

See also (letters):
Major-Sergeant Arthur Thompson, 53 Battalion, 4th Brigade, April 1916 (Brother)

Lieutenant Arthur Thompson, 53rd Battalion, July 1916 (Brother)

Cafe in Cairo. 1914-1918 (Courtesy: Australian War Memorial)

Sources:

1. From Egypt's Desert Sands (1916, July 29). Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), p. 3.
2. Cafe in Cairo. 1914-1918. Australian War Memorial