Marmont, Clement Wesley (Private, b.1890 - d.1973)

Collection relating to the First World War service of 4356 Private Clement Wesley Marmont, 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 1917-1919.

Wallet 1 of 1 - consists of seven lengthy letters that Marmont wrote to his sister Alice from England between March 1917 and March 1919. In the first letter, Marmont laments the difficulties he has experienced in receiving mail since he has been posted to a series of hospitals, depots and camps in England following his wounding on the Western Front. He also writes of being subject to multiple medical boards and of a downgrading in his medical classification, describes Verne Citadel on the Isle of Portland, and enquires after family, shearing and the harvest at home. Marmont was later posted to 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital in Bulford, where he worked as a cook and later a butcher. Subsequent letters discuss his work at the hospital, finances, his experiences of artillery and the conditions while fighting on the Somme, visiting different parts of England while on leave, his opposition to conscription, the work of the Red Cross, experiencing an air raid while in London, and of their brother Jim [2644 Private James Marmont] also being posted to work at the hospital. Marmont also discusses his romance with an English woman named May, which cools due to differences in religious domination and May's reluctance to move to Australia, his later romance and marriage to Marie, Marie's work at the Bulford YMCA, and the birth of their daughter Violet. In the final letter, Marmont writes of the repatriation arrangements to come home and of being detained and threatened with court-martial following a false accusation of stealing.