South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 28 March 1942
Holiday Out East.
Gnr. Arthur Baker, who is with the Middle East Forces, has written to his parents. at Chambers Avenue Conanby, giving an interesting account of how he spent seven days’ leave in the Middle East.
He describes they started holiday at Tel-aviv, staying at an hotel where the Mediterranean rolled on to the balcony at high tide.
Leaving there, they visited among other places, the Church Mount Nativity at Bethlehem, the Mount of Olives, and the Garden of Gethsemane, from which he sent a leaf from an olive tree. He saw the Church of all Nations which is reputed to be on the site where the Virgin Mary was born. He also saw the Wailing Wall.
The holiday concluded with a visit to Jaffa but as the population is practically all Arab they had a difficulty with the language. He closes his letter by saying that while they were in the Holy Land they “sat and saw the New Year in thinking of home.”
Gnr. Baker volunteered for the Royal Artillery in September, 1940 and he has been out East for the past eight months.
He borrowed an Arab’s head-dress for the photograph shown herewith.