Letter #11 December 18th, written by Charley (stationed at the #2 Stationary Hosptial in France) to his Mom and Dad and younger sister just before Christmas 1914
December 18 1914
France
Dear Mother
Being so late in the
month it is impossible to reach you by time to wish you a merry Christmas but I
can hope you have a Bright and prosperous New Year. Hess said in his letter yesterday that she
had sent me a ring for a present. Well I
hope you did not do anything so foolish as they may never reach here.
Say mother I would like
to send you my picture now. It is in the
army regulation that every body has to grow a moustache and you should see
mine. It is good and thick but the
infernal thing is almost red where it was first coming on. It was the funniest
feeling thing I ever had and bothered me awful.
Things in general around
here are just about the same. Every
little while there are patients coming in and going out. The weather is getting damper just now as it
is in the middle of the rainy season.
Has Viceroy got a
skating rink and a hockey team I think I will start in to Hockey when I go
back. There is no games or anything in
the line of sport here as all the young men are fighting as well as old
men.
At present the allies
are doing nothing but what you will know long before this reaches you. Had a letter from Aunt Rachie and she tells
me things are pretty slow in Portage if they are worse than they were last
summer they must be awful. It is
reported here that Canada is sending 25000 more men over the first of the
year. If things keeping coming the way
they have been I can’t see the war will last very much longer “ Let us hope
not,” A person just reading the papers cant imagine the amount of lives that
this war is costing.
Well Mother do you
remember me saying that some day I would see Paris and London I guess I was
about right. I only wish that you and Pa
and VV were all to live here for the winter months as it has Victoria all beat
to pieces.
All the operations that
our officers have performed so far have been successful I guess that is doing
well for a Hospital this size and especially a military one.
We have fourteen of
those big motor ambulances with us. They
were supplied by the British Red Cross Society “How is that”.
Be sure and tell me how
VV made out in her exams at Christmas. I
guess they will be pretty stiff as a general rule they are almost as hard as
the midsummer ones.
Well Mother it is
terribly hard to write a letter of interest, as we never get anywhere now that
we are stationed.
Remember me to Pa and VV when you write
Chas
Meanwhile back in Canada life goes on ...