1915, August 15th Charley's 27th Letter home from France, WW1

No. 2 Stationary Hospital
France

Dear Mother

This is the first chance I have had to write you at my leisure since I came back so I have taken advantage of it. I heard from the kid yesterday and have made arrangements to have her wish fulfilled.

It was just all I could do, but after failing Dad, I would have done very nearly anything to help before I would see her lose out at Brandon however you can tell her that she can expect a little present from me any of these days soon at all events before September the 26th. 

 

I could not get any news out of V-V’s letter because all she could talk about was pigs, and more pigs, little pigs and big pigs. Ask her if she would like to go pig crazy.

Well Mother I wonder when this infernal war is going to end it seems to me that we will be out here forever.

The climate is very nice and in our spare time we generally manage to scrape up something to help pass the time more pleasant.

How are things at Holland. You never tell me anything about that burg Holland. Is it a town or a disease? And you never say if Dad likes the place or not.

My ankle is still a little weak but nothing of any account the arm is as good as ever. As yet I have not saw any of the Portage bunch back from the line nor anybody that I am real well acquainted with.

Well Mother there is absolutely nothing in the line of news, only the good news for VV it will arrive in a day or so. Love to Dad and Albert and Lavinia.
Chas

It sounds like Charley's dad asked him for financial help. Charley would have been pretty upset to have to say he didn't have it. On active service Charley was making a dollar and 10 cents a day and he lost pay days (fairly frequently it seems) due to reprimands. He would have had a pretty decent wage back home at Clarendon Pharmacy.  In Winnipeg in 1915 a barber could make $18 to $25 a week, a general blacksmith $3.50 to $4 a day.

With Marmaduke's background of being a successful and respected businessman, farming I think would have been a difficult transition.  And he was 58 years old, not a young man. Marmaduke may have been struggling to keep VV in college.
V.V. had just completed her first year at Brandon College and was likely helping her folks with the farming over summer break.  Sounds like she was in charge of the pigs.
Everyone's lives were forever changed.

Pork Poster. Library and Archives Canada. "By 1916, the Canada Food Board encouraged productivity in the agricultural sector, asking Canadian farmers to increase their production of beef, pork and eggs to meet British demand."

1915, July 21st. Charley's 27th letter home from France. WW1

July 21st, 1915

Dear Mother,

Well Mother I am out of the Hospital at last and no worse for my little accident.  I am now at the Canadian Base and by the time you get this I will be back to duty with our own outfit.  Had a letter from V.V. and answered it from the Hospital the last day I was there. 

          Well how do you like farming.  Gee it seems funny to think of Dad on a farm.  I can imagine him working with horses and machinery.  How are Albert and Lavinia.  She wrote me a letter when they were on Edmonton Street. I answered it but never got a reply to my answer so tell her to drop a fellow a line occasionally.  

This is a fine location for a camp and one of the nicest places I have been since I came to France.  It resembles Victoria very much in regards to scenery flowers etc.  Yesterday I happened to go down to the docks and my goodness the machinery they have for moving heavy and bulky material is wonderful. A person could walk around those docks for days and never see all the things that are so strange to one who has lived inland all his life.

They tell me that at last they have finally got Ina to go to Montreal.  If the girl had a little more peace she would act a lot different to wards her people but you know how strange Aunt Rach is.  She has not written to me three months so I guess she is sore because I took Ireland around there.  However if her own boy didn’t do anything worse than Karl he will be alright and she is not hurting me very much by not writing.  Well Mother I have absolutely nothing to say of any importance only that I am all OK again and expect to rejoin my own unit in a few days So I will draw to a close.  Remember me to Dad, V-V, and Lavinia and Albert and write to my old address.  No2

Loving  
CRB

FAMILY NOTES   'Albert and Lavina' who are mentioned in this letter are Marmaduke's younger brother and sister (Charley's Aunt and Uncle).  Aunt Rach is Jennie's sister (Charley's Aunt on his mom's side) and Ina is the youngest of Rachel's children. From what Charley says, it sounds as though he introduced his cousin Ina to Karl Duncan Ireland whom Ina married late in 1914. Karl and Ina have just moved to Montreal. 

Excerpts from Charley's Official service records ~ Medical notes

On July 10th (1915) Charley was docked 7 days pay for disobeying hospital orders and talking in the marquee after lights out. He was still recovering in hospital and likely feeling pretty good by now.    

Charley works in a hospital at the front, so his familiarity with the setting and his understanding of what his fellow patients had gone through to land them in a bed, may well have set him up to feel quite comfortable chatting with the lads at any time of day.

Losing seven days pay would have been a stiff penalty. In January 1914, The Ford Motor Company was offering an eight hour work day and a daily wage of $5.  As a Private in the CAMC, Charley was making a dollar a day with an additional field allowance of 10 cents a day.

On July 19th Charley was discharged to No 11 camp
He was taken on strength of No 3 General Base Depot Rouelles on the 20th.

Charley's family back home had turned their efforts to farming.  There were mixed messages in Canada during these war years.  Producing food was a #1 priority, but so was recruiting fodder for the front lines.  Rural Canadians in particular were encouraged to farm while men who lived in urban areas were expected to sign up.  There was a serious urban rural divide due to misunderstandings and mixed messages from Government. City folk often looked on rural farmers as shirkers profiting from the war. Charley's dad would have been 58 years old.  He had owned and managed hotels, and would have seen a dramatic decrease in business in the first year of the war. To old or infirm to enlist, and wanting to do his bit, Marmaduke may have accepted Government incentives to grow food.  Two of his unmarried siblings joined Jennie and Marmaduke in this patriotic endeavour.  V.V. was attending college.

1915, July 13th. Charley's 26th letter home from France. WW1

July 13th, 1915
L Havre

Dear Sister

Just received your letter this AM as you see I am not back to duty yet but expect to leave here tomorrow. I suppose you have heard all about the accident I had so there is no use going into details about that. I am all OK now and feeling as fit as ever.

You were expressing your desire to go back to Brandon College this fall. Well V-V I can’t help you this fall but never fear this will be the last year that I wont be able too. If by any chance you have to take your second part matric in Holland (Manitoba) you can rest assured that you will be sent back to Brandon to take your Arts and what ever happens, follow that course, as it is a B.A. you want. Something that everybody that is able to teach a few youngsters hasn’t got.

You were saying that Jim Ross is in England. Well if they arrive out here I sincerely hope them all kinds of luck as of late our fellows have been getting pretty badly smashed up. I hear that they are going to give some of the first Contingent a few days leave but it will not affect me in anyway as we are stationary.

So you are as big as Ina; I guess Mother is the Midget of our family and she is fifty lbs over in weight, do you ever jolly her about being fat. She gets mad when you kid her about her size. At least she pretends to.

Well V-V as you said in your letter your brother is not much of a letter writer and especially when there is absolutely no news of importance to give you.

Do write often. Remembrance to Dad, Mother, Albert and Lavinia and don’t worry about the College affair, as it will be all right and you will be able to get your degree early enough.

Lovingly
Chas

________________

It's been a long stretch. 

Charley's last letter home from the #2 Stationary Hospital in France was written on May 23rd, 1915. These past weeks I have felt the time lapse as though it were a hundred years ago and I am here in Canada while my 'brother' serves in France.  

#2 Canadian Stationary Hospital. Le Touquet France

I have wondered about what Charley is going through; what his days are like, how the lads in his old regiment are doing, is his hospital very busy, does he get time off and what does that look like?  
And I've gone a whole day or two without giving him much thought at all and have felt guilty when I realize I haven't kept him in my thoughts. 

I've kept an eye on the newspapers from 'back home' (the archives of the Winnipeg Free Press c.1915).  I've been reading fictional and factual accounts of the world at war in 1915. I ordered the DVD and watched the single season BBC mini series called Crimson Fields. 
I continue to search, mostly online, for photographs and mentions of 'my man' in France.

There must have been other letters during these last 7 weeks because Charley notes a more recent exchange of information with his sister in this letter. Charley mentions  'his accident' and yet his military medical records make no mention of any accident or injury during this time period; only Venereal Disease.

According to Charley's Service Records, on May 31st 1915, he was admitted as a patient to his own hosptial, he was then transferred to Wimereux and then on to the #9 Stationary Hosptial in Le Havre to be treated for Gonorrhea. 

"Although widely regarded as a mild disease (the clap), gonorrhea was a cause of much debility and its treatment by urethral washouts was widely detested by servicemen." 1  

A cartoon postcard showing a French Soldier at a Medical Inspection

Here is a link to an excellent article written by Clare Makepeace that explores the culture of brothels and prostitution in France during the Great War. 

I can't know for sure if Charley contracted Gonorrhea from an encounter with a prostitute but I expect that's how it was. 

This is from the letter Charley wrote home in October 1914 when he and the First Contingent landed in England.  
"The Canadian soldiers are getting a great welcome here. When we were waiting for our trains at Plymouth, there were thousands there cheering us. One old lady came over and talked to me. When I left she threw her arms around me, kissed me and said “ God Bless you my little man.

They were so glad to see us that they were giving us fruit, cigarettes and everything. The girls come up to you and beg for a button or a badge for a souvenir some of the boys landed in camp with all the buttons off their coat. But of course I am too bashful so naturally I had all my buttons on."

Charley is just 23 years old.  It's 1915. Because of his age, his circumstances, his upbringing and his self professed shyness; I'm wagering a guess that his contracting Gonorrhea may well have been from his first sexual encounter. 

1915, May 23rd. Charley's 25th letter home from France. WW1

May 23rd, 1915
France

Dear Mother
Well tomorrow is Queen Victoria's Birthday but I guess I won’t be able to celebrate it this year as in previous years.
(Charley might have enjoyed this kind of a day a few years earlier, having a picnic with friends at Winnipeg Beach)

The wounded are coming in very fast now as you can see by the papers. There are a couple of big battles raging now. Every train that comes in brings more Canadians, every day at present. There are several of the 90th regiment from Winnipeg laying wounded here. My old Battalion is all cut to pieces. Lucky for me that I transferred to a Hospital. I see enough here to suit me.
Had a letter from Ruby the other day she seems to be quite satisfied in her new sphere of life. By her letter, they have again changed their address and by what I can hear of Montreal it must be the nicest Residential part in the city.
V-V wrote me a few lines the other day, the second page was mostly French. Was glad to find she is doing so well at her College.
Things around here are just about the same as usual at present we're very busy and expect to be so as long as the fine weather lasts.
Well Mother I have absolutely no news only that I am still alive and as fat as ever. Remembrance to Dad and V-V when you write to her. Tell Dad I will drop him a line this week.
Chas

In this collection letters, there has been a lapse of just over a month.  Charley may have written home during this past month but these are the only letters that have survived.

These last four weeks would have been extraordinarily difficult and intense for everyone on the Western Front. The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from April 22nd to May 25th.  The Battle of St. Julien on April 24th 1915 was the first use of poison gas by the Germans against Canadian Troops. Not often mentioned is that the allied forces began retaliating with gas attacks against the Germans beginning in September of 1915 fearing that they might otherwise lose the war. 

Charley, we must remember, is writing home to his Mother. Charley does not elaborate on the horrors that he and the other medical personnel are dealing with around the clock at their Hospital at Le Touquet.  His mention of his old Battalion refers specifically to the 10^th Battalion Overseas Contingent ~ men from Victoria, Vancouver, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and about one hundred from Winnipeg.  

The story of the first Canadian Division at this Second Battle of Ypres is remembered as an historic and heroic stand by a hastily formed organization of (such young) men who were the first to arrive at Valcartier Quebec less than a year before.  'Citizen soldiers' mostly untrained and armed with the notoriously dreadful Ross rifle.  Almost from the moment of their arrival in France they won themselves a reputation for courage and tenacity. This is considered a pivotal battle and one that 'saved the day' for the allies. The cost was too high. The Canadian Division was literally 'cut to pieces'.  6,714 Canadians were killed, wounded, or made prisoners of war in defending Ypres.

__________________

The message on the back of the postcard noted: “Here we are and it’s lovely.” The image shows a family setting at Winnipeg Beach in 1912.  (Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg Beach 8, N13253)

1915, April 21st. Charley's 24th letter home from France. WW1

April 21st, 1915
France
No 2 Stationary Hospital
 
Dear Mother
      Well it is about 3 weeks since I had a letter from anybody in Canada so there must be something wrong with the mail service as I used to get 8 –10 a week. I suppose some of these days I will get about a whole days reading
      Things in general around here are beginning to rush again. Wounded coming in every day. The fine weather enables them to do a lot more fighting than in the previous months and by the way the wounded are coming in they are sure making use of the opportunity.
      The other day I was taking a little stroll in this vicinity and by chance happened to pass by a little old shack. In this little building there was an old couple of about 80 years of age. Very near starving to death and so many holes in the roof of the shack that it did not even keep the rain out.
I happened to get talking to them and found out they were Belgium refugees. The old lady let me see the picture of her seven sons. Four of them had been killed one was not expected to live. The other was in Hospital at Paris Plaza and the other they did not know where he was. Can you imagine a sight like that. It was the most heart rending thing that I ever saw or heard tell of.
      Has Sask gone dry yet or is it just a scare. I can hardly imagine that Province going prohibition.
      The 29th of the month is the birthday do you remember 18 years ago at Portage when all us kids were playing in the yard and Annie came out to tell us she heard a kid cry “I will never forget it” Makes quite a difference a few years doesn’t it.
      Well Mother if you happen to write to the kid shortly give her my best regards and congratulations.
Remember me to Dad and write soon
With love Chas.

A 2015 Aside:  The team at www.rtbf.be, under the leadership of Juliette Patriarch have done a

fantastic job of documenting the Belgian experience during the First World War.  

Marie Cappart and the other members of this team have put together an informative, inspiring and heartrending (as in Charley's chance meeting with the elderly Belgian couple) online experience. 

Visiting the page titled "All Topics' is a good place to start and invites us to "immerse ourselves in the biggest and smallest stories of the First World War.  

 

1915, March 16th. Charley's 23rd letter home from France. WW1

March 16^th, 1915

France Con                         

Dear Mother           

Congratulations, better late than never.  Say Mother what Birthday is it the 42^nd or 43^rd.  Do you remember four years ago on your birthday I left for Brock Sask?  Believe me that was some experience to me.

           
Say Mother did you ever write Scammel on Edmonton and Portage about my coat.  If you haven’t I wish you would let me know in your next letter and I will drop him a line myself.  Just to remind him of it.  The pockets and sleeves were beginning to wear a little so I told him to put some beaver trimmings on it.

I suppose you have heard all about the great advance the British have been making in the past few days.   

We have been getting in a terrible lot of wounded the last week or so and do you remember the Regiment in Winnipeg, called the 90^th, well we have some of their wounded here as well as the Princess Pats.  But things in general are just about the same in this locality.  As you know it is just about the routine every day.  

I had a letter from Ina the other day and if Aunt Rache could have seen it she sure would have been surprised Did they tell you of Ina going into the city to a Hockey game.  Well she went down with Fairburn and Ireland and her were together all the evening.  That fellow Si must sure be a country lad.  But for goodness sake don’t you ever say anything to anybody at Portage because I am kind of a confidential go between to all of them.  “Do you understand what I mean”

          
They say that the Second Con are in Salisbury Plains now.  If that is the case I may be able to see J Ross before long. I hope so.

           
Well Mother as I have said in previous letters that is very hard to write an interesting letter from here.  So remember me to Dad and V.V. and write soon

Love

Chuck









______________

Charlie went to Brock Saskatchewan in March 1911 (to work?  study ? do survey work?  to visit relatives?)

Charley's mother; Jennie Howie / Bailey / Lloyd was born in Portage la Prairie Manitoba Canada about 1872 which would have made it her forty third birthday in 1915.

During the First World War the 90th Regiment “Winnipeg Rifles” contributed to the 8th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on its formation in September 1914, and later recruited for the 44th, 90th, 144th, 190th and 203rd Battalions, CEF. The 8th Battalion served in France and Flanders with the 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division from 13 February 1915 until the Armistice. The 44th, 90th, 144th, 190th and 203rd Battalions provided reinforcements for the Canadian Corps in the field. The Rifles also contributed two companies as reinforcements to the 27th Battalion, CEF. Source

The Princess Pat's