1915, Sept 30th, Charley's 30th letter home from France. WW1

Called the 'Big Push', the Battle of Loos was the largest British battle of 1915 on the Western Front. It was the first time the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units who were not well enough trained. On September 24th the reserve divisions were warned to carry extra rations as it may be some time before their cookers caught up with them. By September 28th the British had lost over 20,000 men, including three major-generals.

Wearing their anti-gas masks and looking like hooded familiars of the inquisition, British troops attacking Germans with bomb and bayonet.  From illustratedfirstworldwar.com

September 30^th, 1915

France  

Dear Mother

            The last few days we have been very busy as I suppose you have seen by the papers of the big advance the allies have made, and as a result the Hospitals are kept going day and night, wounded coming in very nearly every day and night.  If the Allies continue we all may be home for Xmas yet.

          Say I nearly fell over dead when you told me about Harry Richmond going to the Peace River Country, but as for Mable I think I told you one time that either that or something more serious would happen.  Of course don’t mention anything I say to Aunt Rachie or she would have a fit. 

          I have been on night duty and believe me I sure will be glad when I am back on days again. You are not allowed to sleep during the night and it is mighty hard to get much during the day when most of the fellows are around.

          There are another bunch leaving here for the front, to start a dressing station in a day or so. I sincerely hope they have no accidents but one never can tell what’s going to happen especially under these conditions. 

          Well how is the kid getting along at school it wont be so pleasant during the winter but tell her that she won't have to put up with it only this term as next fall I will be in a condition to help her at Brandon. 

          I guess Dad can grow potatoes alright but it must be awfully funny to see him doing any kind of farm work but he know as much about it as any of them.

          It has started in the rainy season here and believe me I feel this damp air.  Well  Mother you know how scarce news is around here.

          Remember me to VV, Pa, Albert and Lavinia and best of health to you all as I am the very best.

Chas

_________________________
Sources: http://www.1914-1918.net/bat13.htm and www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com

1915, Sept 22nd, Charley's 29th letter home from France. WW1

September 22^nd, 1915

France Com 

Dear Mother

            Well dear Mother of late I have had but very few letters from you I guess it is on account of the Postal service because there are weeks at a stretch that I never even get the papers that I know have been sent to me.

          Things in general have been very slack here there are not half the wounded coming in that used too early in the spring.  Of course I am not at all sorry as it gives us more time to our selves and believe me we sure can stand it.

          I am very sorry indeed to hear of the circumstances but Mother I have did every thing in my power and it is an utter impossibility.  But it is a long road that has no turning and lets hope that all ends well.  One year from Brandon will not make such a tremendous difference and things will be all together different next year for us all.

          Is the Richmond family all still anxious about Ina.  Well Mother they don’t need to worry at all because it will do them no good and moreover I think she has as much common sense as any of them.

          You were saying that Albert wished he was with us out here.  Tell him that all that glitters is not gold and I would gladly change places if such a thing was possible. 

          Well Mother tell Dad and V-V I will write to them soon.  Remembrance to all and cheer up, cause it won’t be long till we are all dead.

Lovingly

Chas

 

 

An article in the Winnipeg Tribune on this day in 1915 talks about 'the most drastic and far reaching taxes in the history of Great Britain.' Personal income taxes were about to jump by 40% to support the war effort. "McKenna duties"  were coming into effect with what was being called the greatest war budget in the worlds history.

 

The photo below shows the interior of the local Holland Newspaper office (1914) with Editor Noah Hewitt and his helper.  

It's quite likely that Marmaduke would have read about this budget news in the Holland Observer.                                 

Instead of raising taxes, in Canada we were borrowing from the US and from our own citizens.  The French and English divide was deepening. National debt was skyrocketing, a bumper crop of wheat needed farm hands, volunteer soldiers were needed at the front and Canadian's at home were feeling the pinch in every way.  Suffrage and prohibition were topics high on everyone's agendas.  

Canada had no official voice yet in the administration of this war however by 1915 our military spending had surpassed the entire government expenditures of two years earlier.  These were extremely challenging years for Canadians at home and for those in service at the front.  

As Charley says "Cheer up, cause it won’t be long till we are all dead."

Sources: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/first-world-war-wwi/

1915, Sept 9th, Charley's 28th letter home from France. WW1

September 9^th, 1915

France Com

Dear Mother

          I have not written lately as often as I should have on account of trying to get that put through for VV and was just informed today that it is impossible.  However one year won't make a great deal of difference.  I wrote a while ago saying that I would be able to do so and I am more sorry than any of you to find it an impossibility.

          You were saying that Dad and Albert don’t get along extra well.  If you remember in one of my letters before you left Holland I said that I did not think they would.

          Things here are very quiet just at present, there being practically no wounded at all coming but in this branch of the service a person never knows when the hospital may be filled in a moments notice.        

          A few of our boys from here have transferred into regiments in the trenches but as yet I am right here.  In the trench the lead is flying around to freely to suit me but  of course if I was ordered up there I go with a good heart to get as many possible before they got me.

          Say Mother you all seem to be down on Ina and think she is tough well don’t convict her till you get more than the Richmond family evidence.  Of course she may travel in society that I surely would not want VV to be in but never the less she is the best by far of that family and I have saw more of them the last few years than any of us.

          Apparently the kid don’t seem to be in love with her new school and companions Believe me it is the last year she will have to contend with it and that is the truth.

Well dear Mother I have nothing more to say but cheer up it a long road that has no turn.

Remember me to Dad and the Kid also to Lavinia and Albert and hope this finds you in good spirit. I come to a close

With love

Chas

 

 

 

Marmaduke Thomas Lorenzo Lloyd ~ Charley's Step-Father

This post is a digression from Charley's letters home to shed some light on his family members.  Here then is a short biography of the only father Charley ever knew.  My Great Grandfather,
Marmaduke Thomas Lorenzo Lloyd

Marmaduke's headstone says he was born December 14, 1855 Hogg's Hollow, Ontario, Canada.  Canadian Census records show a range of years for Marmaduke's birth from 1855 to 1859.  Most census records say 1857.  

His mother; Mary Ann French had 9 children. Marmaduke was her 4th child. His older sister Margaret was born in 1853, his younger brother Albert was born in 1859.  

Hogg's Hollow where Marmaduke was born was and still is one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Toronto, located in the Don River Valley and centered on the intersection of Yonge Street and York Mills Road. The Lloyd family were farmers.



Hogg's Hollow was named after James Hogg, a Scotsman from Lanarkshire who settled there in 1824. Hogg operated a whiskey distillery and a grist mill, and was considered the most successful of all the millers in the valley.   

In about 1880 the John Shearer Lloyd family moved to Winnipeg Manitoba and with his sons received several land grants.  Marmaduke worked as a contractor in Winnipeg into his late 20's.  His dad died in 1884 as a result of a fall on a stair. John Shearer Lloyd was buried in Winnipeg. He was 64 years old.

In 1886, 29 year old Marmaduke arrived in Vancouver BC. It was the year the city was incorporated. It's also the year of the massive fire that consumed Vancouver ~ some one thousand wooden buildings, and it's the year Stanley Park was established. 

Marmaduke had business interests in logging, was a thorough horseman and a published writer of poetry. He was a lover of good horses and often stated, "There is just as much difference in horses as in men."

In 1891 Marmaduke purchased the Palace Livery Stables at 1003 Pender Street, at the corner of Burrard and Pender.  There were 13,000 residents in Vancouver in 1891. In the six years since Marmaduke arrived, it had grown from a population of about 400.

On July 13th 1894, this article ran in the 'Vancouver Daily World' newspaper.

   It has been our aim in preparing these sketches for our big supplement edition to The World, to select representative and leading firms in the various lines of manufacture, trade, banking, etc., and it is gratifying to be able to state that in preparing this sketch we are introducing the reader to the most completely equipped and largest livery stable in Vancouver. 
   Mr. M.T.L. Lloyd, the proprietor of the business, is a native of Toronto, and previous to his becoming proprietress of the Palace, was a wall-known and prominent contractor of Vancouver.
   The Palace was one of the first livery stables opened in Vancouver and the building was erected with special reference to its use, and provided with all modern conveniences. It is eligibly located on Pender Street, near Burrard and has a capacity to stable 75 head of horses and of housing the vehicles, harness, etc., for their use.
   Mr. Lloyd is a thorough horseman, and the very best care is given to stock and rigs of boarders, and at reasonable rates.
   The Palace keeps a number of horses and livery purpose, and has among them fine roadsters for gentlemen's driving, gentle horses for ladies' driving and riding, fine carriage horses and gentlemen's riding horses.  They can supply at short notice, camping, hunting and fishing outfits and make a specialty of supplying turnouts for excursion parties, and of furnishing tourists with carriages or three seaters, accompanied with experienced drivers, acquainted with all places in the city, or near it, deemed of special interest by strangers.
   In point of stock, carriages, and the general paraphernalia which goes to make up a first-class livery stable, Mr. Lloyd has spared no expense, and has the best of everything.
   Persons or parties arriving in Vancouver with a view to investment or settlement cannot do better than to call on Mr. Lloyd. His extensive acquaintance will enable him to give much valuable information, while his turnouts and drivers will be at the disposal of patrons as moderate as can be obtained from other stables.
  The measure of patronage accorded to the Palace Livery stables by the public has been amply merited by a course of honourable dealing and fair treatment of patrons which has won for its proprietor the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has had business relations.

On June 2nd, 1896, the 'Vancouver Daily World' Newspaper ran a similar article.

PALACE LIVERY
There is no more thriving and popular establishment of the kind in the Province than the Palace Livery Stable.   Mr. M.T.L. Lloyd, proprietor, located at the corner of Pender and Burrard streets. Eight years ago these stables were opened and in 1891, Mr. Lloyd became proprietor. The main building is a three-story structure 80 x 150 feet in area, thoroughly modern and complete in appointment and equipment. It is lighted by electric light; is provided with the latest sanitary appliances and is up to date in every particular. There is accommodation for upwards of 90 horses.  A general livery and boarding business is conducted. Firs class single and double driving and ladies and gentleman's saddle horses; gladstones, phaetons, buggies and all the latest styles of carriages are kept and promptly sent to any part of the city.  There are no finer equipages in the city than those turned out by the Palace Livery Stable.  A specialty is made of boarding horses. In all instances the rates are very moderate. Mr M.T.L. Lloyd is very well known and is quite popular in the city.  He came here ten years ago from Manitoba where he was in business. After arriving in Vancouver he followed contracting for a time.  He takes an active interest in the city`s welfare and has various interests in a logging business.  His time, however, is chiefly occupied about the stables.  He is a lover of good horses and has often stated, `there is just as much difference in horses as in men.  Besides his many business pursuits he has frequently favoured the press with some choice poems.  As a writer Mr. Lloyd has won considerable distinction.

Palace Livery Stable 1003 Pender Street, Vancouver British Columbia (about 1896)

Close up of rooftops and the Palace Livery Stable ~ note the horse on the weather vane.

This is a map of Vancouver in 1898~ the wee yellow dot is the location of the Palace Livery Stable.

By 1898 Marmaduke was back in Manitoba                     
His first and only marriage was to Jennie Bailey (nee Howie) They married on June 7th, 1898 at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Jennie was widowed very young. Charles Bailey; her first husband, was killed in a logging accident weeks after their child (Charles Roy Bailey) was born.

Marmaduke was 42 when he married Jennie, who was then 26. Marmaduke and Jennie had one child of their own: Vida Valerie Lloyd born April 29th, 1899 in Brandon. Marmaduke and Jennie owned and ran hotels and rooming houses in Manitoba before the war years and when times got tough and food production was the #1 priority in Canada, they farmed for the duration of the war years.

Marmaduke's step-son, Charley Bailey served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the first world war.  He enlisted in August 1914 and returned home in January of 1919.  This blog tells much of the story of Marmaduke and Jennie's lives during the war years.

Shortly after Charley returned from the war, the family packed up and moved to Kelowna.
V.V. took a teaching position in a Glen Rosa, above Westbank at a one room day school in 1920.

This is a photo of Bernard Avenue in Kelowna in 1920.
 Marmaduke and Jennie Lloyd's property was on Ethel Street somewhere between Bernard and Harvey? I've not found the actual address of their place as yet. They bought a small ranch with a big hay field and raised chickens.  

My dad; Thomas Kenneth Perrin recalls spending summers in Kelowna with his Grandma and Grandpa who he called Gaga and Aboo.  He recalls that his grandmother; Jennie kept a nickle plated .32 revolver hidden in her bedroom for those chicken thieves who might be 'clumping her gumps'.  Tom recalled trapping pheasants in the hay field using a grain baited muskrat trap and having cookouts with the neighbourhood kids which featured corn stolen from nearby fields and much talk of clumping gumps to complete the feasts. 

Albert and Lavinia (Marmaduke's unmarried brother and sister) lived across the hay field.
My father remembers Marmaduke as gentle soul with a comforting warm lap, who smelled of bay rum and cigars. 

The Lloyds originally came from Wales then moved to northern Ireland (Ulster) then on to Canada. Marmaduke was a staunch Orangeman. He used a Blackthorn Cane which is still in the family and which purportedly came with the Lloyds from Wales.

Marmaduke and Jennie Lloyd ~ My great Grandma and Grandpa.

Marmaduke died January 19, 1935 Kelowna British Columbia Canada

(Lane Hogaboam, Find a Grave Volunteer very kindly tended to and cleaned up Jennie and Maramaduke's headstones (and photographed the stones) at the Pioneer Cemetery in Kelowna. They were showing serious signs of age and covered with lichen before Lane generously cleaned the stones.)

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.