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.

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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









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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

March 13 1915, Charley's 22nd letter home from France. WW1

March 13^th, 1915

France

Dear Sister

          Just received Mothers letter with yours enclosed and needless to say I was very glad to hear that you won the Silver medal at the Lit.  Let me ask you if that was just a Lit for the girls or for all the College.  When I went to Brandon College there was just one Lit for the whole College and it was held on Friday evenings.

          Say V-V has the Arts held their usual Annual Banquet.  If there are any old students of 1910 ask them if they remember the Arts Banquet of that year.  There were a few of us fellows waiting on table during the time that they were making speeches I went upstairs to Clark Hall and got Isabel Drummond who was in charge to wake up some of the girls and come down to the servants Dining Room where we had a banquet of our own.

          Miss Whiteside was the Matron there.  We were all reported and poor Isabel was not allowed outside of the Building for six weeks.  Ask Jack (Evans) if he remembers the time.  He was in First year arts then.

          Well V-V lately there has been a terrible lot of wounded coming in.  We have had two trainloads in the last two days.  Among them Princess Pats and some of the 90^th from Winnipeg.   It seems all the harder when you find men that you knew at home with a bullet in them, away out in this country.

          Around this neighbourhood there are three large Hospitals and we have had the least deaths of any of them.  So you see we have some very clever surgeons here.

          Well sister it makes letter writing very difficult when you can not say anything in your letters in regard to the movement of our troops etc.  So I will come to a close Remember me to your little roommate that wrote to Mother and write soon.  Every success in all your studies and exams.

Love

Chuck