Throughout the month of November we will be posting excerpts
from a selection of wartime correspondence between Pte. Sefton Stewart of the
77th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, and his family in Richmond,
Ontario. The complete letters will be on
display at the Stittsville Public Library in the Museum's exhibit honouring
Goulbourn in wartime.
This is letter number three:
Somewhere, August 20, 1916
Dear Mother:
Just
a few lines to let you know we are all well, hoping you are all the same. Did you receive my letter written shortly
after we arrived in France? Stopped in
France a few days and then came right through to Belgium. France and Belgium are more like Canada than
England; the crops being splendid.
You
already know that they are very particular about any information given, making
it hard what to say. The airships are
continually flying over our heads. It is
certainly great to see how they can handle them. Quite often, shells are to be seen bursting
all around one, from a distance they seem close. It is said the Germans are very done out on
the front, but are causing quite an excitement yet. Our camp is surrounded by Belgian crops and
houses.
I
forgot to tell in my other letter of receiving a cake when in Bramshott, but
didn’t know whether it was from you or Clystal.
Anyway, the box was all broken up, together with the cake, but we
certainly enjoyed it. One thing missing
most now is money, not being paid for about a month and only getting one franc
or 20 cents per day. Some of the other
fellows have got word or different parcels which were sent but haven’t received
them yet. A parcel mostly takes about a
week longer than a letter.
The
other evening we were very much surprised in seeing Roy Tubman and Tom
Touchette, a son of Mrs. Rob Hills. Roy
looks fine. He has been over here ten
months and says he has certainly been very lucky, having some close escapes. Touchette knew quite a few of the boys on
account of coming over in the 77th draft.
I
haven’t yet got an envelope for this letter, which is a very scarce article
here.
The
Germans seem to know every move, having up on a sign board "Welcome 73rd". The British Artillery seems to be landing
over the shells much thicker than the Germans.
We were told Alvin Danby was quite close to our camp but just moved away
a day before we came in. How are Pa and
George getting along at the harvest? I
suppose they have it almost finished by this time. I guess George and Irene throw on while Eva
mows back. You will want to get Clystal
up for the potato season.
I
don’t think Channon Hall would be able to stand it over here. We feel very bad for poor Arthur being
separated from us, but the last time I saw him was in Bramshott. He was then looking fine. It is said their quarters are about a mile
over from us. One companion we always
have is our gas helmet. In fact, we carry two all the time. School
will soon be starting again. George will
want to start as soon as possible.
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