Letters From the Front

Signaller Harold Roy Flint

Christmas 1915 - 3rd Battalion's brief truce

Toronto Evening Telegram    Published: January 12, 1916

The following extract from a letter written by Signaller Harry Roy Flint appeared in the Toronto Evening Telegram on January 12th, 1916. Apparently the letter, written on Christmas Day (Dec. 1915) was found with Flint's possessions after his death from wounds on December 30th at No. 8 Casualty Clearing Station. The letter was sent on to Canada by military authorities in Folkestone, England. It appeared that Flint had not had a chance to mail it himself.

The letter mentions a brief Christmas Truce. The 3rd Battalion war diary entry for December 25th also mentions an attempt at fraternization: "The Germans attempted to make friends but gave up after several of them were shot."

The war diary entry for Christmas Day 1915 mentions that two 3rd Battalion men were shot in the head and killed: Lance Corporal Richard Nash and Pte. Frank Joseph Keown .

Harold Roy Flint was serving with No. 1 Company, 3rd Battalion. Born in Toronto, he had been educated at Rose Avenue Public School and Jarvis Collegiate Institute. He was a member of St. Aidan's Anglican Church, and the Boy Scouts at Birch Cliff. In addition, he was a member of the Balmy Beach (Toronto) Athletic club. He had prior military experience with the Queen's Own Rifles in the signalling corps. He had been employed with the Canadian General Electric Company Ltd.

According to this article, Flint had recently mailed home souvenirs from the front: buttons, badges and "two noses of heavy shells". He had tried to mail a part of a German helmet, but it did not make it through.

Flint had served with the 3rd Battalion up to that point. He had been lightly wounded once before.

In the letter he mentions his friend Lance Corporal Walter Longley , who died of wounds around the same time.

His cousin Ivan Iliffe Flint also served with the 3rd Battalion.

Full article.

Transcribed by: M. I. Pirie