Canadian War Veterans Memorial Project
Commemorating those that served
Commemorating those that served
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A photo and newspaper article about the death of Pte. James Ackers appeared in the Toronto Star on August 25th, 1916. The newspaper article was combined with a letter from Ackers. The following includes the transcription of the newspaper article as it appeared:
PTE. JAMES ACKERS DEAD.
Pte. James Ackers, 51 Somerset avenue, died of wounds on August 14. Only this week his wife received a letter from him dated August 4, in which he stated that he had then been out of the trenches for a rest, and was just returning again.
Dated: August 4, 1916
Dear wife,I might tell you that we have been in the trenches again and how glad I am to be able to write to you once more, as it is awful in the firing line. No one knows only those who have been there. But, thanks to God alone, I came out safe...This is the second year of the war, and yet no signs of peace. I doubt if there will be any unless the Russians keep up their advance. Dear wife, I would be tickled to see little Jim again and all of you, and I pray to God that some day He will restore me to my loved ones so far away.
Only yesterday came the word from Ottawa that the homesick father and husband had died as heroes die. Little Queenie, his daughter, aged 9, and Freddie, aged 4, and baby Jim, who is only one year and four months old, scarcely realize what has happened. But their mother, who knows it all, is red-eyed with weeping. Pte. Acker was 33 years of age, English by birth, and a coremaker by trade. He went overseas last April and had been in the trenches about two months.
Transcribed by: M. I. Pirie