Letters From the Front

Dated: August 20, 1915

Letters from the Front

The following letter was written by Jim Carswell, son of E. Carswell, Calgary, from the trenches in France. Jim's address is No. 34069, No. 1 Co., 10th Batt., C.O.E.F., France.¹ He went over with the 51st Battalion from Calgary in June.

August 20th, 1915.

Dear Dad,--

Received your letter today. I am all jake, have been in the firing line for five days, and am in billets now resting. Expect to go in again soon. Received a letter just before we were leaving for the trenches for the first time. Things are pretty quiet just at present. We can't say where we are, or what we're doing, or what we expect to do, for all our letters are censored before leaving here, and it is not allowed.

I did not try to transfer into the P.P.C.L.I. with Charlie and Art [Carswell], for they wouldn't be ready to come over for a month or two anyway, and besides I knew all the boys I was with, and also knew quite a few in the battalion I came to, so I thought I would prefer to stay with them in preference to going into a strange company, where I only knew two or three; also we were through with our training, or pretty near it, and they weren't. Do you know what battalion Morrison is with and what he is doing?

The harvest is going on here now. People are harvesting grain and tobacco up to within two or three miles of the firing line. After you get back out of the sound of the guns you would hardly think a war was going on. We use French money all the time. It is easy to figure out -- just the same as ours. All runs in fives and tens. If you multiply by five with their money brings it into dollars and cents. We get all the tobacco and cigarettes we can smoke. I got a lot from the Herald Tobacco Fund.² Charlie Saunder got a package of tobacco which was brought from the proceeds of a football match played between the Callies and the 50th, in which he played.

There are bath houses here. We go for a bath every time we come out for a rest and turn in our dirty clothes and get clean ones. We never do any washing. I met a lot of my old pals from Calgary. They came over in the first contingent. I am getting so I can understand a little French now. We get along alright though, for the people can nearly all speak some English. It isn't very hard anyway, for there is an awful lot of words in this language that you just pronounce with a different accent and it translates them into French. The biggest trouble I have is they talk too fast. You'll have to excuse the poor writing, for we have no writing desks or tables here, generally using the butt of our rifle.

Remember me to Uncle Jim and Uncle John. Tell them its fine out here, and that I wouldn't have missed this experience for Rockefeller's fortune. We have a bear of a time -- get fed good, have concerts every night when resting, and have football and baseball matches, too. Beats training all to pieces. Well, I must close now.

Your loving son,

JIM