Original Letter

France 2/10/17

My Dearest Baby:–

This has been a good old peaceful day – plenty of work but nothing serious, nothing irritating. It has been a little cooler and no sunshine to-day and I should hate to think that the good weather is going to break up but pretty soon it must come I suppose. In addition, or probably this is the real reason why it was a good day, I had a good letter from you, My Dearest a pretty good little saucy little letter with some very pertinent enquiries in it. To take them in their order on a business basis. You know perfectly well the reason or reasons I wanted you to stay in France. I may be superstitious but I cannot make myself believe that England is any safe place to be living in even when you were in Woking I was always worrying about zepps and aeroplanes and as for your running about well – I certainly was worried when you went to Margate and Folkestone because Fritz drops things there about as regularly as he eats lunch. And now, of course, when he goes over daily I am absolutely tickled to death to think that you are safe in France. Surely Dear, you don’t think that I wanted you to stay over here because you ‘ran around’ so much in England. Really I was always pleased to pieces when you were shifting about and enjoying yourself. And if you aren’t enjoying yourself in France, why I shouldn’t want you to stay a single minute and if you ever do want to go back to England ever so little well you know that your wish is supreme. That is quite honest, Maidie, its great for me your being in France but I should be very unhappy if I thought you were staying here just to humour me when really you would be happier in England.

Now as far as not having any money is concerned – well you said a mouthful there. We haven’t got such a very lot, have we? Economy won’t do any real harm but at the same time you must not let it keep you awake nights. You must keep a sufficient stake to get back to Canada of course, and as much more as possible but absolutely you must not brood over your poverty.

To digress. As I write the boys are getting ready for bed and Larry is giving us his life history. He said that he lived in New Brunswick and he heard of the harvest excursions. So away he went and never did get nearer home than when he came down on the train to embark at Halifax. He is very funny. He is going to subdivide all the valley we are in at present  We were talking about the long names Fritz has for some things and Larry observed that “it must take a good educated fellow to hold down a job in their Orderly Room”.

Don’t you know that I should be in bed at this very minute? Its my night on the messages and I’ll be awake plenty. So I’ll just tell you that I adore you and ask you if you feel as if you could be nice to me if I were there with you and ask for a little kiss and I’m away

Au revoir, My Dearest

Your own

Ross

Margate and Folkestone

Note
Margate and Folkestone are English coastal towns located at the southeastern tip of Britain, across the Channel from Calais, France.

Folkestone was, indeed, bombed on 25 May 1917 (after this letter was written) in the first bombing raid by the new German Gotha bombers. (The original target was London but the planes were diverted due to bad weather.)

Source: Walter G. Green, III (August 2003) “Strategic Bombing in World War I – Germany,” http://www.richmond.edu/~wgreen/ECDstratbombIge.html, accessed 12 February 2008.

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harvest excursions

Note
Before the introduction of the combine harvester, labour shortages in the West were severe and long-lasting. Beginning in 1890 and until 1929 (when the combine harvester and other farm machinery were introduced - and the wheat market collapsed), the CPR transported thousands of workers each fall from eastern Canada to the prairies and back to help prairie farmers with the grain harvest.

Wages were high and the train fare low, but working conditions were poor, with workers being crowded into poor accommodation upon arrival in the West. The trains that transported the workers were also overcrowded, and the journey was characterized by boredom, hunger and poor sanitation. For western towns, and those along the route, the arrival of the excursioners was a mixed blessing. While local businesses suddenly had a large captive market for their wares (for which some did not hesitate to overcharge), “[i]t was, from the very beginning, a raucous experience. Youthful exuberance, often fuelled by liquor, was a potent mix and incidents of violence, vandalism and petty thievery were not uncommon.” (Wright)

Source: “Harvest Excursion,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_excursion#References, accessed 12 February 2008; Glenn Wright, “The Harvesters,” Canadian Reflections feature, Legion magazine (March/April 2001), www.legionmagazine.com/features/canadianreflections/01-03.asp, accessed 26 April 2007.
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zepps

Note
zeppelin, rigid airship of a type originally manufactured by Luftschiffsbau-Zeppelin and consisting of a cigar-shaped, trussed, and covered frame supported by internal gas cells. The first Zeppelin airship was designed by Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin, a retired German army officer, and made its initial flight from a floating hangar on Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Ger., on July 2, 1900. Beneath the 42-foot (128-metre) craft a keel-like structure connected two external cars, each of which contained a 16-horsepower engine geared to two propellers. A sliding weight secured to the keel afforded vertical control by raising or lowering the nose, while rudders were provided for horizontal control. The craft attained speeds approaching 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).

During World War I the Germans achieved moderate success in long-range bombing operations with the zeppelin-type rigid airship, which could attain higher altitudes than the airplanes then available. On two occasions during 1917, German Zeppelins made flights of almost 100 hours duration. Such performances led many people to believe that large airships would play a prominent part in aviation development. A number of Zeppelins were distributed to the Allied countries as part of postwar reparations by Germany.

Source: The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 12, Micropaedia Ready Reference, 15th ed. (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2005).

See also notes on the French getting all those zepps and bombs with the letter of October 24, 1917.

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Woking

Note
A town in Surrey, southwest of London — farther from the coast than Margate and Folkstone, which are coastal towns and, thus, more exposed to aerial bombardment.

When would Mary have been there? Earlier, when Ross was stationed in Rouen?
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Larry

About Lawrence Power
Larry, as Ross mentions the first time he writes about him, is the runner for the 50th Bn. Although Ross refers to him as Larry Powers (with an s), according to the attestation papers, this man's surname was Power.

Does anyone have any more information about Larry Power?

Note
This is presumably Larry Power, the runner Ross mentions in the letter of October 1, 1917, not Ross's brother Lawrence Playfair (who is mentioned in the letter of October 27, 1917).
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War Diary

Working parties as usual. Training 2.00 p.m to 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon. Casualties. 3 O.R. Killed in Action. 1 O.R. Wounded on working party.

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Map

  • Location: Blue Bull Camp (Zouave Valley)
  • Battalion role: Front

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