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First World War veterans are more than just names carved on a cenotaph. During Remembrance Day, as the years sail on by, it is all the more important to keep alive the stories of those brave men and women who fought and died for freedom in “the war to end all wars.”
While the men themselves may be long gone, Royal Canadian Legion Service Officer Glenn Miller has made it his mission to bring them back to life — through their letters home from overseas. Each letter is an integral piece of the puzzle depicting that particular soldier’s life which, when put together, paint a pretty vivid picture of what life was like for a typical First World War soldier. Everything adds to the story from photos they took, to flowers soldiers sent back pressed in old books they were reading at the time, to pieces of the ruins from Vimy Ridge, which could be easily dismissed as garbage.
“Whenever you think of throwing something away that belonged to your grandfather or great-grandfather, go to the Galt (Museum & Archives) first,” Miller told an attentive crowd at the Galt Museum on Nov. 2.
As part of the Galt’s Wednesdays at the Galt seniors’ program, Miller painted a vivid picture of the life of 20th Battalion Fifth Brigade Canadian Field Artillery artillery gunner John B. Murray, who lived from 1892 to 1961, according to Murray’s headstone shown in the presentation.
Written letters were the “primary method of communication over there, even though it sometimes took as long as six months to get back home,” Miller said.
“The biggest thing for morale was getting news from home and that was from letters.”
Miller noted that learning things, such as a sister becoming pregnant and what was going on with their parents, helped keep the soldiers connected to home.
“Most letters were written on YMCA stationary,” he said, pointing out a rare letter written on paper with the actual battalion’s crest.
Miller was also in the artillery, serving several tours in Bosnia. While most soldiers email, he said, it could take a long time to respond to an email, as there were only four computers for approximately 60 men, most of whom would rather shower after a dangerous and extended mission rather than fight over computers to answer emails.
His presentation of Murray’s life was based on research he conducted through a variety of places including the Galt Museum’s archives where he found news stories and photos of Murray, his little sister Babe and his little brother after receiving a stack of letters from Miller’s granddaughter, then uncovering census forms, old photos, Canadian Pacific Railroad documents and a lot more. Some of the letters, as well as a folder of the carefully preserved originals, plus photos of life at Camp Hughes, officers, ships and a rare one of the gun Murray would have used, plus newspaper articles, were displayed on an overhead screen for the people to see and read along. He read excerpts from the letters which described details of their day-to-day routines, such as polishing their brass buttons, though he said soldiers in the field would leave them unpolished as a reflection off them could reveal their location to the enemy. There were also some letters describing a Zeppelin attack. He noted letters were censored to ensure no sensitive information was given away, though most of them were just thrown out rather than blacked out.
He noted sewing was an important skill for the men to learn as they were far from their families and mothers who would usually do the sewing for them.
“They were very proud of their promotions and would sew on their stripes themselves,” he said.
Miller noted soldiers came from all walks of life including farmers, politicians, teachers and railroad workers.
“The CPR was very important to John Murray. He paid up his dues to protect his seniority. Most of them thought they‘d be back home before Christmas,” he observed.
“Lots of boys came together, and they all expected to be home by Christmas.”
He touched on wartime rationing.
“The men were rationed to two eggs a day, and the cook would keep careful track of them because not all of the men ate their eggs, so he would use the extra eggs to make a treat like a cake for the men,” Miller said.
Little details such as the writing style of the letters helped complete a picture of the authors, he added.
“He was a guy who liked to say ‘gee’ a lot. He wrote that a lot, so you can imagine he talked like that, too,” Miller observed after the presentation. His letters included everything from time spent training in Camp Hughes in Manitoba, rations, mess hall “boxing” while sailing overseas on massive ships (he said men at the back of the mess line would often fight each other for scraps) and his enthusiasm after finally finishing his training and “getting to fire the gun.”
Miller said while there are a lot of individual letters from soldiers around, he seldom comes across such a thorough collection as this one.
“There are very few collections of letters like this existing in southern Alberta. He was over there for four years, and they cover all of the stages from ‘I can’t to wait to get over there and see some action,’ to seeing the horrors of war to ‘I can’t wait to go home; I’ve done my bit,’” he said.
He pointed out a couple letters from Murray advising his younger brother to “buy” his way out of joining the service, observing if he did join he should try to join Murray’s own unit so he could protect him.
Clarence Cluff, a 96-year-old Second World War veteran, was among the people at the presentation.
He said he didn’t write a lot of letters home while serving overseas.
“I never wrote a lot of letters. I didn’t want her (his mother) to get worried about me. So I just told her everything was OK. My mother was disgusted with me,” he said.
“Our war was really short. There was only an hour a year of real fighting,” he said.
He added that most of his time overseas was spent training.
“I went over to England in 1940 and didn’t come home until 1946.
“But I was an old man when I went over.” |
