.NzE.MTE1NTU

Makes Light of His Wounds - Private Thomas Van Dyke a young British Columbia man in the Canadian Expeditionary force, writes to Mr. W. G. Westwood, 439 Abbott Street, that he is quite happy and contented. The reason for this seems to be the trifling nature of his wounds, for he says that he has only a shrapnel wound in the face, and with the exception of the piece of shell carrying away a portion of his upper lip, along with a piece of his tongue and tonsils and his right nostril, then tearing his teeth out and breaking his lower jaw, nothing much happened to him. The surgeons are doing the best they can to supply the parts missing.

See - May 29th

Was lying next me

BC Archives, MS-0392 Box 1 Volume 4 / FRANK SWANNELL PAPERS / Diary and enclosures, 1915.