WESTERN SCOTS BRITISH COLUMBIA

New Address Private E. Seeley No 489697 1st Canadian Pioneers Menzies St Drill Hall Victoria

Feb 19/16

Dear Fred

Your last letter of Feb 10th received O.K. Re the Canadian Loan Bonds I sold those bonds as I wanted the use of the money as I offered to buy my transfer. I did not expect they would take me up but I wanted the cash in hand in case they did. My Bluff worked out as you may see by my new address. My offering to pay up to 400$ for the priviledge of mearly having the priviledge to serve in another Batt. made them thnk I realy wished to go which I did in fact I should have gone to England and joined up there so you see paying 400$ even would have been the cheapest as I should have been a deserter with all that entails. But I had got a very real dislike to the Leuit in charge of my platoon & in a lesser degree to the Sergent. The bunch I am with are a click of sailors mostly all the N.C.O.s are sailors with not much knowledge of drill or organization of a military unit. But I knew that befor went in but could make use of my mining experience in getting the transfer. The head or O.C. of the unit (it is only a draft of 100 or 150 men) had intended to make me a full Cpl at once

BC Archives, MS-0426 Box 1 File 5 / TREGILLUS, Frederick James, 1862 - 1962. Barkerville, miner. / Correspondence from Ernest Seeley, 1915 - 1919.