Patullo Family Letters
Letters from James Burleigh Pattullo and George Robson Pattullo Jr. to their father George Robson Pattullo. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
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Well the Kaiser had a severely plain little bedroom; next door was a larger bedroom for his adjutant then the Kaiserin's bedroom with a bed ten feet broad a magnificent chamber. Said Capt. Stewart in shocked tones "My god, he doesn't sleep with his wife. Cable that, Pattullo. This is awful--Bill had to get a pass from the adjutant to enter his wife's room"! The other rooms of the palace were wonderful; the only simple one was the Kaiser's bedroom, and that was about what we'd have at Georgian Bay.
A doughboy got off a good one. There is a tremendous statue of Wilhelm der rosse, the Kaiser's grandfather, at the junction of the Moselle and the Rhine it is typically Boche; it symbolizes the very spirit of Germany brutal might. The bronze monstrosity towers 71 feet into the air and is surrounded with a a sort of stadium section; you can see it for miles. Eh bien, one of our tired doughboys, after our entry into Coblenz, squatted on the base of the statue to rest and mop his brow. He gazed down the Rhine Valley and at the beautiful hills, then up at the huge bulk of the bewhiskered Emperor, bestriding his horse.
"Well Ol' Timer" he remarked goodnaturedly, "You sure played hell when you raised your boy to be a soldier."
Don't tell this story around, for I am using it in an article and don't want it to get into print before my stuff appears.
Feeling very fit. Haven't seen Burt yet but intend to go up to the Canadian sector the first part of January.
Hope you had a jolly Christmas. We had a big dinner with champagne and a dance afterwards. Twelve nurses from an Evacuation Hospital attended both dinner and dance--military band.
BC Archives MS-1188 Box 1 File 4 PATTULLO, George Robson, 1845 - . Woodstock, Ontario Selected letters from his son George R. Pattullo Jr., 1917-1918.