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Alma Russell Letters

Letters of British Columbia men on active service with Canadian and British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1918. Learn more.

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BC Archives MS-1901

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CANADIAN CORPS HEADQUARTERS 3rd August, 1917.

Dear Mrs. Holmes:

Permit me to acknowledge with heartfelt thanks the kind message of congratulation from the Lady Douglas Chapter of I.O.D.E. to Lady Currie and myself. You have given us more pleasure than words can express in so remembering us.

Any distinctions which have been conferred on me and any promotions which have come to me have been won for me by the splendid soldiers whom I have had the honour to command. The honour rightly belongs to them and I truly wish I could share it with each one. I shall endeavour to show my gratitude by giving at all times and on every occasion the best that is in me to their service.

It is difficult for me to tell you the full extent of the high reputation now enjoyed by the Corps – a reputation second to none in France, and won only as a result of a splendid victories on many a hard fought field of Battle. I have every confidence that that reputation will be in the future fully maintained, provided sufficient drafts are recruited in Canada to keep the Corps at its full strength.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking on behalf of the Corps, the Daughters of the Empire for the magnificent support they have at all times given us. They have shown their practical sympathy by gifts of countless and varied articles which increase the bodily comfort (and those who have not been here cannot but fail to understand the demand on the physical endurance of the soldier) while the knowledge that we are so kindly remembered by those at home encourages us greatly. We know that if it were left to the Daughters of the Empire the question of support necessary to be furnished by Canada to the troops in the field would not now be a subject for controversy.

For all your sympathy, support and encouragement the Canadian Corps is indeed deeply grateful.

Wishing the Lady Douglas Chapter all prosperity and again assuring you of our gratitude, I am,

Ever yours sincerely,

(Signed) A.W. Currie.

Mrs. W.J. Holmes, Hon. Secretary, Lady Douglas Chapter, I.O.D.E., Victoria, B.C.

BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 7 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873 - 1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letters to and from Lieutenant-Colonel William Josiah Hartley Holmes, 1917.

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