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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Extracts from letters of Sergeant Mc Illree (7th Battalion - 1st B.C. Regiment). April 1, 1915.
Our last time in the trenches, we did four days, which were quite uneventful, and were relieved by a Scotch Territorial Reg't, proper Highlanders, who sounded as if they were talking with their mouth full of mush. We then marched about seven miles, into a decent sized town, where we are having our rest. It is more or less restful, but we do regular parades and route marches, so we do not loaf much. What we do next the Lord only knows, of course there are lots of rumours, and somebody must start some thing soon, so we live in hopes. I must say the trenches do not appeal to me much, for they get so monotonous. We have only had one casualty in our platoon, Bevan, one of my old section, he was shot through the head while filling sandbags behind our trench. It was quite his own fault as he exposed himself all the time. I just came up from the trench in time to see him get it. There must be great excitement in the Law Student's Society these days, with Herby Boggs killed, and Carew, and Alec Milligan wounded. I saw Gallaher the other day, he is in the 16th. One thing I always manage to make a home for myself where ever I go. Here four of us have a great stand in with a rather decent family, and we usually have about two meals a day there, of course we pay for everything. We were behind the firing line making new trenches and heard more bullets than we ever heard before and we only had one man hit. The German machines come over here nearly every morning, and lay eggs. This morning they blew up the house next to where Major Byng Hall is staying. The first morning they landed one about 150 yards from me, and we all turned over and went to sleep again. We had
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 10 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873-1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letters from Sergeant John Raymond McIllree, 1915. File 10