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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several Pals of mine, from the old 88th. Tom Corsan, Harry Wootton, Clarence Rogers, Bob Fort, and lots of others. The family then was the best yet, and they dissolved into tears, when we left. Three of the new draft developed measles, and we were duly quarentined, and we hoped to settle down for a time, but nothing doing, for we flitted again two days ago, about fifteen miles. I was on the billeting party, and came by motor truck. The billeting Officer got lost, so we had to go it alone, and it was some job, for the farms round here are small and we had to scatter the Company. The procedure is simple. You tear into the farm yard, seek out Madam, and ask her how many Officers and men, she can accommodate. She starts to make a speech, to which you say, "Oui", occasionally, or "Non", according to her expression, and gesticulations. Then you grab a ladder to explore numerous smelly lofts, henhouses, and pigstyes, causing consternation among the inhabitants, and driving the family dogs into hysterics. You figure out how many will live there, chalk up cabalistic signs on the doors, meanwhile explaining to Madam where Canada is, and assuring her it is nowhere near Algeria. After you get the billets, you offer up a short prayer, that everything will pan out right, and retire to the nearest "Estaminet", to recouperate. When the bunch comes, they automatically sort themselves out, and in a few hours know all the girls by their first name, and have the entire staff cooking eggs, chips, and coffee, for them. The country here is very pretty, and we are told we were seventeen miles from Hell -- I mean the firing line, but the row last night, caused me to look at the map, and we are about ten miles, as the crow flies, which is reasonable enough, but, we do not expect to linger here very long. We lost our quarentine, somewhere along the road, and things look black, because nobody else
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 10 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873-1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letters from Sergeant John Raymond McIllree, 1915.