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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learn to do everything in the dark. The only way to keep out of trouble is to keep ones eyes glued to the back of the man next in front and keep three paces behind him in this way one can generally avoid the pits he falls into. These shell holes are tremendous affairs, often several feet deep. The shells that pass over us make an awful row like a railway train in the air, just the same kind of rattle and bang.
As I write I can see our guns shelling an aeroplane. I can not see the machine but can follow its track by the puffs of smoke that hang in the air like cotton wool. The shrapnel will be round it for miles till it gets out of range.
My greatest trouble is that I can get no news of you. I am longing for that mail. I hope that after such a long interval the people at home will not have lost their kind habit of sending me parcels. My pay here amounts to thirty francs, six dollars per month, the rest being credited to me, so cigarettes will be more than welcome. It is wretched not to hear anything, of course I don’t know what arrangements you are making about the wedding or anything.
One thing I did mean to say, do keep the new ducks marked so that you can breed entirely from these drakes next year. You can always see Joe Rennie on Sunday if you want the others killed. Oh, pigs! I get nothing but stew!
Good bye dear girl. I must get ready for my night’s work. I wear a beautiful tin helmet when I go up there. It weighs pounds. With my fondest love to you and all at home and I wish I could see you all, I remain
Your loving brother,
Cecil.
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 19 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873 - 1964. Victoria; librarian. / Letters from Cecil Harrow Unwin, 1916 - 1917.