FOR GOD FOR KING AND FOR COUNTRY

WITH THE CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

CANADA Y.M.C.A. ON ACTIVE SERVICE

Pte. Norman W. Thompson No. 2020414, No 1 Company 1st Depot. Batt. Nov. 29th 1917 Vancouver B.C.

Dear Fred:-

As I have the next few hours to myself I thought I would improve them by letting you know how we are getting along & having the next best thing to a trip to Barkerville, meaning, a letter to somebody up there.

Well Fred, I guess it surprised you people some to hear we were in Vancouver soldiering, not so much our soldiering as our being in Vancouver. We intended joining when we left Barkerville whether conscription went thru or not, but we both wanted to see a harvest on the prairies. We got examined in Calgary & both of us passed AII so tho't we would like training in Vancouver better than in Calgary. We came over to Revelstoke & tried to Enlist in the flying corpse[sic] but they could not take us on there but told us that we could in all probability's get on in

BC Archives, MS-0426 TREGILLUS, Frederick James, 1862-1962. Barkerville; miner. Box 1 Correspondence from Norman W. Thompson, 1917-1918. File 1