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15th Canadian Bn BEF. France 3-10-16

My Dear Rognaas:

My platoon-sergeant P.A. MacDonald was killed in the last scrap. Many times he had told me of experiences had in the woods when you and he worked for the same surveyor, and the idea came to me to drop you a few lines so that you may let any of his friends, whom you meet, know that he died in the biggest fight that our battalion has yet been engaged in - that he was a real leader - a true fighter and played the game to the very end

We are meeting with great success and the fighting is gaining in interest, but the result is that we are having greater casualties Fortunately by far the larges percentage are wounded

Urquhart J. McLaughlin

BC Archives, MS-0392 box 1 Volume 5 / FRANK SWANNELL PAPERS / Diary and enclosures, 1916.