Deborah Florence Glassford Letters and Memorabilia
Letters written to Deborah Florence (Leighton) Glassford of Vancouver by men serving overseas, including some cards, programs and memorabilia. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
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the trenches and visiting posts [illegible] to make certain all is OK. Then back to the Cy #2 dugout, a fast meal and sleep, and I can honestly say I was dead tired.
Before going round the firing line trenches we put on waders, coming up to the thighs. These waders are trench stores and handed over by each Cy going out to the Cy coming in.
With even these on the mud came over the tops in some places. So you can imagine how bad it was. The [illegible] men said the trenches and dugouts were the worst they had been in, so I'm glad I know the worst, and now look forward to the best.
Oh, by the bye when marching in, just after we reached the #2 trench, 2 men who were carrying the machine gun [illegible], gave up, and as they were close to me, I offered to carry some of their extra stuff, and took over 35 lbs of machine gun magazines. For the rest of that journey of 1100 yds I just cursed myself for being such a blank-blank fool, but having taken it I had to stick to it, still it was in a very evil temper that I reached the #2 dugout. Save your honour, "some have honour thrust upon them", well I had that extra burden thrust upon me, the next bloke who expects me to carry anything for him, will get a real nasty jar.
There was very little room & the feeble light of a candle is not very cheery. Still we got along well. The cots were just 2 planks with wire netting across, but it makes a lovely bed with a ground sheet under one and a blanket on top. The signallers were at the telephone and the cook batman and runners (4 in all) looked after us and took messages.
BC Archives, MS-0089 Box 1 File 5 GLASSFORD, Deborah Florence (Leighton). Vancouver Correspondence inward, 1917.