Original Letter
Monday, 3rd Sept. 1917
There has been a two day hiatus in my share of the correspondence due to moving but now we are settled and comfortably settled too. This morning I got up after a good sleep on a good bunk, shaved, washed and had my breakfast in a place, which although it is Btn Hqrs. in the line, seems to me to be quite as safe and couchy as anything in Rouen and my dear, the difference in the work! This has been a holiday up to now and despite the fact that I picked an average sized one off my neck this morning, I am quite satisfied that I am not crummy yet. I have good stuff creosol and I think that I with it I shall be able to keep clean or nearly so.
Clark is in with me this time giving me the hang of things and we hit it off beautifully. I find that his ideas on a lots of things coincide with mine and yesterday when we were waiting to complete our journey in we had a rare jape. We were in a section of the country that has been fought over and it is a dreadful sight. Now, of course, it does not look so bad grass and weeds have grown over it and covered a lot of it but grass and weeds cannot cover the battered skeletons of trees – twisted, warped and shattered which from the distance look like absurd scarecrows. And there are lots of other things. It is quite different from what I expected. And agreeably so yet.
I am anxiously waiting letters from you. The confidence I have in things when I am with you leaves me when I am alone and I have conjured up all sorts of things that have befallen you. I know it is silly, you know, but it is my nature. I have seen Major Graham but only for a moment. He asked to be remembered to you and to Geordie.
This is dreadful ink and I can scarcely read it myself but probably you will be reading it in a better light than I am writing in.
All things considered, it is a better life here than in Rouen – previous to July and everyone here seems mighty cheerful and I have been struck by the improvement in the chaps.
Do you know Sweetheart that I love you enormously, always. It is very vrai and fills my thoughts always. I have the same old feeling that I told you of – everything interesting that I see and there are very many interesting things here – I want you to see them too. And I pretend that you are with me and I try to imagine the remark you would make about things. And it will always be so and I shall always love you like this – only want to be with you. Please love me a lot, Dear, and be sure to tell me a lot of love in your letters. I know it all the time you know but I need to be told.
I must do some work now, Dear, so shall say “au revoir”.
With oceans of love Beloved,
Your own,
Ross
battered skeletons of trees
- Note
- See photo of the Passchendaele battlefield below. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Although the photo wasn’t taken until two months after Ross wrote this letter, it does vividly demonstrate the effect that heavy bombardment can have on trees.
Passchendaele, now a field of mud. November, 1917. (The Battles of Ypres); source: Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-040139 - Pictures
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an average sized one
- Note
- Body lice were a huge problem for soldiers in the trenches in WWI, “breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch unceasingly. ... [I]t is estimated that up to 97% of officers and men who worked and lived in the trenches were afflicted with lice” ("Life as a Soldier"). It was not until 1918, however, that it was discovered that lice were the important vector in the transmission of trench fever, so for the better part of the war they were regarded merely as a nuisance with no serious attempt made at their eradication.
Desmond Morton, in When Your Number’s Up, recounts:Bitter weather slowed down the body lice that afflicted most soldiers — and warmer conditions revived them again. Within days of coming to France, most men, even officers, began what Gordon Beatty recalled as “a never-ending battle with cooties.” ... “You know how much I hate mosquito bites,” Lieutenant Claude Williams reminded his mother, “well these are about twice as bad and hardly a square inch of you is left untouched.” Body-lice or pediculis corpori, burrowed into the seams of shirts and underwear, in the folds of kilts, or under the knee of the tightly laced breeches worn by cavalry and gunners; nits or phthirius pubis, crowded under the patch of linen at the crotch of army trousers. Head-lice became so annoying to some men that they shaved themselves bald. Wherever they were, lice caused a continuous and almost indescribable misery. ... Desperate men stripped naked even in bitter weather to attack their torturers. ... Veterans recommended scores of solutions — Keating’s Powder, creosote, cheesecloth underwear, or, as Colonel Lionel Page recommended, no underwear at all.
Will Bird favoured Zambuk, a liniment more commonly used on stiff joints. Soldiers spent their spare time half-naked, “chatting” or “crumbing” — burning lice by running a lighted candle along a shirt seam and listening for the gratifying “pop.” Many woke to find blood seeping from the gashes left by unconscious scratching overnight. In the filthy conditions, infection soon followed. (Morton, 139–40)
Source: “Life as a Soldier – Life in the Trenches – Body Lice,” First World War.Com, www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm
and www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/bodylice.htm, accessed 28 January 2008; Desmond Morton, When Your Number’s Up: The Canadian Soldier in the First World War (Toronto: Random House, 1993). - Links & References
- “Of Lice and Men: Trench Fever and Trench Life in the AIF” by Dr. M. G. Miller
- “The Louse,”; extract from the book The Minor Horrors of War by A. F. Shipley
- « Of Lice and Men: Trench Fever and Trench Life in the AIF » par le Dr M. G. Miller
- « The Louse », extrait du livre The Minor Horrors of War par A. F. Shipley
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a section of the country
- Note
- This is modern footage of the view from Vimy Ridge into the valley where Ross is writing from.
- Media
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comfortably settled too
- Note
- Ross is "comfortably settled" in a dugout in the front lines.
The attached map shows the area Northwest of Vimy, where Ross's battalion would have been. The map is updated to 1918, however, and Anxious Trench is the only one, of the various locations named in the War Diary and Orders, that is still shown on this map. - Pictures
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creosol
- Note
- Cresols are organic compounds often used as solvents, disinfectants, deodorizers, or insecticides. “Cresol solutions are used as household cleaners and disinfectants, perhaps most famously under the trade name Lysol. ... Cresols are found in many foods and in wood and tobacco smoke, crude oil, coal tar, and in brown mixtures such as creosote ... which are wood preservatives” (Wikipedia).
Presumably what Ross was using was something specifically designed for killing or repelling body lice. The experience of a creosol treatment may have been a bit like dousing oneself in Lysol — not necessarily an entirely comfortable experience, since Wikipedia also notes, “Skin contact with high levels of cresols can burn the skin.” Ross seems to have discovered this, saying in his letter of September 18, 1917 "I am getting the smell of creosole out of my nose but my back is pretty raw."
Source: “Cresol,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresol, accessed 28 January 2008. - Contribute to the Project
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Major Graham
- About Major James Graham Graham
- There were at least two James Grahams in the 50th, possibly more.
The Library and Archives Canada records are rather confused for Major Graham: The archives show a one-page Officers’ Declaration Paper (which men who were already in the military before the war filled out) as well as a two-page Attestation Paper (the form that all men filled out when enlisting) and there are some discrepancies in the information on the two different forms, however, most of the important information is the same (e.g., place of birth, city in which enlisted), however, two religions are given and two different birthdates—although they are only different by a year.
Does anyone have any more information on this person?
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Geordie
- About Georgina Ferris
- Mary's sister, who was a nurse. It is not clear whether she was a civilian nurse or had enlisted with the military, although her presence in Europe during the war does suggest the latter.
Does anyone have any more information about Geordie or her military status? - Contribute to the Project
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couchy
- Note
- Although there is no documentation (that we know of) to support Ross’s use of the word couchy in this way (the same is true of his use of greg for grig; see the letter of Sept. 10, 1917), from the context it is fairly clear that Ross is using a variant of the better known cushy, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “Of a post, job, etc.: easy, comfortable, ‘soft’.”
It would be interesting if any documentation of this unusual word use (is it distinctively Canadian? unique to the WWI period? or simply a "Ross-ism"?) could be found.
Source: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed, prepared by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). - Contribute to the Project
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crummy
- Note
- The Oxford English Dictionary says that crummy can mean “lousy; filthy, dirty, untidy.” In this context, Ross probably means simply lousy.
Source: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed, prepared by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). - Contribute to the Project
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Rouen
- Note
- Rouen served as a base for the British Army in France. Since the Canadians were under British Command, some of the Canadians' administrative offices were also in Rouen.
Ross was stationed in Rouen from approximately March 1916 to August 1917, at which point he was transferred to the front. It seems that his role in Rouen was an administrative one.
It is unlikely that Mary was with him in Rouen, since enlisted needed to make special requests to be with their wives. We learn in the letter of Nov. 2, 1917, however, that his request to have her stay there was approved — after he was transferred to the front.
See recent photos of Rouen below. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
photos (c) André Morell, 2008 - Pictures
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Clark
- About Clark
- There were a number of Clarks in the 50th. Does anyone have any information that would help us identify the Clark that Ross mentions?
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War Diary
Very quiet throughout the day. A little artillery activity on both sides but nothing of unusual interest occurred. No casualties.
View complete War Diary »
Photographs
battered skeletons of trees:
squelettes d’arbres ravagés:
comfortably settled too:
Rouen:
Rouen:
Rouen:
Rouen:
Rouen:
