WW1 Letters home

I really was moved by reading some of the letters from this young soldier ... and just want to share this link. Be sure and check out the rest of the site as it's interesting ... kids in school ARE learning a "few" things of the wars and soldiers after all ... I never got past grade 9 and learned nothing of importance while in school, especially not back in the 1960's though Remembrance Day was ALWAYS emphasized and honoured ... Karmen

http://www.umanitoba.ca/canadian_war...t_index.shtml#

[Norm Cromie (RIP)]

Kaeman:
Your reference to the sight letters home from WW1 is a framework that applies to all wars. The importance of communication by mail can never be fully understood unless you experience time away from close family or loved ones.
The mind is a very nebulous thing and we don't have to be in physical touch with a person to sense their awareness . Their last writings hold a permanent place in our memories forever. That place can be free of all their human frailities and leave us with the best of our thoughts of the times with us fixed forever.
Karman you make note that you left school at the ninth grade but your threads on MLU show you have a deep intellectual insight and emotional understanding far beyond what you may have learned with further academic education.
I thought you might be interested in a letter that I sent to my brother that was recovered from an aircrash, as you can see noted at the top of the letter. I guess this must apply to the old saying (The mail must go through.)

Originally posted by Norm Cromie
Kaeman:
Your reference to the sight letters home from WW1 is a framework that applies to all wars. The importance of communication by mail can never be fully understood unless you experience time away from close family or loved ones.
The mind is a very nebulous thing and we don't have to be in physical touch with a person to sense their awareness . Their last writings hold a permanent place in our memories forever. That place can be free of all their human frailities and leave us with the best of our thoughts of the times with us fixed forever.
Karman you make note that you left school at the ninth grade but your threads on MLU show you have a deep intellectual insight and emotional understanding far beyond what you may have learned with further academic education.
I thought you might be interested in a letter that I sent to my brother that was recovered from an aircrash, as you can see noted at the top of the letter. I guess this must apply to the old saying (The mail must go through.)

Hi Norm,

For starters, thank you for your kind words ... life and direct experience is a far better educator than school, even if you don't venture out into it and see whats happening "out there". Mind you, I think "school's educating" has actually gotten better at educating, even if the education IS censored/predjudiced/biased, whatever They certainly never had field trips in my days like they do now.

BTW ... you should have seen this deep intellectual insight and emotional understanding NOT twig into even putting my shoes on properly to go out to the store today ... I forgot to take my slippers off and tried shoving my feet in my shoes. It took awhile for me to realize why I was having a hard time getting my shoe on. Geoff is still giggling about that (the bratty buggar)

Regards hard-copy hand written letters from, and to, home and loved ones ... this is a perfect thread to bring something up .... namely:

Our Troops ... some are far from home serving. Would it not be a wonderful thing for us, or some of us, to hand write letters and snail-mail them to our troops?

Does anyone know how to set this in motion of finding troops to write to and where to send letters???

I would love to write to one or a few of our own Canadian soldiers, men and/or women while they're stationed far from home, wherever they may be?

NORM ... your brother, did he ever get to read that letter from you? You didn't say. How long after you sent that letter was it recovered?

Karmen

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally posted by Vets Dottir


Regards hard-copy hand written letters from, and to, home and loved ones ... this is a perfect thread to bring something up .... namely:

Our Troops ... some are far from home serving. Would it not be a wonderful thing for us, or some of us, to hand write letters and snail-mail them to our troops?

Does anyone know how to set this in motion of finding troops to write to and where to send letters???

MA ;

says Go Here and you shall find your answer.

Cheers

Originally posted by Mark W. Tonner
MA ;

says Go Here and you shall find your answer.

Cheers

Hey Mark, thank you for the "how to" link I guess I'll be buying "postcards" to send as it appears letters aren't allowed unless to a specific person etc ... will read more just to be sure I "got that right"

I browsed through a bit and I loved the pictures and writings from the little school kids

Karmen the VD/PW MA one.

[John McGillivray]

Karman

You can find more letters and photos at this site from both World Wars.

http://www.mala.bc.ca/history/letters/

Originally posted by John McGillivray
Karman

You can find more letters and photos at this site from both World Wars.

http://www.mala.bc.ca/history/letters/

Hi John,

Well ... I thank you for that link. I followed it when I read your post here and have just made it back after browsing the site then reading all the letters of a WW1 Soldier from Gimli ... familiar names were mentioned. It's truly amazing to read these letters and to hear details of what this young man experienced, the highs and lows, and so sad that he passed away from tetanus Gimli is between where I was born and raised and where my dad was from (Riverton) Reading these letters brings these soldiers and families stories "home" to me because they "are" close to home... therefore "not strangers" to me. Small communities of people whose lives are so intertwined. I think this is why it boggles me. You don't know everyone in a big city ... but you do in small communities. Its personal more often than not. But the world IS getting smaller through communications and media ... our world is not so big that we can be so impersonal anymore ... is it? Raise that awareness to the level of a country ... or even world, and .... hmmmm .... It becomes "smaller" and people become more "personal" to us all the time ... food for thought?

That was me off on a tangent again : ...

Karmen (see the words about the young soldier whose letters I just read. He hailed from fishing farming community a spit across Lake Winnipeg from my maternal side family, and my Grandfather who served in CMR C.E.F.)

The Archibald John Polson Collection March 25/03

Archibald (Archie) Polson was born in Gimli, Manitoba. He enlisted in 1916, and was later transferred overseas with the 2nd Divisional Machine Gun Corps. Polson served in France, including the battle of Vimy Ridge. At Vimy he was wounded, resulting in the amputation of his right arm. The online collection currently consists of twenty four letters exchanged between himself and his mother. The complete Polson collection is housed at The University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections and the materials contained herein are used with their permission.

[Norm Cromie (RIP)]

Karman
I do not know how long after the letter was sent that my mother received it but it is part of a collection my mother had saved and gave me when I came home. My brother did get to read it but at the time it was delivered he was on the high seas on a tanker in the Merchant Navy. He did survive the war.
Here are two pieces of history that some of you old chaps will remember. Karman you will note in the photograph I posted above you will see a signature on the bottom left of the center and as you may or may not know all letters had to be censured by an officer which was to me a humiliating and degrading act. Not to mention it sure curtailed my opinion of the army and some of my superiors. Greatly reducing written bellyaching. The Lt. who censored this letter was wounded shortly after in the attack on the Hitler line, He certainly was a very decent chap who had concern for my religeous welfare. When the fighting for Ortona decreased to indiscriminative shelling we had to form up Sunday mornings for church parade. At this time we only had to attend on a voluntary basis. The Lt. asked me to go and I declined he told me I was setting a bad example for the religious values of my men by not attending. Well this particular morning the building in which they were holding the church service received a direct hit from an 88 and there were some casualties,when he returned with the rest of the platoon that morning I can tell you I met him with a big grin ( sort of like, see Sir. us immoral guys have a deep insight.) He never invited me again.
Sorry chaps for the old soldiers war story but war does have its humorous side at times.
I am sure some of you historians out there can tell us whether mail censorship and mandatory church parades were carried out to the end of the war?

Originally posted by Norm Cromie
Karman
I do not know how long after the letter was sent that my mother received it but it is part of a collection my mother had saved and gave me when I came home. My brother did get to read it but at the time it was delivered he was on the high seas on a tanker in the Merchant Navy. He did survive the war.

Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that your brother made it home and got to read that letter! Maybe a new thread is in order, as well, about censorship of mail during wartimes? I guess a lot of what would have been said was just not said until people returned home after the wars were over. I wish that all could have come home to tell their stories.

Here are two pieces of history that some of you old chaps will remember. Karman you will note in the photograph I posted above you will see a signature on the bottom left of the center and as you may or may not know all letters had to be censured by an officer which was to me a humiliating and degrading act. Not to mention it sure curtailed my opinion of the army and some of my superiors. Greatly reducing written bellyaching. The Lt. who censored this letter was wounded shortly after in the attack on the Hitler line, He certainly was a very decent chap who had concern for my religeous welfare. When the fighting for Ortona decreased to indiscriminative shelling we had to form up Sunday mornings for church parade. At this time we only had to attend on a voluntary basis. The Lt. asked me to go and I declined he told me I was setting a bad example for the religious values of my men by not attending. Well this particular morning the building in which they were holding the church service received a direct hit from an 88 and there were some casualties,when he returned with the rest of the platoon that morning I can tell you I met him with a big grin ( sort of like, see Sir. us immoral guys have a deep insight.) He never invited me again.
Sorry chaps for the old soldiers war story but war does have its humorous side at times.

I have no problem understanding that there would have been great moments and flying humour ... the highs and lows must have had an incredible spans between the feelings and thoughts ... how can deep lifetime bonds NOT grow and remain strong through a lifetime? I'll bet that on the lighter side that the cussing, joshing, and talk would have have made more delicate and sensitive peoples ears turn red ...

I am sure some of you historians out there can tell us whether mail censorship and mandatory church parades were carried out to the end of the war?

I'd be interested to learn more about these too.

Well ... time to refill my coffee cup Maybe one day, Norm, we can have a coffee together while you bend my ears, and turn them red?


Karmen