WW1 Letters home

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.