Shorncliffe
Thursday
July 16, 1916
Mr. Frank Lean
Plainville, Ontario, Canada
Dear Uncle
Just a few lines to give you an idea of the life in general in an artillery camp. The lights out call will sound in a short time so I had better get busy. To begin with, I hope you are all enjoying the best of health and I am glad to say that we are. We had a splendid trip across and landed at Liverpool on the tenth of April; travelling all night, we got here at nine a.m. and the first thing that happened, those who wished to go as drivers were called to the front. Bowman and the Mac twins stepped out but I was so sleepy I never noticed them till it was too late.
We were put in the musketry class the next day and spent a week learning to handle a rifle, by that time we were getting more used to the life and the officers so Big Mac and I applied for a transfer to the drivers to be back with the old gang again. Since then, Bowman, the three Macs and myself have been always together; we sleep in adjoining beds, are in the same sub. and Big Mac, Bowman, and I are driving on the same gun.
Soldiering in Canada is like one big holiday compared to this but, after three months of it, we have grown so accustomed to it that everything seems perfectly natural. Bowman got the measles two weeks ago and our room has been quarantined since then. For exercise, we take two route marches a day down to the ocean; this last two days we went in swimming in the afternoon, but this morning an old Indian beat it up town, so for the remainder of our stay in quarantine we are to get foot drill all day.
We have had considerable rain lately but not as much as you are getting at home. One thing that struck me as very queer is the lack of thunderstorms; we've had but one since we came. I heard tonight from a fellow who came on the same boat that Erwin and his crowd have been sent to Horsham. We were some disappointed but Climo heard from his brothers tonight and he says a bunch of them are coming down Sunday so we are expecting him to come too. Well, I'll write again later. So for the present, goodbye.
Your nephew
No.914677 C.E.F.
Dr. M.T. Lean
3rd Reserve Battery
Ross Barracks
Shorncliffe
Kent
England.
