September 10, 1916
Dear Father,
I received your letter a few days ago. It was written when Lily was up in the country. By this time you will have received the photos taken by Aunt Annie when I was in Fauldhouse. I intend to go up again sometime when I get leave from my Regimental Depot. I am enclosing a Postcard taken outside our hut here. The blue band on the left arm means convalescent. The gold stripe means wounded in action. One man in the photo has 5 stripes up; that means wounded 5 different times. I had a letter from Aunt Nellie the other day with 10 shillings in it. She is keeping the rest till I need it. I am getting on fine here, as enclosed postcard shows, and will soon be leaving this camp for Sandling. I am to go before a medical board this week or next. I will likely be put on permanent base duty in either France or England. Everything seems to be quiet on the Canadian Front these days but I hear the 1st and 2nd Div. have gone down to the Somme but the 3rd and the new 4th are still around Ypres. This is a rotten camp here for Canadians as there is some Derbyites and conscientious objectors here too. Our officers seem to be afraid of the Imperial Authorities and nearly all the towns around here are "out-of-bounds" to us but open to men who had to be "called up". The Imperial officers are afraid of an outbreak between the Canucks and their men so we have to stay near home where we can be watched. But their fears are all unfounded as we get along well with the other men. The Canadians have such a good name as fighters that we get along well any place. It is surprising the number of people here who are ignorant of the nature of Canada. When we first came here the natives expected to see a lot of wild men. The first Sunday in church the minister said that he understood Canadians as he had lived in the colonies and that we were a "rough and ready" lot and not used to the big cities of this country (This city has a population of about 1000). This morning in his sermon he spoke out about our homesteads away out on the "rolling prairie" as if we were all farmers. And we tell the "Tommies" stories about wolves and bears and climbing up trees to sleep at night, so they must think we are a rough lot. Well so long for this time.
Your affectionate son, Ronald