[Published in the newspaper The Ladysmith Chronicle on April 28, 1917]

NOTE FROM FRANK McCOY.
The following letter has been received from Private Frank McCoy ,who was recently wounded and gassed and is now in the Norwich hospital in England:

DEAR SIR: – Just a few lines to let you know I am in an English hospital. No doubt you heard I have been wounded. In a few days I expect to be moved to one of our own Canadian hospitals.

While I was in France I met a number of Ladysmith boys. It would surprise you the number that are there. They are in all parts of the line in different battalions. The winter in France was very severe, but yet it did not prevent us from keeping Fritz on edge. Our brigade received a bad cutting up on the first of March. There were more than 3,500 casualties in about fifty minutes. We had discharged some gas on them, when unluckily for us the wind changed. I tell you it did not take us long to put our gas masks on, but we were caught out in the open with our own gas. Fritz fairly peppered us with machine gun fire and whiz-bangs. We lost our colonel – Kimball was his name. He was in the thickest of the fight and the boys would follow him any place.

Well, I must thank you for your paper. You haven’t any idea how much I look forward to it coming. Well, I will have to ring off as my arm is beginning to paiin.

Yours, etc.,
FRANK McCOY