12 September 1916 France

Dear folks,

Canadian mail came in last night and got 2 from you. It was the first big mail for nearly 3 weeks and it seemed longer than that since I had gotten a letter. Have been doing a lot of travelling and marching since I wrote last but we are nearly finished now and are ready to go up the line anytime. There is very little I can tell you about where we are etc. but you will see all about the Division movements in the papers.

So Norma has decided to go to Stratford Normal Scool. What is Vern going to do?

Say can you send some parcels along as soon as you like? Don't bother putting in much variety. Just a light cake is as good as anything. Get some of my money assignment money from Orville and use it to get things with and pay postage etc. Be sure and do that now.

Haven't heard from Bill for about 2 weeks. There will likely be a letter from him in a few days.

We have been in our present billets for nearly a week now but expect to move out soon. But we are not informed as to where we will be going. Evidently the way things are done here is to give each Division a certain amount of work to do and they can stay till they get it done or else get too badly cut up to do it.

There is no more time to write just now so I'll have to ring off. I'll let you know just as soon as I can how things are.

Lovingly,

Harold Skilling

9 May 1916 Flanders

Dear Mother, Father and the Rest:

Your letters of Apr. 8 and 16 came ok. The one I had not rec’d last week was sent to the 5th Engineers by mistake and came a day or so after I had written.

I was glad to learn that Orville had won his case alright. If he had lost it would have meant a lot to him. It will relieve his mind of a lot of worry now. I guess he will need all his time to get and look after help for it will likely be more scarce than ever this summer. The problem of getting the crops harvested in the west this summer is going to be pretty serious.

Have been working nights in the hospital for a week now, but it is not very hard and as things have been rather quiet we have not had much work to do. Our section is taking over the hospital tomorrow and I go on the Surgery. Have most of the dressing to do etc. We were to have taken over on Sunday but we all got innoculated and have been under the weather ever since. This dose was a very heavy one and we are excused duty for at least 24 hours. Temperatures go up and it gives us a bad headache and also a mighty sore chest (that is where they inject the serum). It is a good deal better than running the risk of contracting typhoid. It is surprising the small number of typhoid cases out here and also all the other diseases. We have to deal mostly with cases of influenza, trench fever, minor injuries such as sprained ankles etc. Occasionally we get a few cases of measles, mumps and once in a while a case of meningitis. These are rare however.

Had a letter from Bill the other day. He has been transferred to Shorncliffe Camp and will be going through the same tactics as I went over last summer. Just as he was going up to his first exam he was quarantined on a/cc of one fellow in his hut catching the measles. They are certainly strict about any of those contagious diseases and any suspects are isolated immediately.

The weather over here has been great up until yesterday when (it) turned cold and today it has been raining all day. Everyone in the tent has been in bed all day for on a wet day with no where to go, and when there are 10 men in a tent, the only way to get any peace or comfort, is for everyone to crawl into his blankets. We all felt good and ready to do that today for the innoculation made us all pretty miserable.

This is Wed. and I am writing this in the surgery and must get it finished now.

Word came in this morning that Jack Lumsden, a Vic boy and friend of Bill’s, had been killed last night. His body was brought in shortly after and is going to be buried tonight. A shell struck the YMCA he was running and he had a fragment strike him on the forehead. He must have been killed instantly. He was still on our strength although attached to the YMCA and he was one of the most popular boys in the unit.

Have had a very busy day in surgery. Been on the dead jump since 7 o’clock this morning and it is nearly supper time now. There are two of us on the job and we try and let each other go for an afternoon or part of it every other day.

Saw Billy Redburn the other day, he was down here with a convoy and came over to our camp to see me for a few minutes. They have moved down here since though and no doubt I will be able to see him often. Stanley Johnston of Gorrie looked me up the other day too. He had been next camp to ours, up where we were before we moved and I didn’t know he was there. Both boys are looking well.

Have only a short time to write and must not let this letter go any longer. So will make “a noise like a door and close”.

Love to all,
Harold

2 April 1916 France

Dear father,

I wrote to you yesterday but as I did not have very much time I could not answer your letter. Had I known that I would be able to write today I would have put everything in one envelope.

There is a prospect of our moving again shortly so that if I do not get this written now I'll possibly not get a decent chance to do it for some time. I haven't got your letter with me at present so I'll tell a little of what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks.

There has been considerable shifting of troops during the last couple of weeks and our unit has been moving all over the lot and when we have not been on the move there has been lots of work.We have been stationed up at an ADS (advanced dressing station) since leaving our DRS and the work has been the hardest and the most exciting that we have had yet. I was stationed up there for 11 days and during that time we had to look after the wounded.

The wounded began coming in on the 22nd and all day at a very alarming rate. We thought that we were going to be swamped and and in fact we nearly were. As the day advanced we had to give over our own quarters and also our blankets to the patients and later when we could not accomodate anymore, we stowed them in neighbouring dugouts. About half were serious, very serious cases and several died before we could evacuate them. I worked from early morning on the Wednesday till dark the next day assisting the doctors and as soon as it was dark we started over land with five stretcher cases.

The previous night we had two of our own boys slightly wounded and three others suffered so badly from shell shock as to render them of no use to us up there. One other was sent back as incompetent and to perform other general duties. That left us very shorthanded and when the big rush came the next day, we did not have nearly enough men to cope with it.

I was sent out in charge of a party of 15 men and five stretcher cases with only 15 men. Each stretcher necessarily was undermanned and we were in a pretty bad fix. I got 11 squads away okay and took the fifth myself with one other fellow. He was our latest draft and had only been here a short time. Besides being unused to the work, he was very small and we had a great big strapping fellow who weighed at least 180. To make it worse he would keep fidgeting on the stretcher and throwing the blankets off. We got along fairly well until this youngster's sling broke and he could not stick it out any further so we put him in by the side of the road and I sent him on to get a little help from the fellows who were on ahead. While he was gone I got help from a couple of soldiers riding in a limber- waggon going the same direction as we were so they offered to give me a lift. We met the relief party just before we got to the ambulances. 

That carry to the cars is a terrible strain and the whole round trip is about 6 miles. Between dark and daylight I made four trips bringing back a big load of rations on the return trips. The last was made in broad daylight and I was done in record time for we were expecting a bullet or a shell over us at any minute. We were back in bed by 7:30 am and I was roused again at nine to go on duty in the surgery. We had 10 cases still left to go that night, Thursday, and more coming in. I was on duty all day and made two trips that night again. Then after getting to sleep at about 1:30 AM, I was awakened at 4 AM by a big bombardment and after standing to for more than an hour or so, I went back to bed and slept till about 4:30 PM. During the rest of our stay up there things were not so hot.

I suppose you will be wondering what I am going to do about the 160th Battalion. Well if that proposition had come last January when I was sitting around the Château doing little or nothing I would have been inclined to jump at it. Now however, the spring activity is underway and there promises to be some excitement and action I am not so anxious to go back to England to put in another summer training. I don't think I would consider an offer to go back to Canada to be a recruiting officer. ( I have not received any official notification of any sort yet. ) To go to Canada would look too much like "cold feet". Some people are too ready to make accusations like that and I would not want to give anyone a chance to say that about me. If any offer does come through, I'll perhaps have had enough of the " big scrap " to want a trip back for a while. I doubt very much if the war will last until the 160th get out here. I'll be expecting a letter from Bill some of these days telling me about things. He was there with you and interviewed Col. Weir and besides it does not take very long for a letter to go to London. 

I am not looking for a leave to London for a long time yet at the rate the leave is going at present, I'll get mine about next Christmas or thereabouts. There are lots of advantages in such a promotion especially if it were a commission. To go as a sergeant would not be a great deal ahead. I do not think there is much chance of promotion here as the medical students etc. will come in before most of the others. I am not at all envious of any NCOs on our unit and am not at all anxious for their jobs. The only advantage a sergeant has over a private is the fact that he does not need to take orders from everyone. The best man is not always given the job. Of course it is pretty hard to please everyone and an NCO has his hands full if he intends to be popular with both officers and men. The pay is $.25 a day more and worth every cent of it. 

I got mother's parcel and also one from Mrs. Sharp. It was awfully good of her to remember me. I'll write her first chance I get. This is Monday morning and I must get this away on the noon mail so must hurry. I'll not put anymore on this sheet but write the statement of my affairs on a separate sheet. Hope everyone is well.

I am your loving son,

Harold R Skilling

1 April 1916 Somewhere in Flanders

Dear father,
Received your long and very interesting letter sometime ago but I have not had time to get it answered for we have been head over heels in work the last three day three weeks. I had not finished reading your letter - which came to hand on March 26 - when I was ordered to pack my kit and get ready to move up to our advanced dressing station. We have been extremely busy up there during the 11 days of my stay and as we were in dugouts as dark as our cellar and a very limited supply of candles. Outdoors when it was not raining water, it was raining shells or bullets. You can easily imagine then that the environment was not conducive to great literary efforts. I am not going to attempt to answer all the mail that I have received lately as I have only time for a very short letter just to let you know I am well and to expect a letter soon. We have had the hardest two weeks work up here that we have had since coming here and there they there is some satisfaction in being at some real work after all the inaction of the winter. We handled 60 wounded one day and transported them on stretchers to the cars - a 6 mile round-trip under enemy observation practically all the way. I worked for over 40 hours with only one and a half hours sleep and then a snatch of grub when I had a minute to spare. Some of us did four roundtrips to the cars carrying a patient each time but one from dark till daylight of one night. All our wounded must be evacuated at night and as it was dull weather and rainy, the darkness was so thick we could only feel our way. We had two men wounded slightly and three sent back suffering from shell shock. I have been very busy since coming back to camp looking after one of the wards but will try and find time to answer your letter fully at the first opportunity. I hope everyone is relieved. I feel "Jake" myself.
Your loving son, Harold Skilling