6 October 1916 France

Dear Folks,

A brief note is all I can write just now as I am still on the broad of my back. I am a patient in #18 General Hospital just now awaiting transfer to England which will come when the Dr. thinks I am well enough to travel.

The wound is in my right abdomen and a piece of shrapnel penetrated my liver.

Was carrying a wounded German when I got hit. Was fixed up immediately and sent to CCS and was operated upon the same night i.e. September 28th.

Passed through Billy Redburn's dressing station on my way down. He said he would drop you a note. That is why I didn't write sooner. Also wrote to Bill in London & told him to cable you. You have no doubt rec'd it long before now.. It is not serious and no need to worry. Expect to be sent on in a day or two.

Lovingly,

Harold Skilling

P.S. There is a man in same ward from Lucknow. His name is Habick. Was in the hotel business in Lucknow.

20 September 1916 France

** Blacked out by censors

Dear Folks,

This is Wed. afternoon and I have just a few minutes to write during a lull in the business. I have been working in a dressing station exclusively for slightly wounded and we have been so busy that we have not had time for anything else but work & sleep since last Friday. I guess you will have seen the reports of the Canadian's work in the papers. They have been very successful in their attacks and especially the 2nd Division. We have had 100 stretcher-bearers up in the "scrap" clearing wounded during our Division's turn in the trenches. Our boys were very **........................and .............................................................................................................. one shell and all of my section and my pals. They were all killed instantly except two who died soon after. One patient they were carrying was not hurt at all.

The artillery fire was terrific and they were caught in a barrage. The next day one other fellow was killed and 4 wounded. The fellow who was killed the next day was waiting for a commission and his papers came for him the day after he had "shuffled off".

The casualties in the infantry were heavy but we are not finished yet and we are going to get some of our own back that we lost at Ypres.

Prisoners are common and are put to work helping to clear wounded or any other job that comes to hand. They surrender freely when it comes to a showdown but fight and snipe when they think they won't be caught.

About 25 men were left in charge of the dressing station when the bearers were sent on the advanced work. With just that many men we handled, fed & treated as many as 800 in hospital and dressed and sent on an additional 500 making 1300 that passed through our hands in 24 hours. Fortunately, they were all only slightly wounded and shell-shocked.

Rec'd your letter of Sept 4 yesterday. So Vern is going to the city eh! Has Norma a school yet? Saw Billy Redburn yesterday. He came through alright.

Must ring off. Will write more fully later on.

Lovingly,

Harold Skilling

25 June 1916 Flanders

Dear Folks,

This is Sunday evening and I am back at the headquarters. We were sent back from the A.D.S. last Friday which made it a week exactly since we had gone up. None of us wanted to come back as all the boys are far more contented up there than back at headquarters. However we all have to take our turn and we will get ours again soon no doubt.Just got word a few minutes ago that one of our ambulance drivers had been hit. He was on his way to one of our A.D.S.s and got a nice cushy wound in the shoulder.

We had a pretty quiet time up the pike but a week ago today we had a little excitement. Fritz seems to favour Sunday to do his strafing and the last Sunday he sure lived up to his regular form. he lashed up over a hundred heavies into the town close by our dressing station and we were very fortunate in getting off as luckily as we did for a whole Battalion was billeted in the town and only 2 or 3 were killed and about half a dozen wounded. i helped carry one of the seriously wounded down to the surgery but he died shortly after reaching there. There were about 40 or 50 men eating their supper in a house when a shell burst right in the place. Most of the casualties occurred here. I can hardly see how any of them came out alive.

There has been no Canadian mail in for a long time and I have no letter to answer this week yet. I have had one from Bill (Skilling)  though and he is haveing a pretty fair time. He was becoming anxious about me as three of my letters had gone astray and it was about 5 weeks since he had heard from me. After the heavy fighting at Ypres, he thought i must have cashed in.

It seems funny up around our A.D.S. to see all the gardens growing behind the wrecked houses. The civilians have all been ordered out and only come back occasionally to look after their gardens etc. Once in a while a .... roots a few potatoes but they have to take a chance on that. Some of the fields around the fighting are plugged full of duds (that is what shells are called that do not explode on striking the ground but just bury themselves). sometimes just a slight jar will detonate them and they are not disturbed at all as too many lives were lost at the beginning of the war by trying to dig them up. There will be some of these Belgians blown up after the war when they begin ploughing those fields.

The weather here is just typical June weather and is great for fighting. Apparently, the Russians are having similar weather for they are showing up the Austrian and German armies over on that (Eastern) front. Opinion over here seems to that the next month or two will see the climax of the war. We ought to make a good showing for we are about as well prepared as we can expect to be and are able to give Fritz as much or a little more than we get from him.

Well, I'll write again when I get your letter to answer. I am real well and hope everyone at home is the same. Hope Norma makes our o.k. in her exams and also Orville in his case with the lawyer.

Lovingly,
Harold

9 June 1916 Flanders

Dear Folks,
Have handed the hospital over to 4th Ambulance and are now in a camp behind our old one. We were intended to go up to the Advanced work (our section) but as two of our Dr’s were posted to other units, it left our section short of officers and so we had to stay behind. We have since got some more and will be able to go up when our turn comes around in a few days.
Well since I wrote last there have been some pretty exciting times. On Sunday night we sent 100 stretcher-bearers up to help clear the wounded from the copse. Half of them came back the next day and the rest stayed for two days longer. They were “C” section as they had been there before and were a little bit acquainted with the country. They report having a very exciting time and I only wish I could have been there.There was only one casualty. He was wounded in the leg and arm and will likely get a permanent blighty. The patient on his squad was killed and one of the boys had his arm around the patient when he was hit. Pretty narrow escape eh? We all wear the new steel helmet now when we go up there. It certainly saves scores of lives. One of our boys got a big dent in his, as big as a fist. Certainly saved his life.
The boys got great praise from the authorities. They had been carrying wounded out of the front line which is only 25 – 30 yards from Fritz’s front line and in full view of him. Their flares were falling right around them and they were forced to go overland not having any communication trenches. Some of the poor fellows had been lying there for as long as five days and were in very bad shape. Gangrene had set in in a lot of cases and all were in bad condition from lack of food and medical attention.
The bombardment was exceptionally heavy and the enemy evidently thought that they would have a complete walkover but they soon found out that those who were alive were very much alive, and the number of Germans left on the field testified to that. We had one German in the hospital here. He was a young looking chap about 25 – 26 and a very good looking chap. He certainly didn’t look starved and was in good condition. He only stayed with us a short time and we didn’t get much of a chance to quiz him.
I was very much disappointed that I could not get up but I’ll try and get up next time. We were lucky to get off with only one casualty.
I am quartered in a hut here and I got to work yesterday and made a bed. It is a dandy affair and is just like a spring mattress. There are 6 of us in this hut together, a double bed in two corners and a single in the other two. We made a table and bench as well so we are pretty comfy. We will only be here for a few days though, but we are enjoying ourselves while we are here. The roof is thatched with straw and is quite waterproof.
It is too bad about Al Ryan but I guess he was pretty sick though. I was glad to know you got rid of Mrs. Orr. She should have more decency than to impose herself on people like that way.
I hope Orville doesn’t have any more trouble with that fellow. It has caused him enough worry now. I don’t see how they can hold him libel for the costs.
I got Mae’s letter and also the parcel from Rose. I was glad Mae succeeded in getting her choir into Massy Hall. But I guess she …. and she will be very glad when the strain is over. Is she taking a playground for the summer?
Well I must ring off and get to bed. Hope everyone is well.
Yours lovingly,
Harold

2 November 1915 Somewhere in Belgium

Dear Bill,

Received your welcome letter today and I guess it is the ‘advance party’ of a new Canadian mail. So you have at last gotten rid of the bally books. Can easily imagine how war will be almost a picnic compared with a whole summer of book selling. So you are in the 81st Battalion band. Say it is rather an uncommon coincidence to have 2 other Skillings in the same Batt. isn’t it? I guess before this you will be back in Toronto and in barracks at Ex. (Exhibition Grounds Camp). I think you did well to fight shy of the Field Ambulance and whatever you do keep out of the A.M.C. for they are the most grumpy and grouching bunch I ever had anything to do with. I guess they get the same kind in every corps. I think ours is the worst because there is so little to do and they get sitting around doing nothing and kick at the grub etc. for pastime.

I believe the bands are acting as regimental stretcher bearers and some of them are in the ranks doing duty as riflemen. The regimental Stretcher Bearers are not protected by the Red Cross but wear a band around their arm with S.B. on it. There are no bands over here acting as bandsmen (musicians) near the trenches but they bring their instruments over and sometimes play their battalions on route marches or give concerts back in the billets.

The only objection to enlisting with the C.F.A. (Canadian Field Artillery ) is that they will not be as much chance of getting over here as in the infantry. I don’t know whether you would be able to get a quick draft over here from the band or not for bandsmen are apt to be scarce and they might want to keep you. Is there any chance of the Batt. coming over as a unit? If you could, get into the C.F.A. as a signaler or into the Signal Co. of the 81st. In the C.F.A. you would have a horse to ride and no pack to carry and there is more to learn than in the infantry and a good deal more interesting. (Harold is concerned about his brother as he knows he has a rheumatic heart.)

I have been trying to get a transfer out of the 5th Field Ambulance but it is too late for that I’m afraid. It is fine for you to be in Toronto for the winter. If you ever get over to France we will try and see if you could get a claim put in for me. There is some regulation to the effect that an older brother can claim a younger especially if the elder is in a senior unit.

There is a spell of rotten weather on here just now. It has rained nearly every day for about 2 weeks and is still drizzling away. The huts we are in have no windows and we have to either burn candles or open the door.We got a stove the other day as we passed thru’ “Wipers” (Ypres). It is a terribly racked place.

This is Thursday morning and I have been cleaning up the place ever since I got up until now and I want to get this finished before dinner. We have not been doing anything yet this week except the ordinary work around the huts. I think we are going to take over the hospital tomorrow.

There are not many surgical cases coming in, mostly sick last night for instance there were 2 wounded and 16 sick (mostly from being in the wet trenches). There was also a young girl about 18 years old brought in. The Germans had been searching the ground around her house for a concealed battery and a high explosive shell hit their house. Her father and mother were both killed and she will lose both legs and probably an arm if she gets better which is very doubtful. Her legs were just a pulp.

I am sending home an oil painting I picked up at ‘Wipers’ and also a pair of Dutch wooden shoes that I bought from a man who makes them. I also got a dog skin up at the dead city and am keeping it as a sort of cushion. It makes the floor just a little bit softer to sleep on.

Well I must ring off now and write home. Do they send my letters onto you people at Toronto? Tell them to send them for I’ll not have so much time to write when we take over the hospital.

Write and tell me how the 81st is getting along. what are your officers and NCOs like? I saw the photos of a couple of them in the Star Weekly. One seems to be a regular youngster.

Write soon.
Lovingly,
Harold

Introduction to Letters of Harold Skilling

Harold Roy Skilling was born 31 July 1893 in Teeswater, the next older brother to my mother-in-law, Agnes Norma Skilling Jackson. He was 21 when World War One broke out and eagerly enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Forces on 21 November 1914. We don't know why he chose to join the 5th Canadian Field Ambulance Corps as a Stretcher Bearer, except that recruitment orders had just come down on November 11th to recruit a Field Ambulance Corps for overseas service with the Second Canadian Contingent.

At Exhibition Camp in Toronto, Harold was first examined by doctors,  measured and attested. He was one of the shortest men in the Fifth at 5 feet 3 3/4 inches. After 5 months of training in infantry drill, stretcher drill and first-aid treatments, other necessary skills and physical conditioning, the first units boarded the train on April 15, 1915 for Halifax. Harold left Toronto in April 1915 and sailed on the S.S. Northland (formerly the Zeeland) of the White Star Line.

Harold arrived in England at the Port of Avonmouth on 29 April 1915. Trains transported the men to Westenhanger in Kent. They set out on foot, marching two miles to Sandling Camp where huts awaited them. On the 24th of May the men moved from Sandling to Otterpool Camp where they lived in tents.

Harold's letters begin on 25 June 1915 at Otterpool Camp. These letters are in poor condition, written in pencil on onionskin paper or other scraps of paper. Many were written under difficult conditions by candle light. Some will be possible to scan but many will have to be transcribed.