I have no idea how my grandparents knew Jack, but there are several letters here from him. Some are from Camp Shilo in Manitoba where he went for training, and some are from overseas.

One of my favourite university classes was the history of Canada during the World Wars, and so I find this kind of stuff fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen photos of Camp Shilo before, certainly not “real” ones that didn’t come from history books or archives.

Anyway, here’s the first of the War letters. Enjoy!

Sun on July 1940

Dear Percy and Edna

Well I am just raring to go. I left Calgary last Tuesday, and arrived here at Shilo Wednesday about four o’clock. It sure is an impressive sight seeing this camp for the first time, rows upon rows of tents, lined up in mathematical precision, and everything is slick and span, which seems to be part of the soldiers deities.

The first time a person comes here, a tension, or underlying excitement seems to grip one, all the hustle and bustle and stirs of the camp seems to change the atmosphere, and unconsciously one gets adapted to the rules and regulations of the camp.

I am still in the awkward squad, but I hope to be up with some of the other fellows in the next couple of weeks, who have been here a while, and as I like the work, and take an interest in it, I get along a lot better than lots of those, who find drilling just monotonous drilling.

The first time that a bunch of us new recruits got together for drilling was sure an experience. The sergeants in charge forgot to speak English and it is really confusing the first time one yells “A-Hee”(???) that he means stand At Ease. The army has more abbreviations for commands than you can shake a stick at and everyone seems to accent them differently.

One of the finest sights is to watch the Highlanders marching to the skirl of the Pipes, the gay colourful plays, and the sound of marching, everyone moving with automatic precision sure stirs the blood, and makes me proud to belong to this unit. There is a great deal of rivalry existing between different units, sometimes not so friendly at that and new recruits soon get to possess a possessive feeling concerning their unit and think it superior to any other.

I sure was disappointed at not being able to get out to see you before I left, but leave is hard to get unless one has been in the army six months or more but I’ll try and get out there the first chance I have but in the meantime I’ll write and let you know how things are going. I’ll enclose some snaps of the camp from time to time, and I’ll ask you to keep them for me until I get back, as they will be good souvenirs to have.

Many of the boys that I became aquatinted with from around Lethbridge are here, and and as everyone is so friendly I haven’t had tome yet to get lonely.

I haven’t come across Bill Harris since I came here, but perhaps I’ll see him if he still is in camp, it is quite hard to find a certain person among so many thousands unless I know his company or Number.

It seems as though the next page/pages of the letter are missing. Not sure if the army took them, or if over the course of the last 80 years things just vanished. However, there are lots more letters from “Jack the Soldier” as well as several photos. So, I will continue to share what I have and be grateful for that!