The Alberta Dragoons had billets in a side road that led to Bailleul.
It was a quiet and peaceful neighbourhood, and they had good barns for
their horses. In the fields they had splendid opportunities for training
and exercise. I often took service for them. One Sunday afternoon I had
been speaking of the necessity of purifying the commercial life of
Canada on our return, and I said something uncomplimentary about land
speculators. I was told afterwards that I had caused much amusement in
all ranks, for every man in the troop from the officers downwards, or
upwards, was a land speculator, and had town lots to sell in the West.
In conversations with privates and non-coms., I often found they had
left good positions in Canada and not infrequently were men of means.
I have given mud-splashed soldiers a ride in the car, and they have
talked about their own cars at home. It was quite pathetic to see how
much men thought of some little courtesy or act of kindness. A young
fellow was brought in on a stretcher to the Red Chateau dressing
station one Sunday afternoon at Courcelette. He was terribly wounded
and gave me his father's address in Canada so that I might write to
him. He was carried away and I heard afterwards he died. Some months
later I had a letter from his father, a Presbyterian minister in
Ontario, thanking me for writing and telling me how pleased his son
had been by my giving him a ride one day in a Headquarters car. I
mention this so that people will realize how much the men had given up
when they considered such a trifling thing worth mentioning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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