"Just a wee note"
Posted in: Miscellanea on Nov 11
This morning CBC featured the Canadian Letters and Images Collection, an online archive of correspondence and photos from Canadian soldiers. One letter they mentioned was written by Winnipeg soldier Hart Leech to his mother just before his death in France in 1916. Despite their aching humour, these seem like the words of a man who knows he is very likely about to die.
The fact that the Great War is permanently passing into history makes these personal letters all the more poignant. For its Remembrance Day series, the Globe and Mail could find only 13 Canadian World War I veterans, all over 100. In a few years, there will be no one who actually remembers those events. Inevitable, sure, but sad too.
Related: In Flanders Fields, Letter from John McCrae
Posted by Gene Smith on Nov 11, 2002
