Transcript of a WWI letter originally published in Cobourg World, Sergt. Cameron C. Philip, 6 July 1917, Colborne, Cramahe Township

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Cobourg World Letter: 1917 July 6th
Date: July 6th 1917
To: Mother
From: Philip C. Cameron

Sergt. Cameron C. Philip of Colborne Writes(FROM FRANCE)

Sergt. Philip went overseas with the 4th Cobourg Heavy
Battery draft under Lieut Lean. He writes as follows to his mother in Colborne:

"Was at advanced duty up near the front and was some tired when I got in last night at 10:30 after twenty-four hours duty and no sleep at all. Did a little washing today but it was slow work as Fritz had been shelling all day and I just had time to fix up my line, hang out my clothes and dodge back into the dugout. I boil the clothes with soap. It is the only way to get them clean. I have a good pal in the dugout with me and we get along fine. Have feeds quite often when money is plenty. Had a can of string beans with canned milk for dinner, and my they were good.

I bet old Bill wishes he was out of this affair he started. There is no doubt of it, we are winning, but the cost is fierce. There may not be many flunkers around home but if there are I would just like to say a few words to them. I see by the papers that conscription is pretty sure for Quebec but volunteers are the boys to fight.

People talk about the siege battery being away back out of danger, well they have another think coming. When you think of say 100 high explosive shells coming into a position in one day, you can perhaps realize what battery life is. Of course Fritz does not do it every day, some days it is almost quiet, but for two weeks he has been some busy. We have moved again and have been working hard with pick and shovel until we were ready to drop, to get our guns in position, but are having it a little easier now.

Our Battery will have been in France a year on the 15th of June and we surely have done fine work, as good as any Canadian battery help. The work is hard and never ended but is planned so as to give us a little rest.

We boiled some rice last night with a package of dates I got at the canteen. I had some canned milk and, gee it was good. We have a fire-place in wall of dug-out, a good cooker too, let the rice bake on top after it was cooked. I found the rice in an old sand bag but it was nice and clean. I will be glad to get the parcel of eats however."

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Copied from The Canadian Letters & Images Project

"Cobourg World
This collection contains nearly 300 letters from World War One published in The Cobourg World, a local newspaper published in Cobourg, Ontario. Newspapers across Canada regularly printed letters home from overseas, either letters written directly to the newspaper by the soldiers, or first written to the family and then contributed to the paper by the family. Collections such as those from The Cobourg World provide a fascinating look at the relationship of community and war as played out in the pages of the local newspaper. All letters in the collection have been previously published in the newspaper and were also later collected by local historian Percy Climo in a work entitled "Let Us Remember". The dates for which the letters are listed represent the dates on which they were published, as the original dates of the letters are not always indicated. Where the original date of writing is known it will be part of the letter text. Introductions to the letters and editorial comments as they appeared in the newspaper have been left as published. All transcriptions have been taken from copies on microfilm and as such there are no scans for this collection."

Date of Original