Transcript of a WWI letter originally published in Cobourg World, Walter Thomas Robus, Colborne, Cramahe Township

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Newspaper

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Copied from The Canadian Letters & Images Project

Robus, Walter Thomas Letter: 1915 January 4th
Date: January 4th 1915
To: Rev. Irwin
From: Walter Thomas "Tommy"

"No. 8367
2nd Battn. G. Coy
1st Brigade
Can. O. Forces. Bustard
Salisbury

Jan.4.1915

Dear Mr Irwin,

Received your very welcome letter last night. Was very glad to have a few lines from you & learn everything is alright with you.

Well things are about the same here, lots of drilling & marching, yesterday we went for a 15 miles march with full kit, came in about 3.30. & went out at 6.00. pm for another 8 mile march. Tonight we will be trench digging for several hours.

Everything is being pushed rapidly ahead here & we hope to be on the battlefields before long, & I trust & know our Canadian boys will be able to give a good account of themselves as soon as we do get across.

Our Officers are having their farewell supper on Friday night & you can judge by that we shall not be here for a great while. Our course of drill here will be completed in a few days & we shall be considered trained men. I would have loved to have been at the “service” given by the local people, but of course under the circumstances cannot be with you.

We have a nice service on Sundays here on the plains with the sky for a roof, the singing is nice & can be heard a long way off.

In my tent is a fellow by the name of Arthur Peters who comes from Colborne, he says he knows you & has heard you preach dozens of times, do you remember him?

Todays papers tell of the bombardments of Yarmouth, quite a scare it has caused.

I was up to London & saw my Father a week ago & bid them all goodbye for the last time before the war ends & I hope it won’t be long before we are able to be together again. Some of us are bound to go under, & I maybe one but I know it is all for a good & just cause, so I go with a clear conscience & whatever happens, I will be able to say, ‘The Lords Will be done’.

Will close with best wishes to all & trust we shall be together again in the near future.

Sincerely yours,
Walter T. Robus"

See external links on the right of this record for original source.

Original scans for this letter were available and have been uploaded into this record.

Notes

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."

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