1915-03-31ww

“The Spectator is in receipt of a letter from ‘A Soldier’s Wife,’ whose husband tells of the needs of the men in the trenches, and she asks that it be given prominence in the hope that it will stimulate giving to the Hamilton Active Service Emergency fund, the proceeds of which will be used to purchasew comforts for the soldiers.”

Hamilton Spectator.   March 31, 1915.

By the end of March, 1915, there had been several fund-raising drives resulting from the outbreak of war the previous August.

Most were well-supported by Hamiltonians, but the fund to provide comforts for soldiers at the front lagged. The “comforts” were not luxury items but things that the normal budget of the military did not provide, for example cigarettes..

In an effort to spur donations, an unidentified Hamilton woman forwarded to the Spectator the following extract from a letter she had recently received from her husband on service in France:

“People at home don’t realize what this war is. Fancy standing in trenches up to your knees in slush, shells and shrapnel bursting every minute, and the rattle of machine guns a constant sound . Ah! it makes your heart bleed – hundreds of young men killed or maimed for life, legs off, arms gone, eyes blown out, faces torn away, many mangled beyond description.

“Oh, please, tell the good people you know that if ever they are asked for funds for the troops, to give every cent they can. God knows they need and deserve it.

“Trainload after trainload of wounded.

“Still, we must fight. It must be victory or death.”¹

¹ “Another Call from Trenches for Comforts”

Hamilton Spectator.   March 31, 1915.

Another portion of a letter home was also reprinted in the same issue. This one was from Pte. William White, “a Ninety-First man” :

“Mother, do all you can for the soldiers in the way of knitting, for, believe me, they need it. In the trenches at night, it is very cold.”¹

After quoting from the two letters, the Spectator reporter strongly urged his readers to respond to the call:

“Appeals like these are constantly coming in from the men who stand in the path of the stinging bullets, and yet there are a lot of people in Hamilton who apparently have not given a thought to the local fund, to say nothing of a dollar.”¹