Feature Letter of July 11th, 2025
Turpin, Geoffrey William Francis
No cars on the road except doctors, delivery vans and other necessary trucks. Big signs in railway stations saying "is your journey really necessary?" Just about everything rationed. Food, coal, electricity, clothes, etc. No air raids at the moment, except at places like Canterbury and Weston-Super-Mare which are just tiny places and practically no A.A. guns. Austerity clothes for everyone. American troops by the thousands in London. Thousands of Canadians everywhere. Not very much whiskey or gin, but lots of beer (near-beer) in the pubs. Everyone talking fiercely about the Second Front. People still refuse to take cigarettes from others although there are lots again; its a habit now. Salvage, salvage, salvage. And that's about the picture.
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As we move away in time from past conflicts and as our veteran population declines, it becomes increasingly difficult for Canadians to understand the sacrifices that men and women made, both on the battlefield and on the home front, during wartime. The Canadian Letters and Images Project has been sharing their stories, and Canada’s story, for the past quarter century.
These are the experiences of Canadians as seen through their eyes and their words. This is history in the raw, without a lens of interpretation added through time. I invite you to spend some time reading their letters, seeing their faces in the photographs, or listening to an audio letter, to appreciate why their experiences must be preserved for now and for future generations.
Donations, large and small, ensures that The Canadian Letters and Images Project can keep this important content freely available for this generation and for future generations. Please help us to preserve their stories.
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