March 18th 1915 My Dearest Kate Many thanks for letter of Feb 22nd which I received last night after coming of the trenches. I think the picture is just lovely of you & thank you so much for it my dear. I had seen the other pictures in the "Colonist" when we were out last time & was quite surprised as I had no idea that they would appear in the paper. Yes I had seen the cartoon in Punch & we are always repeating the words to each other for a joke. I don't know if its meant for Devonshire or not but it certainly sounds like a West Country man. Sorry to hear that you had to give up your singing lessons but probably you may be able to find another tutor. We have two lessons a day when we are in the trenches at stand to morning & evening & believe me its some singing class especially when we have had our issue of rum in the morning after a cold wet night. I got the papers the last time we were out & took them in with me to read & shall be glad to receive papers at any time from you. I guess you have seen in the papers that the "Canadian Division" have been in action & I believe Kitchener put in a few good words for us in the House of Lords the other day. One of the boys in this platoon was killed on Thursday. He was at the back of the trench filling sand bags & got shot in the head & killed instantly. That is the first casualty we have had in this platoon. He was buried the same night & some of the boys went to see him buried I was on sentry at the time so couldn't go. He came to Victoria from Seattle to join up & quite a nice fellow he was too. The last time we were going in the trench we were fired on by a sniper twice as we were walking down the road but he has finished sniping now. One of the 8th Batt got him the next day & shot him clean through the head (and his days work was done). We have two German rifles in the trench what some of the boys found while out on patrol & ammunition. The rifles are in fairly good condition so we have used them on them & gave them some of their own back. They say that in a mile of frontage on our line there are between thirty & forty thousand dead buried so there will be quite a nice smell when the summer comes but I hope we shall be well on the way to Berlin? before then. The Germans were shouting across to us the other morning asking us when we were coming out of our funk holes. I guess when we do go out that they will find we are good & ready for them & perhaps give them a good surprise. Yesterday (St. Patricks Day) we had little sprigs of Shamrock given us in honour of Old Ireland & we all sent up a cheer for Pat. I guess the other fellows wondered what had happened as we only cheer as a rule when we hear of some good news. Another interesting pastime we have here in hunting? but not with the hound as I have seen in some of the papers but its hunting all the same & each time we have a fair sized bag by the time we are through. You must please excuse the pencil dear but the ink that I left at our first billet was swiped on me & I don't suppose I shall be able to get any more until we hit some fair sized town that has not been smashed up & I don't know when that will be. We are looking forward to a good hot bath tomorrow & I hope a change of clothes. I have the same as I left England with & most of us are in the same fix all spare clothes are at the base (hence the great amount of hunting). Well dear I think this is all I have to say this time Please remember me to all friends hoping this will find you all well as I am pleased to say I am at time of writing. Tons of love & kisses XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX From XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX Your Ever Loving XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX Jack XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX P.S The last address I gave you will find me anywhere.