Editor’s Note: During the First World War, Pte Cecil Minary served in the CEF, beginning his military training at Camp Hughes prior to being shipped to England for additional training. He saw his first action in France soon after Canada’s involvement in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. His great-great-niece Kendra Minary from Souris spent the COVID pandemic going through the original letters he wrote home from England and France prior to being KIA on Aug. 28, 1918. The Lewis gunner died on the battlefield after his crew was hit by a German artillery shell. The Stag’s website will share Kendra’s great-great-uncle’s letters with our viewers here to give you a peek at what a soldier was contemplating with pencil and paper while in the UK training or in France in a trench waiting for the next attack or counter-attack. Pte Minary’s letters are transcribed as they were written by Kendra, so this includes his spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes. Of note, from his letters home he rarely described his clashes with Fritz, instead preferring to enquire about life on the family farm in Nesbitt or what his family and friends were doing back in Manitoba. Unlike some some soldiers who would share their war stories in their always censored letters, Pte Minary had his own distinct writing style no matter if the letter was for his his dad, sister or a relatives. He also made the job of Army censors easier by not including war details which would be censored by being blacked out. That’s the reason why his letters are “somewhere in France” once he left England for the Western Front. Those original letters are stored at the Wawanesa Museum.

Somewhere in France

Friday Feb 1st 1918

Dear Edna.

Hello Teddy and how are you anyway feeling jake a loo I hope and ready for a tussle any old time eh? I am getting worse instead of better at this letter writing am I not, you are thinking by this time that I am beginning to not care wheather (sic) I write or not but that is not the case, I have been shifted around so much latley (sic) that I really never was long enough in any one place to start letter writing properly and then I had got no mail for a whole month untill (sic) last night when I got seventeen letters dated all the way from November 18th to January 3rd, two of them were from you Nov 25th and Dec 16th.I am back with the Battalion again, been here for over a week now so my trip down the line was not a very long one — as they call it, the weather is not to bad here just now, calm and cloudy with some frost in the mornings, my address is the same 829297 B. Coy. 52nd Battalion Canadians C.E.F. France.I don’t remember if I told you before or not, but I am in charge of my Lewis Gun Crew and have been since October when Mulligan was wounded, I had a letter from him yesterday and he is still in bed in hospital in England yet, and expects soon to go under an operation as his temple was broken in and there is a piece of shrapnel still in his head, so he will not be to France for a long time yet, perhaps never.That is to bad about Jack Blythe the Brigade I am in relieved the Brigade that Jacks Battalion is in a few days after the date you mentioned so I guess I was around somewhere near where he was killed.Annie said that Bruce had been called up and he had been classed as B2 so I guess he will not go for a while yet and I hope never, if they take more of the boys from the farms and this war lasts another year us fellows over here will have to live on air.So Teddy you think you would like to grab me and give me a good shaking up, and say wouldn’t I enjoy it too, we are used to that sort of thing here, us Boys generally average half a dozen rough and tumbles each day, and you may be sure that I never take a back seat, yes Edna I would just like to be with in talking distance of you, we would have some chat, for I’m not near so bashfull (sic) as the last time you saw me.Well this is all for just now as I’m getting cold and there is no place like under the Blankets for getting warm again so Bye Bye with heaps of love from Cecil Minary.

PS. One year today I came to France.