Andrew Oaken
Stag Special
Bob Ferguson, from the RCA Museum’s board of directors, gave me a copy of First World War letters from brothers Bert and Don Mackenzie they wrote to loved ones back home in Canada.
Bob thought I might be interested in reading about two Canadian Gunners who fought during the Great War, and then came to rural Manitoba to work and raise their families.
On my side, I want to know what it was like to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and fight in the First World War. These men experienced the trenches and had unique stories to tell, and they risked their lives and wrote about it.
The letters start with the voyage across the Atlantic. The brothers then headed to a British military hospital in Egypt. In one letter, Bert wrote about a balmy, moonlit dinner with friends on the back of the Sphinx overlooking the three Pyramids of Giza.
The letters were definitely full of adventure and interaction with foreign cultures. By June 1916, though, the brothers were in France on the frontlines and in the trenches.
There were many exciting letters, but one caught my attention. Dated Aug. 18, 1918, from a hospital bed in France, Bert wrote: “Just a week ago today, Sunday I got hit. Dinner was all ready, and, I can still see the juicy steaks waiting for us, steaks that I never tasted – hard luck! – when an SOS came in and we had to get out on the guns. We hadn’t been out long before the shell came right into the position. I don’t know how big it was, but it must have been very fast for I didn’t have time to dodge at all. I was sort of stunned and felt a blow as tho’ someone had hit me on the legs with a baseball bat; then I heard myself give one howl and immediately heard someone else give exactly the same kind of yell, then I found myself crawling away, until Major Sifton grabbed me and dragged me into the dugout. Two others had been slightly hit, but Watson, one of our officers, was killed outright. He was a splendid young fellow – a lawyer from Toronto who had married just before coming over. I remember thinking how unfair everything was.”
It must have been challenging for the family to read that Bert was injured, resulting in amputation below the left knee. This letter poignantly reveals the human cost of war.
Bert fought in the Allied offensive at Amiens, a pivotal moment in the First World War. Assisted by the Canadian Corps, the Allies won a series of victories beginning with the Battle of Amiens from Aug. 8 to 11, 1918, and ending with the Armistice agreement on Nov. 11, 1918.
By the wars end, Bert and Don were lieutenants in the Canadian Field Artillery. Both experienced their fair share of action and came home with war injuries.
Both would return to Canada in 1919 and settle down in rural Manitoba. Both would marry and raise families. Both would become teachers and contribute to Canadian society.
Of note, Don Mackenzie was elected to the House of Commons from 1935 to 1945, while Bert Mackenzie taught the Apprentice Battery RCA at CFB Shilo from 1953 to 1958.
At times, these letters are highly vulnerable, containing fascinating details and personal snapshots of the conflict. These letters testify to their war experiences and part of the Canadian Gunner experience during the First World War.
You can find letters like this across Canada, and you may have similar letters from the world wars in your family collection.
War cemetery where Canadian casualties Killed in Action (KIA) are interred by special burial parties. This cemetery is in Mons circa late 1918.
