From: Hastings, England
Sun. 15 Sept. 1918

Dearest Mother -

Last Monday, I received the letter from you that I was looking for - the one you wrote on Aug. 13, and today I received the bundle of S.S. Times for June. I was glad to learn that you had received the letter from me that went astray. It is too bad that you are having so much trouble with your teeth. I reckon a toothache is one of the worst things a person can have. I went to the dentist again yesterday but everything wasn't quite dead yet so he treated it with arsenic again and I have to go back a week from tomorrow.

It looks as tho the rainy weather has now set in for good. It has rained off and on every day this last week. This would be a good place to spend the rainy weather tho as there is no mud on the paved streets where we drill.

We had our mid-term examination in topography last Monday. It was quite easy but a large number made low marks on it. I got 85% - should have done better but made two or three foolish little mistakes that I shouldn't have made.

It will be only about three weeks now till we move to some other place. There are rumours that those who made over 80% on that exam might not be required to try the final and might go very soon, but then one can't believe half the rumours that are flying around.

Yesterday, Casey had a letter from Ed Doeringer in France and he gave us some important news. It seems that sometime about the second of this month, the guns were following the infantry over the top when a large shell exploded beside "E" sub gun doing some damage. That is the subsection Casey was in and the one I knew best, being the one I was in till I got the stripe last January. It wounded the corporal who was in charge and his horse, the lead team, Jack Weir, the lead driver & J.K. Macdonald, the centre driver and injured his team slightly. Doeringer was driving wheel and was not touched while both his horses were killed. Cpl. Deanett(?), the battery fitter was wounded, as were Kent and Shaver. Weir, Macdonald, Doeringer and Shaver are all old 54th Battery fellows whom Casey enlisted with in Brantford. Had we still been in the battery, Casey would have been one of that gun crew, and I might have been. Shaver, we understand is very badly wounded as is Weir whom I thought one of the finest fellows in the battery. As for Kent, I believe his injury is just a piece thru the leg which will likely get him to some hospital in England. A person getting to England with nothing very serious is always considered lucky as getting away from a place where he might get more seriously injured. You have often heard me speak of Kent. You have his picture in that Haillicourt group. He was trying for a commission but didn't get away in time. Kelly must have just got away in time. Otty, by the way, also in that picture, is now a lieutenant and is back in France in the second D.A.C. There are a lot of the fellows convalescing in England whom I would like to see when I get the chance.

Lots of love to you all.
Gordon