No 146

Major GS Andrews, RCE

Survey, HQ First Cdn Army O/S

27 Dec 42

Dear Jean:

Your airletter of 29 Nov arrived on 22 Dec, along with your birthday letter of 1 Dec. It was certainly good to get them. Wish I could see Mary in her snow suit, complete with Parka. Glad she approves of the house too, we shall certainly fix up a real swing outside. She and her Pop will certainly get along OK.// Your notes re the Andrews clan are very interesting, and George and his wife Amy tie in with the ones I found in the parish register at Monstead, so the family is identified. I think the John A mentioned in the Bible who sailed complete with 4 kids and wife for the American shores must have been a cousin, as Mary and Elizabeth must have been. A letter from Uncle Ashton came from Medicine Hat.(I had written to Bessie for dope on the family) and he confirms the information about George, the shoemaker, founder of the clan in Canada. About the only new information I got at Monstead was the details of George's brothers & sisters (11 of them) and parents, who were John and Amy, born in 1789 and 1785 respectively. Also I established the connection between George and the Andrew who still survive at Monstead, through a younger brother David. There were two, John A and James A who married at Monstead in 1789 and 1739 respectively, but I didn't take time to find the connection [?] these who came later, no doubt they were both part of the same clan. Now that the connection with our people is confirmed, I may go back some day and try to trace the thread back further. It became increasingly difficult though, as the inscriptions are harder to read, and eventually are all in Latin. It is interesting, though, that the registers at that quaint little parish church are reputed to back to 1307, about 250 years earlier than most of the surrounding parishes. It is also interesting to know that Lancelot A was a fellow of one of the Cambridge colleges, which brings up the possibility of his native county being Suffolk, which is the next county to Cambridgeshire. Lancelot was quite a distinguished scholar, and is contemporaneous with the "golden age" of East Anglia, (the name applied to Suffolk and Norfolk). Hard times came to the region during the 18 and 19 Centuries, when the industrial revolution drew wealth and prosperity to the Midlands, farther west and north. It might have been these hard times which stimulated John A to emigrate in 1831, and George to follow soon after his first son Alfred was born in 1833. I hope the books on Suffolk and East Anglia arrived safely in Wistoria.//Hope you were able to get the house all fixed up snug, and fuel in before Xmas. I have been checking over my finances and think I should be able to send you £20 at the end of this month to restore the bank balance if you have already paid the life insurance premium, with about $10 extra to get something for yourself. I just realized that our policy with the Confederation Life will be fully paid up after about 4 more premiums. It will be a nice little next egg, if money is worth anything in 1946.// One again, I have been more than fortunate in Xmas mail, quite a few letters, and several good parcels. Brother Bill sent me two Trappest cheese [?] is a special weakness. Also got a cake from the Haggmans, and for 20 yrs now, each Xmas, a cake has come from them. The winters up in the Cariboo and Peace River, those down at Toronto, and the one in Germany, those in Victoria and the three over here. We had a lovely dinner in the mess, which was decorated very cheerily and in good taste, most of the artistic effects done by the draughtsman on our staff. The men had their dinner at noon, and all the officers and sargeants who were here went down to dish up and serve their meal. While there, General McNaughton drove up accompanied by Gen Turner, to wish them a brief but sincere Merry Xmas. I happened to be on the porch when they arrived, and both shook hands, and during a moment's pause, McNaughton started discussing a certain phase of my work which is very moot at the moment. he is certainly a splendid man. Harry Luscombe and I had been over to the Survey coy in the morning, and after dinner we both had a good snooze, luckily my batman, Alf woke me up in time to get organized to walk up the hill to "Shoelands" for dinner with them at 6. Harry too. It was just the right sort of a dinner, not a repetition of the one at noon thank goodness. We stayed till after midnight, both Ecila and Mrs M were in fine spirits, and we were so much the brighter for having had our afternoon siesta. It was a much nicer day than it would have been trying to rush some distant part of the country on the trains. During the day, my mind kept slipping away to my wife and baby at home, wondering what they would be doing at the moment, allowing for the 9 hours difference in the clock. I do hope Mary's books arrived in time, and that your flowers reached you in time too. I made the arrangements for them the next day after getting your letter saying where you were after returning from Calif. I did not attempt to send an extra cable, because the service is not very reliable during the Xmas rush. The good things you sent in parcels helped out a lot at Morris's with their dinner.// Had a fine letter during the week from Dick Dorless[?], at Prince George, he is the man who does all the river freighting to the Finlay River. I sent him a copy of my paper, which he evidently appreciated. He gave some interesting facts about the much publicized "Alcan" highway, which support the statements I made at the end of my article. He said they had a wonderful season up in the old trench this summer, five months of perfect photographic weather. // I believe there have been some loses in mails during the last few months, both ways. In spite of that, I have been very fortunate. The weather during December has been very good indeed. Very little rain, and many bright warm days. Today and yesterday it feels more like winter, but the shortest day is past now, and I think we all look forward with confidence this year. Have been reading some interesting books lately, some of which are worth sending home for our library.// I want to write a letter to Mike Gregg, but want it go to his home address, rather than get spread all over the office, so may sent it in your care, and you could put the proper address on it, which I do not have here. Well looks like the end.

LOVE to you both,

GER.