Pte. L. Sinclair #460609

“C” Comp. 61st Battalion

Canadians

℅ Army Post Office

London Eng.

Saturday

April 22nd 1916.

Dear Mother:-

I am not doing anything this afternoon, so thought I’d drop a line. I hope you are having good weather for Easter, and lots of hot cross buns. I suppose everybody was home Good Friday. What sort of a day did you have, and how did you spend it?

Good Friday we had church service at 8.30 a.m. and after service we walked to Headley for dinner. This is a little place about two miles from camp. You could hardly call it a village or town, for it is just a groupe of houses and a church something like “Whitehill”.

You come across these little burgs all along the main highways. and some are very picturesque.

The roads everywhere are as hard as asphalt and there is very little dust on account of the weather. There are clouds in the sky all the time and you never know when it is going to rain. Everyday day we have had these April showers and the sun very seldom gets out long enough to dry the place up. This is why the atmosphere is always damp and rather chilly

In our house we have a grate in each bedroom and these are always going when we go to bed. Coal is something we get for nothing over here and we can get as much of that as we please. Its altogether different with the grub though. We are near Aldershot and are drawing rations that are allowed the Imperial soldiers Thank the lord I’m not in the Imperial Army. When we move to Bramshot which is very soon, we will be amongst Canadian soldiers again and I beleive the food is much better.

Well we had dinner at Headley about 1.o’clock. The boys would be eating breakfast about that time in Winnipeg as we are something like 6hrs ahead of Wpg. time. I made up my mind to taste a hot cross bun so that is why we went there for dinner.

Well we have these English people beaten when it comes to making pastry, and about here there is very little difference in the prices of articles from those in Canada. I had 1 plate of ham, eggs, 2 cups of coffee, bread and buns at a place behind some church called “the soldiers rest.” This cost each of us ⅕ or about 35¢ a piece. Which is very reasonable around here, and the first square meal Ive had since coming over here.

After dinner we kept on walking in the direction of Grayshot but it looked like rain so we turned back. The scenery everywhere is very pretty and I could walk all day just to look around. Climbing hills through is new to most of us and that is what gets me more than anything else.

An awful lot ride wheels over here. It would surprise you to see the number of ladies, & girls riding about the country. The babies are put on the handle bars. You walk up the hill and coast down, some place almost a mile.

You never saw such a pretty green that seems to be everywhere. Tall big trees, high hedges, and ivy growing everywhere. Old fashioned cottages and mills with their thatched roofs and pretty gardens. I dont wonder Englishmen thinking Canada rather bleak after living about here, Its the damp weather though thats against this country as far as we Canadians are concerned. If they only had Canadian weather over here it would be jake. In the evening I walked to Woolmer another little burg close to camp, but it seems to get dark awful early so I did not remain long. Once the sun gets behind a cloud it sets without us seeing it and you never get such a pretty sunset as out west. As soon as it becomes dust. why everything seems dark. The blinds are all drawn on account of zepplins and no bright lights are aloud to be shown.

Boys returning from London say it is a dark hole at nights and in places you can hardly see your hands in front of your face. We are 47 miles from London and almost due south. I expect to be on leave next week so it may be a week or two before I write again. I am going up with Bert Chalk to his aunts in Upper Holloway N.W. London and expect to put in six day there. Well mother I think I had better ring off, as it is almost supper time,. I hope you and everybody is well at home and can say I have never felt better than I do at present and am enjoying myself here. With love and best regards to all from your loving son.

Larry.

P.S. Mother: Can you send me Saturdays papers. I can’t get news to interest me in these English papers. I heard Charlie Stuart had gone to France last Saturday, but their camp is 8 miles from here & I have not been able to get up there so do not know for sure. I met one of the 44th and he told me this.