Clipping, Andrew Skidmore, nd

A Interesting War Exhibit

Blood-Stained Sweater of Winnipeg Boy Received by Mother Will Afterwards Go to Her.

Thousands of people in Australia and western Canada have seen the blood-stained, bullet-riddled sweater in which Signaller Andrew H. Skidmore, of Winnipeg, was wounded over a year ago at Ypres, but his mother, Mrs. Skidmore, of 127 Lansdowne avenue, saw them for the first time on Saturday when she attended the exhibition of war relics at 231 Portage avenue.

Mrs. Skidmore was very calm when she gazed upon that shell-torn sweater with its brown stains showing where her son’s blood had been spilled by the bursting German shrapnel.  “Andy is well again, and is back in the trenches,” she briefly informed the man in charge of the exhibit, who stood beside her.  When the exhibition is concluded the sweater, together with a  pair of German field glasses, which her son picked up in the field of battle, will be turned over to Mrs. Skidmore.  Attending the exhibition with Mrs. Skidmore Saturday were Noah Skidmore, who is an instructor in bugling, and a young son Harry.  Another son is also in the trenches.  Both sons enlisted in Vancouver.

In presenting the sweater and field glasses to those in charge of the exhibit Signaller Skidmore wrote the following letter:

Gentlemen – This is the sweater I had on when I was wounded in 17 places by a bursting shell behind Ypres on April 29, 1915.

The numerals sewn on the sweater are as follows: The “7” is my regiment number; the “38” and “8” were taken off dead Germans: the “5” is a Belgian numeral, and the “26” is French.

The German field-glasses I found in a wrecked farmhouse near Ypres when we advanced on April 25.

(Signed) A. H. Skidmore,

No. 16360, Signaller,

7th Battalion, 2nd Brigade.