[Published in the newspaper The Ladysmith Chronicle, June 15, 1915.]

FRED MORRISON WOUNDED ON VICTORIA DAY

The following letter from Private Fred Morrison to his father and sister will be read with great interest by his friends in Ladysmith. It is dated May 27, at Birmingham, England:

MY DEAR FATHER AND SISTER: – How did you spend Victoria Day? I hope you enjoyed yourselves. For my part I started to celebrate early and finished up late. At about 3.30 in the morning one of our officers gave the order like this: “All right, now boys, jump over the parapet and give ’em h–––.” We had to charge a couple of hundred yards and the Germans in the trenches opened up a machine gun and rifle fire on us until we were almost up to them; then they beat it away to their reserve trenches through communication trenches. Many of our lads were hit before we reached the German trenches. I got there fine and dandy: then I spotted a couple of Germans who were a bit slow making their getaway. I fired at one and got him, and then my rifle bolt stuck tight, so in place of getting the other Hun he got me first, as I was taking cover in a shell hole. The bullet hit the button on the shoulder strap of my tunic and gave me a cut in the side of my neck a couple of inches long.

I am in a Birmingham hospital and will be all right again in a week or so. I just want you to know that the wound is merely nothing, but I would like to give my compliments to “old Ross” and tell him I’d like to shoot him with one of his own rifles.

There is a Boy Scout waiting for the letters to post so I must close this. Address my mail as usual to my battalion. Good-bye for the present. Love from

FRED.