Captain Edward Crosby GoldieCapt. E. C. Goldie visits the 3rd Battalion in the TrenchesToronto StarFriday, March 19, 1915Transcribed by: M. I. Pirie Captain E. C. Crosby and his brother, Captain William Goldie1, were natives of Ayr, Ontario. Intro as it appeared in the newspaper: Q.O.R. HAD QUIET TIME Little Fighting During Their Spell in the Trenches. The following letter has been received from Captain E. C. (Crosby) Goldie, with the first Canadian contingent, Divisional Ammunition Park, France. He is a brother of Dr. Will Goldie, College street, and a son of Mrs. Goldie, "The Gore," Ayr, Ont. Well here I am still in the same old farm house. It certainly is anything but warlike with the exception of an armed sentry pacing up and down in front of the door, with the pigs and cows in the farmyard, and soldiers sleeping in the hayloft. Since we have arrived here, we have done very little work, except move the 2nd Infantry Brigade and 3rd Infantry Brigade to the trenches near the city of A----. The Ayr boys have received the tobacco O.K., and yelled their thanks to me several times as they marched by, so you can carry on the operation by thanking the ladies of the village of Ayr. With reference to the Red Cross work, as far as I have seen, they are doing a great work. The men in the hospital derive many benefits. In addition to the Red Cross work, there is a distribution of personal comforts to the well men, and this work could not be in more able and efficient hands than Miss Plummer and Miss Arnoldi, of Toronto, who are stationed at Amesbury. About noon yesterday a severe cannonading broke out. It most resembled thunder with a few distinct and separate detonating sounds from the big guns. Major Bell and I took the car and went out in a northwesterly direction towards the city of ____2, where much severe fighting has taken place lately. We went up to a large hill and had a wonderful view of the surrounding country and could distinctly hear the rattle of the machine-guns, but could see nothing of the effects, though the line of the trenches could be distinctly made out. The booming of the guns was very loud. In the afternoon two officers and myself called on the officers of the 3rd Battalion, who had just put in a week in the trenches. George Ryerson3, Lieut. Greene4, and Capt. Morton of the Queen's Own, were all in and busy scraping the mud from their clothes. The trenches were very quiet while they were in and very little doing. The lines were only about 250 yards apart, and in one place only 80 yards. They sniped one German from the chimney of a farmhouse, about 300 yards away.
1Enlisted in the C.A.M.C. in 1918. Note: the actual newspaper article including a misprint, naming Captain Goldie as W. C. Goldie. |
Letters from the Front