1917 Lucy's Letter

Francis Joseph Killeen 1917

Canadian forces at Arras, France

We saw "1917" the other day. Great film and I have a special interest in the piece of history because of my father's story.

Imagine this. It's Dec. 26th, 1916, Boxing day in Winnipeg, Canada. The neighbors pop into each other's houses up and down the block, admire each other's gifts, drink tea and feast on Christmas leftovers, mostly Christmas cake. Before they enter the house, the visitors stomp their feet on the doormat outside because their galoshes are caked with snow. The first real winter snowfall had started earlier in the morning. Deep winds have blown the snow into drifts. Diggers, a team of special snow removers, can't free the half-buried streetcars. The city is almost paralyzed.

At my grandmother's house, Lucy Armstrong Killeen Massey and her second husband Bertie, twenty years her junior, along with most of her nine children receive their guests, pour tea and pass "dainties" around. In the middle of the celebration, my father leaves the house and makes his way, through terrible weather, to the recruitment station where he enlisted. Because he is under age, he lies on his Attestation papers stating that he was eighteen, not seventeen. What moves him to sign up on that very day— on a holiday, in a snowstorm? And what motivates his step-father, Bertie, at age thirty-two, to enlist the very next day, Dec. 27th?

The following appeared in the Winnipeg Tribune on that day. Is the sentiment enough to move a seventeen-year-old to enlist?

Or maybe he is influenced by a neighbor who lived a block away and had recently returned from the front. Perhaps the neighbor comes to tea that day and tells exciting stories about his time overseas? At seventeen, Dad lists his occupation as Warehouseman on the Attestation paper. Knowing Dad, I imagine he was bored to tears and looking for excitement.

He agreed "to serve in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary force and to be attached to any arm of the service therein, for the term of one year, or during the war now existing between Great Britain and Germany should that war last longer than one year, and for six months after the termination of that war provided His Majesty should so long require my services or until legally discharged."

My grandmother must have been dismayed but the recruitment posters plastered around the city encouraged women to send their sons to war.

As in the film, there is an important letter involved in my story. This one, from the HQ of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada, likely determined that my father survived World War 1. Lucy wrote to HQ on January 7th,1918 including Dad's birth certificate. She received this letter back. Note the reply to her request was dated a little more than a month from when she wrote it—her letter traveled from Canada to England and she received a rapid reply in less than a month, during a war.

Why did Lucy wait until a year had passed to take action? Dad had shipped out from Halifax and was trained at Shornecliff, England. For most of the year, 2017, life at Shornecliff was pretty good for Canadians. They were well liked by the British. But in October, 2017 he was sent to France where Canadians were little more than cannon fodder. As of 10/22/17, he was at or near the front. 

I can imagine Lucy opening a letter from Dad and reading about life in the trenches. I wonder what he said? He sent this cryptic post card in October.

"Some bashful looking baby, eh?"

Oct 8/17  Dear Mother, Just a few lines to say I am well and enjoying health, and hope you are and also little Pearl. Tell Lorne and Hilda that will not be able to write them for a couple of weeks. Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a while. Will write you soon if possible. Your loving son, Joe

 I'm sure any excitement he might have felt for the first months in England had faded away and he was at risk every minute of every day. I don't believe Lucy wasted any time and acted as soon as she could.

Because of Lucy's letter, Dad was pulled back from the front and out of the trenches at Arras, France, which is captured in the film in gruesome detail—the terror, the lack of information, the close quarters where everyone was squashed together like sardines enduring the noise, the smells, the weather. Instead, Dad spent several months in the rear, dragging ammunition around. As soon he turned nineteen he was moved back to the firing line and was wounded (gunshot to the eye) on his first day back. It was September 3rd and he was in the 2nd Battle of Arras where the objective was to break the German Drocourt-Queant line. He was shipped to Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot England to recover. Fortunately the war ended and he never had to return to combat.  

Today, January 27th, 2020 is the 101st anniversary of Dad's discharge. On his discharge papers he was nineteen years and five months old. His trade was listed as student. He had a small scar on lid of his right eye. I'd say he was a lucky guy.

He couldn't wait to get back to school. Dad graduated law school and passed the bar in 1923. He left the military between the wars and was in private practice for years, but he volunteered again during WWII in 1939. He was forty when he enlisted this time, trained troops in Fort William, Ontario and served as a Judge Advocate. After the war he threw himself into being a veteran. He served as the legal counsel for Deer Lodge Hospital, the Veterans hospital, in Winnipeg. He worked for the Department of Veterans affairs and the Veterans Land act. He was a lifelong member of the Canadian Legion which was formed after WWI as a place where veterans could talk to each other. Long before we recognized PTSD, these men were treating each others trauma by befriending each other and providing mutual support. 

Go see the film, kids. You'll get the real feeling for what your Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Great Great Grandfather and Great Great Great Grandfather endured. And how close we all were to not being here at all!!!