Letters Home

100 years ago, our father, a young Canadian college graduate, arrived in the European war zone to serve his country.  He and many of his classmates at McMaster University in Toronto had been given an early graduation so they could join the Canadian Expeditionary Force.  They sailed from Halifax on the Missanabie and arrived in Shorncliffe, England in June of 1916.  They were to spend the next three years in the trenches of France.  Not all survived.

     Rob Roy McGregor (better known as Roy or Mac), did survive, and throughout those long  days, months and years, regularly wrote home to his mother in Ottawa.   His well written prose was enjoyed by the whole family, and saved for posterity by his loving mother. These letters (nearly 150) are now presented here in scanned and transcribed form along with biographical background both before and after his military experience. 

     They make for fascinating reading even by people who knew him not, as his style of writing and his descriptions of life, both in the front lines as well as London, Glasgow and Paris, can immerse the reader in a time gone by. Gone by and yet eerily familiar.

     When the letters are over, you feel like you will miss hearing more – and be amazed at how much life still had in store for this young man as he headed home.