Primary Document: Letter from John Henry Anderson, Age 24, from Vernon, British Columbia The Canadian

Letters and Images Project

Queen Marys Military Hospital, Wally, Sancashire, England. May 20th 1917. Mr. F. Anderson Malakwa B.C. Dear Sir, No dobt you have long since been notied of the sad news of your Son Henrys death. But as I thot you might like to hear of it from one who was with him at the time Ive decided to write you a few times even at this late date. Henry was a friend of mine, we had much in common, coming from the same district, inlisting in the same Batt, were drafted to the same Batt in France and served on the same m.g. crew, which Henry was in charge of. We saw many months active service together and had many narrow escapes. Once in the Somme, I helped to dig Henry out, when he and three others of the crew were buried by a shell. But we both escaped injury until the eventual battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9th. We went over the top at 5.30 A.M. just at day break that morning. Henry was cool and smiling as usual, setting a good example for the others. We were in the rst wave of the att[?], and as soon as the barrage commenced we went over the top. We took the rst three lines of German trenches, and had accounted for a good number of Fritzes & were almost to our rst objective where our Comp. was to dig in, when Henry was hit. A shrapnel shell burst directly over him, and a piece struck him n the head. His death was instantaneous and he could have felt no pain. Its the sort of death every Soldier [End of letter missing] Questions: 1. What can this tell us about how the average soldier experienced the war?

2. Does this letter support the claim of Stephen Harper, and others, that Vimy Ridge created Canada? Why or why not?