Harold Wilfrid Sage

Rank:

Corporal

Regimental number:

307769

Unit at enlistment:

11th Brigade C.F.A., 43rd Battery

Force:

C.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Yes

Commemorated at:

Holy Trinity Anglican Church

Birth country:

Canada

Birth county:

Brant

Birth city:

Brantford, Ontario

Address at enlistment:

100 Eagle Avenue, Brantford, Ontario

Next of kin address:

100 Eagle Avenue, Brantford, Ontario

Trade or calling:

Student

Religious denominations:

Church of England

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Letters and documents

Letters home

BX January 26, 1917

Christmas Feed of 43rd Battery – Gunner Harold Sage Tells of Fine Menu enjoyed by the Boys

Mrs. G.H. Sage, 100 Eagle Ave., has received an interesting letter from her son, Gunner Harold Sage, of the 43rd Battery, now in France, in which he details his Christmas feasting. He writes in part:

I received your welcome box yesterday, and I was certainly glad to do so, for I made use of all its contents.

I am up at the guns again and have a safe place. I am in a dugout, 20 feet under the ground. It is in two sections, each about 25 feet long, 8 feet high and 10 feet wide, and has two entrances. There are four of us in it, and we have a little stove that heats the place in no time.

I ran up against two more of the 125th the other day – Bill Elliott, who used to live behind Lavery’s and Freddie Pinnell who played on the old rugby team. I sure was surprised to see them.

We had our Christmas feed on Dec. 27. The geese came too late for Christmas, so we couldn’t have the feed then, but we made up for it on Wednesday night. We had tomato soup hot, then cold goose and ham, hot mashed potatoes, corn, peas and apple sauce, bread and butter, Christmas pudding and coffee, with cigarettes and Bass’ ale as a side dish. I was at the officers’ lines then, and the officers hired two rooms in estiminets across from the stables and after the feed we had a good concert, so we didn’t fare too badly after all. Eh, what?

This is the beginning of a new year, and I hope that by this time next year the war will be over and we will be safely home again.

Writing to his sister Gunner Sage wrote:

I think we will have old Fritz to his knees this summer. We are in “The Valley of Sorrow,” where the French lost 14,000 men at the beginning of the war. We are close to a fair-sized town and we get leave every eight days to go there for the afternoon, to get a bath, see the moving pictures and buy “eats.” We nearly all got quite a few boxes from home around Christmas, but the quantity is falling off now (much to our sorrow) for “eats” from home are always welcome.