BX April 13, 1915
Have Much to Learn – Brantford Boy Stationed at Canterbury Writes About Soldier Life
J. Burbank, of this city, has received a letter from Joseph Frederick Matta, one of the members of the contingent of mounted rifles that recently arrived in England from Canada. Matta was an employee of McPhail Bros., of this city, and enlisted with the Brant Dragoons, being in the squadron of Lieut. J.R. Stratford, of Brantford. While the major portion of this letter to Mr. Burbank is of a personal character, it contains a couple of paragraphs which will be of interest to Brantfordites, particularly the relatives and friends of the boys with this contingent. He says in part:
By great good luck it happens that our squadron is stationed at Canterbury, my home city, so that I am able to get home nearly every evening.
I like the life very well; we are well looked after and our rations are far better than I expected they would be. We will probably be stationed here for three or four months, as we have so much to learn. We are taking the full British cavalry drills, sword exercises, etc., instead of the ordinary mounted rifle drill.
BX July 8, 1915
Matta Is Now an Engineer - Transferred From Canterbury Cavalry to the Engineers at Shorncliffe
A prominent resident of this city has received an interesting letter from Trooper Joseph Frederick Matta, who left here with one of the contingents of the 25th Brant Dragoons, and who, along with a number of fellow soldiers from this city was transferred into an engineering unit at Shorncliffe. He tells interestingly of his training within a few miles of the chalk cliffs of Dover and states that he has seen many kinds of enemy aircraft but on no occasion has he seen a Zeppelin, although they have frequently been only a short distance away. The letter with personal matters deleted is as follows:
Canadian Engineers
R.E. Barracks,
Shorncliffe, Kent,
England
Dear Sir,
As you will note from my above address, I am no longer in Canterbury, having with some more Brantford boys volunteered for two months' training here preparatory to going to the front as a field troop of engineers.
We had made good progress in cavalry training, being almost fit for the field, when word came that we would be unable to go to the front except as infantry and as we had no great liking for that branch of the service, we took advantage of the opportunity to become attached to the engineers. We expect to have our course of training completed in about two months.
We came here on June 16 and are very well pleased with the change from life in the barracks at Canterbury. We are in good quarters, less than half a mile from the sea and about four miles from Dover. Our training includes trench laying, sapping, bridge building, the handling of explosives, etc., and although the work is sometimes rather hard, it is very interesting and instructive.
The 19th Battalion of infantry, which was in Toronto all last winter is quartered with a great many more Canadians about three miles from here, and some of us intend on taking a walk over tomorrow (Sunday) to see some of the Brantford boys who are with them.
Shorncliffe is a quieter place than Canterbury, but almost every religious denomination has a club room, where we can find various means of amusing ourselves in our not-too-plentiful leisure time. They are within a few hundred yards of our barracks.
All the Brantford boys with us are in good health and appear to enjoy the life, but I think most of us have a sneaking desire to get back to Brantford again, though we all want to see a bit of fighting first. We have often had Zeppelins within a few miles of us, but we have not had the luck to see them, though we have seen Taubes and other enemy aircraft at different times.
J.F. Matta
