BX May 5, 1915

Canadians Would Have Chance To Make Name For Canada – Forecast Made by General Smith-Dorrien Previous to April 16th Was Verified by Fighting and Casualties – Trooper Rhodes of 25th Dragoons Tells of Whereabouts of Local Men

The whereabouts of many of the Brantford men who left with the 25th Brant Dragoons, First Contingent are revealed in a most newsy letter sent to Capt. Towers, of the 25th Brant Dragoons, by Trooper W. Rhodes, formerly of this city. Incidentally being on the headquarters staff, he gleaned much information which owing to the time which has elapsed can now be published. One bit of information given is that the Canadians were then, April 18, at Steenvoorde, but expected a move to Ypres. General Smith-Dorrien had informed them that they would have a chance in a few days to cover themselves with glory, and to make a name for the Canadians – a sure forecast of the terrific fighting around Ypres, which followed within five days after he wrote the letter. He details the movements of the troops from the time they left Avonmouth, and taken all through the letter was one of the newsiest ever received here. It follows:

April 18, 1915
Pte. H. Rhodes,
Fourth Battalion, First Brigade
Steenvoorde, near Cassels

Captain Towers,
Brantford

Dear Sir,

At last I have found time to write a line in answer to your letter which I got about three weeks ago. We are pretty well split up (meaning the 25th Brant Dragoons First Contingent). Some are in the R.C.D.’s, some in the ammunition column. The men of the 25th are on the transport. I will give you their names and addresses. Acting Sergt. Mounce, Batson, McDonald, Williams, Acting Corp. Cara, Whelan are all drivers; Chambers, medical officer’s groom; Brooks, groom; Dawson, A. Company, groom, Garrow, E. Company; Jones, driver water cart. You see we are all split up. That is the reason we never get any of the presents sent to the Brantford boys. They are sent to Capt. Colquhoun and the 38th get the lot. All the stuff, such as Balaclava caps, etc., sent from Brantford all went to the 38th. My wife said that she was at a tea that was given in aid of some pudding for Christmas but the 25th boys here saw nothing of it. I am glad to say that since we have been in France we have been in need of nothing – free tobacco, shirts, socks, in fact. Since we have been here it has been a regular picnic. I see by the papers that the Second Contingent is in England. We landed here on February 11, at St. Nazaire from Avonmouth, near Bristol, Eng., five days, and then three days on the train and then to Erquinghem, near Armentieres, and then went into the trenches, at Bois-Grenier, and then to Hazebrouck. We have been on the move ever since.

I think we are going to Ypres in a day or two. We have been the luckiest battalion – only four casualties. I suppose you know poor Col. Labatt had hard luck. He had to go through an operation two weeks before we left. I was his groom and mounted orderly and he bought lots of kit for active service and was fairly settled when this illness got him. I had a letter from him and he expects to rejoin us later on. Crouch and Wood, both of the 38th, are expecting to be invalided home to Brantford. We see quite a lot of Major A.B. Cutcliffe. He is with the Royal Engineers Veterinary Corps. He is always over to see the boys and old Jim.

We have a new colonel. He was a major on the staff in Canada lent by the Imperial Government as an instructor from an English infantry regiment. He is every bit a soldier, but just a little too strict for a colonel. Reg. and I get along with him all right. When he came to put another sergeant over old Jim he said Jim was not strict enough; after he had all the dirty work getting the harness and horses in working order a week before we left for France. We are billeted on farms and these billets are the best we have had since arriving in the country. I was down to the transport 1 ½ miles away from headquarters and Steve and Jim (Cara and Mounce) have got an officer’s billet – both have a bed to sleep in. The rest of the boys sleep in the barns, with plenty of clean straw. It’s just like being at home. We get bread, biscuits, bacon, fresh meat, jam and tobacco and cigarettes, and now and again rum. We get an occasional bath, hot, when they can get the convenience, and our clothes washed free and boots repaired free. It’s nothing like South Africa. This is a picnic so far. Maybe it won’t be in this big advance. We had a big general parade. General Smith-Dorrien has taken us in his army corps, and says we have, or shall have, in a few days, the greatest opportunity ever a regiment had to make a name for Canada, so watch the papers. I might say that the troops do no long marches here. They go with hundreds of big motor busses, penny all the way. It looks funny to see London buses with soldiers on top.

Brigadier Mercer, of the Queen’s Own Rifles Toronto, is in charge of the First Brigade, General Alderson in charge of the division, Colonel Birchall in charge of our battalion and Col. Buell in the 2nd. Capt. M.A. Colquhoun has been sick for three weeks, but is back again in H. Co. We have four field kitchens, which cook the food when we are traveling from one place to another. We have still got the Ross rifles. We have six machine guns in one battalion, and there is talk of getting more. Brooks, Chambers and myself are on the battalion headquarters staff. Young Miller of the 1st troop D. Squadron has volunteered for bomb throwing. It’s quite a new thing to the Canadians. The British have been using it in all their charges. They are made out of jam tins, filled with high explosives and are thrown with the hand. I think the Canadians ought to be good at that, all good baseball throwers. They had a lecture at headquarters some time ago and an English major gave the lecture. I heard him say that the bombs did 75 percent damage to the enemy and 25 percent to the man who throws them. I think that’s all this time. Remember me to all the 25th. I have not seen Lieut. Thompson. He is in the 19th Alberta Dragoons. I have not seen Lieut. Watson in France. I am kept very busy, with the two horses for the colonel rides three times as much as Col. Labatt.

Faithfully yours,
W. Rhodes

BX May 28, 1915

Brantford Man Was Groom For Col. Birchall – Sergt. Rhodes Speaks of Officer Who Gave His Life For Country

Sergeant William Rhodes, late of the 25th Brant Dragoons, and later groom for Colonel Birchall, of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who was killed in action, has written an interesting letter to his wife, Mrs. W. Rhodes, 67 William Street here giving some of his experiences during the terrific fighting around Langemarck. He says in part:

Pte. W. Rhodes,
4th Battalion
1st Brigade, C.E.F.

Dear Wife,

I suppose by this time you will have heard about the Canadians, etc., and that my boss was killed. He was one of the finest and bravest men in the British army. It’s too bad he was killed, not only for the battalion’s sake, but for the British army at large. He had both officers and men under him working like clockwork. He was wounded twice and then shot through the head. The last I saw of him was when he and the adjutant jumped on their horses, not saying where they were going, and left me with five horses. They did not come back. It was awful. The shells dropped every second.

I could not get away. The horses were rearing and I was a little scared, but I had no orders to take the horses back until a mounted police sergeant sent me back to where our transport was. I had just led the horses there when they started to shell the farm, and they killed several horses and men, so I had to shift this time. I had only two horses, so I could get away quicker this time. The night before the action on April 22, the colonel and I were over to see his old regiment, the 3rd R.F., when the transport officers came with a dispatch and we returned to headquarters and got in touch with the Germans. At daybreak on April 23 we came out here for a rest, and got a lot of new men out from England to reinforce us. We had only two lieutenants and one captain left. It was awful. Miller’s boy got shook up with the concussion of a big shell, but no wounds. He is back in the ranks. South Africa was nothing like these shells and gases.

Seven or eight Brantford boys were killed, but none of the Brant Dragoons yet. The Royal Canadian Dragoons have just come out, with Spaulding etc., as infantry. They left their horses in England.

We are in town now and on Sunday they held a memorial service for the dead. Everything looks like May does in England with flowers, etc. I am in need of nothing – plenty of socks, clean shirts, tobacco and I am in the best of health. We get about $1 a week spending money, and we can buy a glass of beer for 1d. It’s poor beer, though. I saw them shelling a town and the poor women and children were running about. The kiddies would run from one village to another and then a long distance shell would blow the roof off the houses there. The Germans are still all on the other side of the canal.

Good-bye
Will

BX December 9, 1915

Promotions Are Rapid In the Trenches – Sergt. W. Rhodes Writes an Interesting Letter On Life at Front – Brantford Boys Were Looking Well as They Marched Into the Trenches Under Harvey Cockshutt and Leonard Bishop – A Chatty Letter

The following extracts from a letter received by Lieut.-Col. H.F. Leonard, from Sergeant William Rhodes of this city, who is now in Belgium, as mounted orderly to Major-General Mercer, and who was formerly groom to the late Col. Birchall of the 4th Battalion, are quite descriptive of conditions existing in the trenches, as compared with last winter. The letter mentions several Brantford boys and tells of their activities at the time it was written. Sergt. Rhodes also wonders where he will spend his Christmas, and relates the manner in which he spent his Christmas in the Boer war in which he took part. 

November 17, 1915
Belgium

We are still in the same position, or rather district, having been moved to a place not far away from where we were. Our second brigade made a small attack, just for information and took a trench and returned with 20 prisoners and only one casualty. I think that now the cold, muddy weather has set in, it will be sit tight and rake them with high explosives.

The trenches are a lot more comfortable than last winter – built more with large redoubts for men to get in during heavy shelling and bad weather.

We have small railways to take the rations and trench equipment up and miles of communication trenches. It is not like Festubert, where you had to run with a box of bully beef and flop down when you heard the whistling of the shells. I am mounted orderly to Major-General Mercer and I am struck off going into the trenches now. He is expecting a corps of troops and will likely go back to Bailleul where General Alderson is five miles from the firing line. I shall be glad to go for nothing only a navy gun, mounted on an armored train ever bothers this place.

Twenty To One

Well, anyway I am glad to tell you that now if the Huns put over a round of high explosive we put 20 back. The trouble since we have been here, up to now has been want of heavy artillery.

I met a lot of Brantford boys the other night going into the trenches, with the Third and 
FourthBattalions for 24 hour instruction. I shook hands with Harvey Cockshutt and Len. Bishop, they were looking well and I think that in a few days they will relieve the First Brigade here, who are going back five miles for a ten days’ rest. I also met J. Mounce, who told me Mr. Hall had been transferred to the 25th Dragoons again. I am pleased to hear that, as he was a very popular officer. I have not written to him since coming to France, so, if you see him, tell him I am O.K., and give him my best wishes. I saw his photo in The Expositor and he looked well.

Promotion is Rapid

There is lots of promotion out here now, for every officer of the 4th whom I know of, who was hit has returned to Canada – it looks for good. Hence we get captains for colonels. You see as many a sergeant today and next time you see him he is a lieutenant. Promotion is very rapid, especially in the first line trenches; I have got Dawson a job up here on brigade headquarters. He is groom to Brigade-Major Webber, who is with the Irish Fusiliers. I guess he will stay here for I heard the general tell him he was sorry he could not take him with him as General Alderson had something in view for him later. This Major Webber is an imperial officer, who has been out here since the retreat from Mons. He is the “backbone” of the First Brigade. He has everything done thoroughly. All the boys are O.K. I was down to the transport the other day and saw Cara, Whelan, McDonald and the great Jim. They are in a village four miles back, and they bring the men’s rations up at night. They have their horses in the mud, but are erecting stables from all the lumber and bricks they can get from a place that the Germans have laid in ruins. No one lives there, but the Germans put in a few occasionally, always by day, so the boys go up at night to get the building material.

Christmas Time

I suppose everything is looking like Christmas time in Brantford now. I wonder where I shall put in this Christmas. I have spent Christmas in some funny places. I put in two in South Africa, and one of them I well remember – going up the country in a box car, expecting every minute the Boers were going to blow up the railway. Yes fine bully beef and biscuits for Christmas dinner washed down with some old green water. You could not see the color of it when you drank it from your bottles. We are a little better off for food here. We do get it regularly, if it’s ever so rough, and then you hear the boys grumble here. Well sir, I will draw this letter to a close by wishing you the best of luck, also your wife. Wishing you a Merry Christmas, I remain,

Yours Faithfully,
Sergt. W. Rhodes