A Round Trip to Hell

By Ray Francis

A son of Swedish immigrants to Canada, after much heartache goes to join the army and ends up winning the Victoria Cross for valour at the 3rd Battle of Passchendaele. Inspired by a true story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781291793260

Book preview

A Round Trip to Hell

A round trip to Hell.

Preface.

This is the story of a young man, born of a mining family who choose to run away from the coalfields of Canada and instead he went to almost to the other side of the world and underwent the purgatory of the trenches and eventually his part in the battle of Passchendaele, through the hell that was the First World War.  Read how he spurned love and reserved occupation status to defend the rights of his country, the rights that he so firmly believed in; being namely the right to freedom irrespective of race creed or colour.

Pic. 1    Front page cover early 1900's coal mine showing tram tracks.

IN MEMORIAM.

I dedicate this fictional book to a real life character. A man of such high moral character, enough to earn the respect of his colleagues and be awarded the highest military award possible, the VICTORIA CROSS.

This book is inspired by the true story of CORPORAL COLIN FRASER BARRON. V.C

Born in 1893 in Boyndie, Banffshire, Scotland, and who emigrated to Canada in 1910 before joining the Canadian Expeditionary forces in 1914.

He received his VICTORIA CROSS on 6th November 1917 at the third battle of Passchendaele.

May he rest now in eternal peace having passed away in 1958 aged 65 years.

Pic.  2  CORPORAL COLIN FRASER BARRON. V.C. courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Chapter one… Parentage.

John Petersen was born to Swedish immigrant couple Senvik Petersen and his young wife Olsa in 1897 in a small mining town seventy five miles from Manitoba Canada. His father was a mining engineer and his mother before she wed back in Sweden had been a seamstress making and altering her own clothes for as long as she could remember. Senvik had worked his way from a poorly educated youth up through becoming a loader for the miners at the coalface learning by watching and helping out setting and exploding the shot fire used in Swedish coal mines.

He had met Olsa at a miner’s welfare dance which used to take place every month back in Sweden; and their love had bloomed almost from the start; so it was with deep anxiety that Senvik approached Olsa’s parents to ask for their daughters hand in marriage. Olsa’s father had given Senvik a rough time demanding to know how a poor coal face loader was going to keep his daughter and manage to form a life between them.

Senvik had been totally honest with Olsa’s Father and had explained how he planned to learn as much about mining as he could and someday he hoped he would be given a chance to run a mine for the company he now worked for. His honesty impressed her father and at the end he knew he was going to marry his love of his life, when her father invited him to take a drink with him. Although Senvik had sworn never to drink he accepted and asked for a cup of coffee instead of an alcoholic drink. A shocked prospective father in law again was impressed that this man wanting to marry his daughter did not, unlike so many of young men in their village, partake of alcohol.

The wedding was a local affair but still a large group of well-wishers joined in the service at the church as was the normal custom. For in those days everyone seemed to share in the good luck of others just as much as they mourned the loss of life in any disaster which may befall the town’s population.  Only a month after their marriage a pit disaster led to Senvik been asked