An Age of Resilience: One War. Two Brothers. Their Letters Home From World War I.

By Tracy Brown

 

While there is much written about war—specifically, World War I and the political and tactical components of the war—it is the soldiers on the ground who fought and died that should be remembered. It is the human experience that makes war so incredibly heartbreaking.

Many times, we gloss over who these people were&

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracy Brown
• Release date: Apr 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647461140

Book preview

An Age of Resilience

One War. Two Brothers.

Their Letters Home From

World War I.

Tracy Brown

An Age of Resilience © 2020 by Tracy Brown

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Author Academy Elite

PO Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the author.

Identifiers:

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020900662

Paperback: 978-1-64746-112-6

Hardback: 978-1-64746-113-3

Ebook: 978-1-64746-114-0

Available in paperback, hardback, and e-book

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my father - Albert Arthur Masters - the best gift I could ever give to you.

May we never forget them.

Contents

Chapter One: Georgina’s Trunk and The Boys

Chapter Two: Letters of 1915

Chapter Three: Letters of 1916

Chapter Four: Letters of 1917

Chapter Five: Letters of 1918-1919

Chapter Six: Final Thoughts

Chapter One

Georgina’s Trunk and The Boys

In grade five, our teachers had given us all paper poppies coloured red, on which we were asked to put a name of someone we wanted to remember on Remembrance Day. With great pride, I wrote in my best handwriting, Albert Arthur De LaPlante. I had known the name because my grandfather was named after him, then my father, and ultimately, my brother. All in honour of this man who I knew to be a relative of some sort, and I knew he died in World War I. So, on that day, I claimed him as my hero and posted the poppy on the Remembrance Day Wall. The wall encased the back of our classroom completely comprised of paper poppies from each student leaving a striking illustrative reminder for us all. I remember the overwhelming feeling of pride and sadness looking at them altogether and appreciating this sea of red which stays with me still.

A few years later, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, my grandmother came to our home for dinner as she always did, only this time she brought with her a tattered old travelling trunk. The trunk belonged to my paternal great-grandmother, Georgina Masters. My grandmother had been the guardian of the trunk after the death of my grandfather, Albert Arthur Masters. For her own reasons, on this day, she decided it was time to impart the duty of its keep to my father, who would then pass the family heirloom to me. From the first day I became acquainted with the trunk and its contents, I knew it was something special.

When my father opened the lid, I remember the musty smell of timeworn relics carefully preserved. Here, within a small trunk, my grandmother kept some of the most important pieces of my great-grandmother’s life. Even at the young age of twelve, the significance was not lost on me.

For hours that day, we went through the meticulously wrapped artifacts. My great-grandmother kept everything, it seemed: earrings, handkerchiefs, albums of postcards, and pictures—lots of pictures of her family and friends from across the years. Then, it happened. My grandmother unwrapped a shoebox full of letters which turned out be the letters written home throughout World War I by none other than Albert Arthur De LaPlante, the legend I had heard about most of my life. There were also letters from his brother, Godfrey De LaPlante, who served in the war, but Albert Arthur was, in my young mind, the shining star of the story. For years thereafter, the trunk was left undisturbed, safely preserved in my family home until it was finally imparted into my care.

It was never lost on me that Georgina had a deep connection to her family and the immense love she had for them all was very apparent. She honoured her brother, Albert Arthur, by naming her son (my grandfather) after him. That tribute carried through the generations to my father, brother, and nephew, each holding Albert’s name with pride. And it’s no wonder! Albert Arthur was a war hero in our family but no more or less than his brother Godfrey, which I discovered after spending time with their letters and getting to know them better—or as best as one can know someone without being able to speak to them. Through a variety of searches of war records, census information, birth and death records, and the letters themselves, I have come to know these boys quite well, I think.

•••

So, who were these people? Here’s what I know. Georgina was born to Ernest and Mary Louise De LaPlante on September 2, 1890, followed by Albert Arthur (referred to as Archie by his family) on March 21, 1894, and Godfrey on July 28, 1898.

The first known record of Mary Louise (nee Brault) and Ernest living in the Peterborough area showed up in the 1871 census. Both originally born in Quebec, they came to the area as many had at that time due to the boom in the lumber industry. In fact, Ernest’s occupation at the age of twenty-one was listed as a lumberman, as was his father’s. The couple would meet and then marry at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Peterborough on November 12, 1883, where they would have in total nine children between the years of 1885 and 1901. In the letters that follow, both boys would reference their siblings, mainly Louise, Fermus, Ozias, and Armene (Hermine).

By 1901, the family owned a modest home on Westcott Street in Peterborough, Ontario, where the house still stands today. Certainly not a grand home, but it was one where the family would grow and flourish over the next twenty years. Unfortunately, the family lost their matriarch when Mary Louise passed in 1903 along with an infant son, Joseph Wilfred.

In 1911, Albert Arthur apprenticed as a possible machinist at Peterborough’s largest employer at the time, Canadian General Electric. He worked alongside his father, Ernest, and brother, Ozias, working fifty-five hours a week, earning $388 per year. Godfrey was twelve at this time. Georgina married my great-grandfather, Ora Masters, on February 20, 1912. Ora also worked for Canadian General Electric as a painter. Records of 1910 showed that he rented a room from a local boarding house. However, after their marriage, the couple lived with Georgina’s father and her brothers on Westcott Street.

At the age of twenty-one, Albert Arthur is described as being 5 foot, 7-1/2 inches tall, with fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes, and a tattoo of clasped hands citing 8th C.M.R February 8 1915 on one of his arms. He signed his attestation and enlistment papers September 21, 1915, upon arrival in Shorncliffe, England, as a volunteer infantry soldier. (It is important to note that his original attestation was signed on May 17, 1915, in Ottawa, Canada.) At the time of his enlistment, Albert Arthur worked as a railway brakeman. He survived many battles, only to be killed later at Passchendaele while crossing No Man’s Land by a stray piece of German shrapnel on October 30, 1917. Originally enlisting as a private in the infantry, Albert Arthur was appointed to the rank of lance corporal and became a sergeant in September 1916. Sergeant Albert Arthur De LaPlante’s final resting place is between two unknown soldiers within Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium.

Godfrey, listing his birth year as 1897 (although his record of birth was 1898) signed his attestation and enlistment papers on August 23, 1915, in Peterborough. Being recorded as eighteen years old (however seventeen years of age), having a darker complexion with blue eyes and dark brown hair, Godfrey stood at 5 feet, 5 inches. His occupation was that of a butcher; however, he would become a driver/gunner in the war effort (a driver was a private in rank, responsible for getting supplies such as food and ammunition to the soldiers). Godfrey served proudly until the end of the war on November 11, 1918. He returned to his hometown of Peterborough in February 1919, where he eventually married and had a family of his own.

I hand over to you the letters that have been locked in a trunk for over 100 years, virtually untouched. They have been transcribed to keep their original content. The letters are quite ordinary in nature, but there is a significance in their insignificance. Albert Arthur and Godfrey weren’t writing to future generations; they wrote home to the people they loved the most, and the simplicity of that makes them even more profound today. The simple writing of these common soldiers captures the human experience of war.

Albert Arthur De LaPlante

Albert Arthur De LaPlante

Godfrey De LaPlante

Chapter Two

Letters of 1915

Albert Arthur De LaPlante

July 14, 1915

A.A. De LaPlante

Canada

Dear People,

Just a few lines to let you know that we are leaving for the old country—Friday noon. There are about 150 leaving. We could not get leave to go home. But nevertheless, perhaps it’s better for you to know the way things would be. I signed for to leave $15 a month to father. We are getting paid tomorrow. We are drawing for the full month. So, listen, I don’t know whether they will keep the money out for this month or wait till we get across. But if they don’t, why, I will need a money order for what money I am going to need. So, you can be on the lookout for it. So, after this month, why, yous will likely get it regularly.

I will write to yous as soon as we get there unless a submarine gets us! Ha ha. I am going to communion before I go