unded,
yet cheery as ever--having done his duty nobly.
All the Canadians in France knew him, and his devotion and
fearlessness were known all along the line, and his poems will, I am
bold to prophesy, last longer in the ages to come than most of the
histories of the war.
I feel sure that his book--if anything like himself--will interest and
inspire all who read it.
LLEWELLYN H. GWYNNE.
_Bishop of Khartoum,
Deputy Chaplain General
to the C. of E. Chaplains
in France._
PREFACE (p. 011)
It is with a feeling of great hesitation that I send out this account
of my personal experiences in the Great War. As I read it over, I am
dismayed at finding how feebly it suggests the bitterness and the
greatness of the sacrifice of our men. As the book is written from an
entirely personal point of view, the use of the first personal pronoun
is of course inevitable, but I trust that the narration of my
experience has been used only as a lens through which the great and
glorious deeds of our men may be seen by others. I have refrained, as
far as possible, except where circumstances seemed to demand it, from
mentioning the names of officers or the numbers of battalions.
I cannot let the book go out without thanking, for many acts of
kindness, Lieut.-General Sir Edwin Alderson, K.C.B., Lieut.-General
Sir Arthur Currie, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., and Major-General Sir Archibald
Macdonell, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., who were each in turn Commanders of
the First Canadian Division. In all the efforts the chaplains made for
the welfare of the Division, they always had the backing of these true
Christian Knights. Their kindness and consideration at all times were
unbounded, and the degree of liberty which they allowed me was a
privilege for which I cannot be too thankful, and which I trust I did
not abuse.
If, by these faulty and inadequate reminiscences, dug out of memories
which have blended together in emotions too deep and indefinable to be
expressed in words, I have reproduced something of the atmosphere in
which our glorious men played their part in the deliverance of the
world, I shall consider my task not in vain.
May the ears of Canada never grow deaf to the plea of wid
|