Duty calls
On 24 October 1915 Charlie Ross Francis, a 26-year-old insurance adjuster, joined the 90th Canadian Infantry Battalion in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Like nearly 55 per cent of his fellow Canadian soldiers, he was born in Canada, not Britain. In fact, on his mother's side he was descended from fur traders and native Indians. His father, however, was born in Kent and he had numerous relatives still living in Britain.
'I really do not feel as if I could run a man through with a bayonet in cold blood.'
Charlie never questioned why he should join up; it was simply his duty to go to France and fight in World War One. Throughout his service, Charlie kept a diary as well as writing frequent letters to his 'Dearest Mother' and other family members back in Manitoba. The following extracts are taken from both sources.
6 September 1916 (letter from England): 'The news that you have no doubt been expecting is that I am going over to France... I feel great and am looking forward to it.'
15 September 1916 in France (diary): 'We have had a number of lectures from the various NCOs and officers and they are very blood-thirsty... have no mercy at all on the enemy, but kill every German that is possible. It is a teaching which we will no doubt put to a practical use in the near future, but at the present stage I really do not feel as if I could run a man through with a bayonet in cold blood. It is a good preparation for what is coming tho' and seems to inspire the men or perhaps rather it gets them more familiar with the thought of it, and they speak quite callously of killing men or "gouging their eyes out".'
26 September 1916 (diary): 'We are at least 12 miles [about 19km] from the firing line and perhaps more, but last night we could clearly see the shrapnel and the star shells flaring in the horizon, and being the first sight of the actual war I stood some time and watched it.'
29 September 1916, the Somme (diary): 'The 8th Battalion passed on their way out of the trenches. They were badly smashed up but had had a successful innings in the trenches.'
Charlie later learned that the 8th Battalion had just lost 525 of 750 men who had gone into action the day before he was meant to join them.
Published: 2002-03-01
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