Headstone of Sapper E.M. Des Brisay, 2nd Canadian Signal Company, Attd. Royal Flying Corps, died August 3, 1916, age 23, at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
98 SapperE.M. Des Brisay2nd Canadian Signal Coy.Attd. Royal Flying Corps, 3rd August 1916 Age 23Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy Countenance
"Look here, Kid. Take a tip from me an[d] stop wanting to enlist. You could do nothing but go in the home guards and stay there awhile, and it would be a deuce of a awhile. You hold your horses awhile and go to school every day, and by the time you are seventeen you can get out and enlist.Don't be afraid that the war will be over by then, because if you ask me, it is going to last some time after 1920. So be a good boy and stay on the farm for a while, and go to school every day you possibly can, as that is the best thing you can ever do. I am haveing a pretty good time just now, but I don't know how long it is going to last. Most of the men here are not near as well off as I am by a long sight."
Better part of a letter from Winnie McClare to his brother Herbert, November 6, 1916. From Nova Scotia, Canada, McClare was writing from a training camp in Upper Dibgate in Kent on England's southeast coast.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 226–227, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
1916-11-06, November, 1916, McClare, Canada
