Along with a wonderful collection of family letters from England including ones from James, Dorrie, Lena and Gertie Bushby was this gem - a single one from Private T. Colthorpe to Randy's Grandpa Boulton. Over my Christmas holidays, I had time to research his story. Library and Archives Canada has scanned and posted online all the service records from WW1 soldiers and with his helpful inclusion at the top of his letter of his Regimental Number (276529), it was easy to find out more about him here.
This very descriptive letter of a soldier's life was written in July of 1917 from Camp Bramshott in Hampshire, England which coincidentally is just north of the former home of Grandma Elsie (Bushby) Boulton.
(Transcript of the letter is below - some editing done by this teacher including adding punctuation!)
I expect you are wondering where I am and how things are with me after all this time. You will see by the above address that we are in England and we have been in England about six or seven weeks. I can’t say much about our voyage across the Atlantic beyond saying it was pretty uncomfortable. We come over on the Olympic a tremendous vessel. They said there was 6 or 7 thousand on board but can’t say how true it is. They said also she brought 10,000 Australians across on one voyage. If it was so I pity them for we were pretty well crowded. We slept in hammocks slung underneath the different decks strung so close together there was barely room to turn over and underneath were the mess tables. Some of the beggars would lay in bed till the breakfast was on the table in mornings and then roll out right down. Pull and maul the grub - about the food wasn’t of the best - ugh. I tell you I was glad when we arrived this side. We had to wear lifebelts all the way across wasn’t allowed up on deck without them. The boats were slung out both sides of the ship off the top deck to the level the next one where we drilled. She carried great guns and some of the best gunners in the British Navy to man them. She didn’t run in a straight line she come like this all the way across. (Drawing of a zig zag line) We were met by 5 Destroyers when we were off the Irish coast - little narrow craft with only small guns on board as far as I could see but they could certainly move through the water coming toward our ship when we first saw them at a great rate cutting through the water like a knife.This country was looking at its best just simply Ba verdant green and roses in flowers in the gardens and different creepers on the walls off of the houses. If you were to ever come to England Tom arrive in June but don’t come now. Things are not at their best here now everything is dear as dear as they are in Canada and food is not too plentiful. We count on rations we have enough but that’s about all. We get more variety of food and better cooked than we did in Canada but there is none thrown away. We are putting in stiff training here. There is something to go through after a Canadian soldier arrives in England before he is fit for the front. We only get the rudiments of training in Canada. Here we have to learn musketry, bombing, gas. Have to put the gas helmets on in so many seconds and before we go to the front we have to go through a room full of it put the helmet on in so many seconds before they turn it on. The live bombs they explode in four to 5 seconds. You just have to pull a pin out and hold the lever attached to them. When you pull the pin out it release the lever if you hold that down till you throw it. When the lever is released it release a spring inside which operates on the works inside. Then look out - they are the lucky ones who are not close to it. Then we have to learn barbwire entanglements, trench digging, sand bag building, bayonet fighting, all sorts of things. I guess we are booked ...What a great letter! Thomas Colthorpe was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk England on May 13, 1878 which puts him 3 years younger than our Thomas. When he enlisted in Brandon on July 21, 1916 he was 38 years old, with dark complexion, grey eyes and dark hair. He stood 5 feet 9 1/2 inches tall and with both parents deceased, his next of kin was listed as his brother Edgar back in England. He listed his occupation as farmer and resident of Reston at that time. I have found mention of this man in a ledger as a hired hand on the Boulton farm in 1915.
His online personnel file confirms his voyage on the Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic) that left Halifax on the 6th of June in 1917 and landed in Liverpool a week later.
Besides his brother Edgar, he had a sister Rachel who lived at 8 Montagu Square, Marble Arch, London W. England at that time. The will in his file leaves her as his beneficiary. I can find no further trace of the family but have found the last name could also be spelled Coldthorpe, Cowlthorpe, Colthorp, etc... As always, any information my readers may have would be most welcome!
Thomas Colthorpe, your memory lives on in that letter back to a friend. We will remember you.
