December 25, 1916 Newcastle-on-Tyne, England

Bill writes a long letter home to everybody on Christmas Day telling them about his leave to Scotland with brother Harold. He visits cousins and tries to unravel the Skilling genealogy without much success. Bill expects to be sent to the front soon.

 






 

March 28 - end of April, 1916 Aboard the SS Baltic - Shorncliffe

This long letter was typed by Bill's sister Mae Skilling and circulated to all family members by his father. It is a compilation of several letters starting with his sailing to England on the SS Baltic on March 28, 1916 and ending with his being at Shorncliffe at the end of April, 1916.

He mentions his room mate "Trotter" (Bernard Freeman Trotter from McMaster University) who, posthumously, became known as one of Canada's war poets. Trotter was killed in action on May 7, 1917. Some of his letters which mention "Skilling" can be found at the Canadian Letters Project by searching for "Skilling".

Battalion C.E.F. for rations and discipline are quartered in the Risboro Barracks,

Shorncliffe, occupying 2 huts B13 & B14. The huts are very comfortable 60 x 20

ft with a dozen single iron beds on each

of the public work; buses, trams, lifts etc. the first bus I got on had a girl for a

conductor. She asked us for our fare and I said: "How much to the Strand?"

the reply was rather unexpected, "I'm sure I 'aven't the fyentest ideah". So we

gave her a penny and it happened to be right.