Folded letter, yellow-brown piece of paper, written and sent home by RSM L. E. DeHarte while a prisoner of war in a camp Göttingen, Germany, with line indents running horizontally across the full length of the paper, and folded once over both horizontally and vertically, with writing on both sides of the paper. The front of the letter in the top right is written RSM DeHarte’s sender information: “C.S.M. LEDeHarte. W.O. 48th Highlanders of Canada Gottingen Hanover Germany 1.6.15” and written diagonally to the left of this is “Prisoner of War“.
The contents of the letters are: “My dear Wife.- You cannot know how anxious I am to get word from you, to know that you are alright.
Of course it takes a letter a great while to go & come. You must write to me every week & don’t forget to let dear little Jin put a note in for her daddy. I am allowed a letter & postal card today so I am sending the card to art fox. I am feeling quite well now only for my intestines which are a little weak & sore yet. Only for a little money I do not want much at least not that can come from Canada. I wrote to Bill once & asked him to send me a 7’4 (7 and quarter) Glengarry. I hope he has done so as the woolen tam-o’shanter we had for the trenches is getting pretty warm to wear. I have not yet been able to find out the number of caswaltees(likely meant casualties) in our Regt. but I know they must have been pretty heavy. I know my company suffered a great deal I can now only hope for peace to let me get back home. The Englishmen here also the French do pretty well in that they get dainties sent them from Home But my home is so far away that it will take about 3 weeks for a parcel to get here so there is not much to be done in the matter is there. On the top of the hill above our camp is the world famous “Bismarck Tower” and what little country we can see from the camp is very pretty The confinement is the only irksome things. Remember me to every body & tell them to write. Drop a card to Bob & Lily & tell them to write. I hope you are alright dear. Love to all. Kisses to yourself & Jin. Your fond Husband.
xxxxxxxxx Lewis xxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxx ”
The Bismarck Tower mentioned above still stands today just outside Göttingen, at the top of a hill in a forest overlooking the city.
NOTE: This and other similar prisoner of war letters and postcards by RSM Lewis E. DeHarte are stored in a Ziploc bag with the postcard under the accession number 2009015018.
