Photo: *Forrester Hector Faulkenham(far left and standing) and Comrades 2nd Canadian Division, 5th Brigade, 25th Battalion Nova Scotia: Location - Etaples, France, (Western Front).
{please excuse spelling and grammar - author is visually challenged} Christmas 1917 fell like a faint beam of light across the shadowed days of the fourth winter of the Great War. There were half enough boats to carry huge quantities of cards, letters and parcels for loved ones on active service, and comforts that everyone wanted to send from their homes of afar. Unexpectedly a delay occurred at South Hampton, England - a holding depot of Christmas packages.The obstacle occurred early December and it took three weeks of gargantuan effort on all sides to ship everything across to France in the week before Christmas. It was unfortunate that the Red Cross had made sure that all their own supplies of Christmas cheer were in France by the beginning of December.
In addition, the Boulogne holding depot housed 490,000 tins of sweets, four tons of chestnuts, 12 tons of friend fruit, 40,000 tins of sweets, four tons of Brazil Nuts, four tons of Filberts, ten tons of almonds, four tons of walnuts, four tons of chestnuts, 12 tons of dried fruit, 40,000 boxes of Christmas crackers and 80,000 Christmas cards.
Just days before Christmas, boat loads of chickens and turkeys landed in France plus a mammoth consignment of 25,000 Christmas puddings, which had been lovely prepared by hundreds of volunteer groups throughout Nova Scotia communities. These generous individuals who prepared the puddings willingly sacrificed their ration of sugar and a quantity of previous dried fruit to ensure that "their boys and others had a proper Christmas dinner". Most puddings were stuffed as full of lucky dimes as they were with horded raisins, and mixed liberation of stout or brandy. Chocolate , tobacco, cigarettes, sweets of all description, beef cubed concentrate, candles, socks, mittens, razor blades, sardines, and soap accompanied the puddings.
It took all the considerable organizational powers of the Red Cross and a large slice of the resources of the Army Transport Corps to distribute their bounty across the length and breadth of the Western Front.
From South Africa came a boat load of grapes, peaches, and nectarines; from our communities of the Annapolis Valley - 10,000 cases of red apples; from America - shipments of beef; from Australia, towering mountain of "Billy cans" (1.3L) can with a wire handle packed with comforts and goodies from their homeland. All of them contained different assortment, but the universal verdict was that they were "Bonzo". The "Billie cans" themselves, were as Australian as the strains of "Waltzing Matilda" and scope of sentiments and service.
Within our communities in Nova Scotia, groups worked around the clock to fill donated boxes (all the same size, wtih oddments of all descriptions). The boxes held a surprising amount of chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes, sweets, concentrated beef cubes, notebooks, candles, socks, mittens and much more.
On the day in which the filled boxes were to be sent off, residents of our Province loaded gifts on the train bound for a shipping pier at the docks of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Army personnel from the 2nd Canadian Division, 5th Brigade, 25th Battalion Nova Scotia and the 4th Canadian Division, 12th Brigade, 85th Battalion Highlanders, Nova Scotia plus others received their care-package with great joy and spontaneity. Our soldiers at Camp Etaples was a fine opportunity to introduce their "downeast" music to Comrades and did so in style. Those who tap- danced did soon the table tops for others who sang altered lyrics to well-known tunes. Skits of all descriptions also kept the audience in awe.
Meanwhile other's chose to celebrate by going about camp getting into mischief. Their intent would be what we Nova Scotians knew as "Saluting". A tradition that took place the day following a wedding and involved playing practical jokes on the new couple. True to what resembled a back home "saluting" some soldiers went about camp to find fin in creative antics. One of their first finds was some laundry hanging on a makeshift clothesline --they joylessly removed it and walked to a nearby abandoned farm house to hang their bounty of laundry up at the neighbourhood farm.
The behaviour of these individuals - our ancestors - combined wtih the fun-filled nature of Australians remain legendary. The more docile troops of other nationalities had a sneaking admiration for their devil-may-care demeanor and their reputation as "free-booters" and though fighters. The Yuletide goodwill and spirit of our ancestors certainly added to a festival ambiance at a time when life itself was fragile and bleak.
*identy of those in photo: Other than that of Forrester Hector Faulkenham, Belleisle, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia is the only Nova Scotian soldier to be recognized. Forrester Hector Faulkenham on the left and standing was the Grandfather of the author.
......Nightingale (Christmas, 2012)
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