170 Olive St
Victoria, B.C.
Oct 26th 1916

Dear Jim;

I recieved your letter of Oct 8th this afternoon, and was so glad to hear from you. I also got two letters and a card from Willie, you may be sure I was glad to get them. So you have a new uniform, well that is nice aced I would like to see you in it. I guess you will be quite a swell. I wish you could send me one of your pictures over and I would send you one taken here in its place, I just want to see what you look like in England. I am glad to hear you are having a good time over there and that you like England so well. Willie says he expects to get 6 days leave soon and of course will go to Blighty. If you see him tell him I said not to bother about getting me a raincoat, but to get his photo taken instead. Have you seen anything of Clarence Geary over there, He and some chums got leave and went up to London, I don't know where they were staying, but some mean soul robbed the poor boys of every cent they had. Clarence had a bill extra inside a photo case so he was the only one with money, they took 8000 all together, wasn't that mean.

Aunty Bella has just brought me a find Photo of Edna. In the Machine Gun picture you gave me I see an old friend, though I cannot remember his name. He is standing on the extreme left. He used to be one of the R.E. at the Barracks when I used to go to the dances there. Young Sabiston of George Street Is amongst the missing. Potts of Joseph is wounded. Have you heard anything of Alex. Mc Donald. his mother will get a letter this week I guess.

Thank Mrs Markhaus for the kind wishes. The Bantams come in from Sidney on Monday and expect to sail soon. The 50th Gordons are the next for overseas. The 88th are to be Home Guards and I suppose a few of the old fellows like Shauks, Parker, etc will be transferred to the 88th.
It has been fine weather here, we have had no rain for two months and people in the country are having a hard time of it because their wells have gone dry. I would like to see the stream at the ranch, I guess it must be nearly dry. No one picked the apples down there this year. I am waiting impatiently for Ted to come home. I hope he will take me down. It has been snowing on the prairies for the last week, Ted expects to be through at the end of the month so he should be home at the end of the week.

You will be sorry to hear that Errol Newman is dead. He caught a bad cold up at Cowichan where his Mother lives at the Riverside Inn, six months ago. Then he got Pneumonia & that developed into Consumption. He has been up at the Sanitarium in Kamloops the last two months. One of the Beynon boys (Rickard) is up there too his is not expected to live, the other two are in England or at the Koat somewhere Jack. & George. I am thankful that you boys are strong and so healthy, I hope you will take as good care of yourselves as you possibly can. Then if it is your misfortune to get wounded, you are young and if you are strong you will recover quickly Well I mist close for the present with my best love to you both

Your loving Mother
Dora E Johnston.

P.S. I hope you get
the socks.