It rains all day most unmercifully absolute wretchedness prevails. Colonel Buller lines up the troops & praises them for good work done at Hooge & Ypres Salient expect Huns to break thru at St Eloi.
Wednesday 12 April 1916
Raining Heavy
I am presented to Colonel Buller & Major Hamilton Gault & congratulated on my excellent sketching & map drawing.
I trace and sketch all morning for Mr. MacDougall the intelligence officer & again in afternoon.
Appointed Regimental Topographer.
Battalion goes into trenches, I leave billet at 6:30 PM.
I to Ouderdom with Battalion headquarters for map drawing. Promoted to full corporal.
Monday 19 July 1915 – fair
Writing letters all day.
Have a very bad cold.
Colonel Buller inspects the Princess Patricia’s and Company gives him 3 cheers.
Placed £17 in post office savings bank making £20 in all.
Thursday 8 July 1915 – windy and cloudy
Assisting carpenter in morning.
Wrote letters in the morning.
Colonel Buller and Major Gault paid a visit to what remains of Princess Pats.
* Lt Col H.C. Buller – Colonel Buller took command of the regiment after the death of Colonel Farquhar. He was injured during the Second Battle of Ypres and lost an eye but returned to command the regiment in 1916. He was killed in the Battle of Mount Sorrel on June 2nd 1916.
** Lt Col A. Hamilton Gault –Was a driving force behind the creation of the Princess Pat’s. Gault offered the Canadian government 100,000 dollars to help raise and equip the battalion for overseas duties. Upon the formation of the Regiment he was made Major and was second in command. Gault was also wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres and was forced to give up command until he returned in October of 1915. Gault lost a leg during the Battle of Mount Sorrel in 1916 but again returned to the war, eventually commanding the Princess Pats near the end of the WWI.
