111780 Pte A. Sumara
22/7/18
My Dearest Sister,
Just a line to let you know that I have received your parcel in very good shape and everything in it was in good shape. The soap, towel, coffee and cigarettes. Don’t worry Annie I smoke now alright so your cigarette’s weren’t wasted. The handkerchief came in very nice as I didn’t have one and needed one badly. Also the soap, so Annie I am very grateful for sending me the box. The coffee also came in good because we buy coffee and take it to the trenches with us because we have to make our own drinks so you couldn’t of sent me anything better. Coffee because it’s a thing comes in very useful to us out here.
And Annie I was tickled to death to get hold of the Oxford paper. I read it right through and it’s just like being at home hearing the news. If you wouldn’t mind and can get hold of the paper again I wish you would send me one again it was simply grand to read it.
Well Annie I don’t know how to thank you but it was very nice of you in sending me the parcel. How do you like Oxford now and what are you working at? Are you in the Woollen Mills? I went to find Frank Reid but I didn’t see him only I know that he is still in the Batt., but I couldn’t find any thing of Fred Johnson. First chance I get I will try to see Frank Reid.
We have some very lovely weather here last week we had sports behind the lines and we all enjoyed it fine. There are a few spills – the sports are all by horses running, jumping types of (???) on horse back, tent pyjama, roman roll and all kinds of things and we had a good day for it too only in the afternoon it rained a llittle. Well Annie I guess its all I can say for now and thanks very much for your parcel. So Annie I must close with my best wishes to you from your loving Brother Albin XXXXXX.
This letter appeared in The Oxford Journal on November 6, 2013. Readers may remember the late Annie Rushton (Sumara) of Little River Road. Albin Sumara was Annie’s brother, one of the four siblings who emigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe at the turn of the century. Albin was KIA with the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles on August 28, 1918, a little over a month after sending the above letter home. Albin was laid to rest in the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, France.
Albin’s brother, Frank Sumara of Springhill, named his son born in May of that year for his sibling: Albin Frank Sumara. In a sad twist of fate, Albin’s nephew and namesake would go off to Europe with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, where he was KIA at the Battle of the Scheldt, Belgium, on November 1st, 1944.
The Sumara family history can be explored at www.Sumara.ca
