Letters from the dead

Thursday, January 20 was a happy day for most Montreal parents with children fighting on the bloody European front in 1916 -- for only one local boy was on that day's list of the dead.
   But as the sun rose on stableman Isaac Stewart's household on St. Alexander Street (that's between Bleury and Beaver Hall, just south of La Gauchetiere), gladness was on long-term leave.
  For official word was soon to arrive by telegram from Ottawa that Ernest -- the very light of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart's life: their only son -- had been snuffed out by a sniper's bullet on his second day of duty.

   Reporters were used to putting in real legwork back in those days, and the appearance of Private Stewart's sole name on the roll of local boys killed all but guaranteed that one of these would pay a visit to the former fireman's* grieving, shocked parents.
   Shortly after such a scribe of the Montreal Daily Mail turned up to interview Mrs. Stewart, a postman happened by with a bundle of fresh letters that had been written by her late son, a member of a Presbyterian parish in Griffintown, shortly before he died -- all upbeat and looking forward to a speedy end to the war and his return to his beloved mother and home.
   Courageously, the bereft Montreal woman who had sacrificed all, punctuated what must have been a mortally difficult interview with the reporter to read from the precious letters aloud. And here is the story that that uncredited reporter would file:

SIX LETTERS CAME AFTER SON'S DEATH
Pte. Ernest Stewart's Mother Got Cheery Letters After Announcement of His Death
The Montreal Daily Mail, 21 January 1916
A rather pathetic feature in connection with recent cases of Montreal boys killed in action at the front is that when the official telegram from the Adjutant-General at Ottawa has arrived to break the news in a blunt way to the grief-stricken relatives it is most usually followed by cheery letters from the dead soldier. Such an instance occurred in the case of Pte. Ernest Stewart, only son of Mrs. Isaac Stewart of 34a St. Alexander street, who was reported killed in action, the only Montrealer in the list yesterday. The telegram from Ottawa came on Tuesday telling Mrs. Stewart that her son had been killed on January 6th.

Six Letters After Death.

A few minutes after the representative of The Daily Mail had called on Mrs. Stewart yesterday afternoon, the mail-man knocked at the door and dropped six letters, all from the son reported killed into the letter box. She opened them in the presence of the reporter and read extracts from one or two. Written on January 3rd, just three days before he met his death, one was very short. "Just a few lines to let you know I am well," he said, and in another, he told of sleeping in the barns along the road-side after he had come out of the trenches.
   All were of a cheery nature and written in a very hopeful trend that the war would soon be over and he would be able to return home.
   The death of Pte. Stewart is rather hard considering that he had only been two weeks at the fighting front. Prior to December 24th he had been acting as valet to one of the officers of the 24th Battalion and it was on this date that he was sent into the trenches to keep vigil throughout Christmas. It is understood that on his second sojourn of duty he was picked off by a sniper.
  Was Montreal Fireman.
   The late Pte. Stewart will be remembered affectionately by many Montreal firemen, having been a member of the Department for two years before going to the war. Hi smother told The Daily Mail that her late son had been through some remarkable escapes from death in fighting fires in the city and it was predicted when he enlisted for overseas service that a man of his luck would never prove a mark for the Germans.
   He was a member of the staff at No. 1 station and had been connected with the Montreal Fire Department since March, 1912. He was only twenty-one years of age. A member of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, his name is on the Honor Roll there. He was also a member for some time of the Montreal Boys' Club.

* (You mean they let English people work as firemen then? Are you kidding? That is simply not possible. You could be fired for lying. -- Chimples)