These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from Agassiz, British Columbia, offer a glimpse into his daily life during wartime training. Writing to his mother, he shares moments that are both routine and show the uncertainty of miliary life. They are part of the William…
These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from Agassiz, British Columbia, offer a glimpse into his daily life during wartime training. Writing to his mother from Oxford, England, William shares moments that are surprisingly ordinary. He talks of baseball games, bicycle rides, canoe trips, and…
These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from Agassiz, British Columbia, offer a glimpse into his daily life during wartime training. Writing to his mother, he shares moments that are both routine and show the uncertainty of miliary life. This series of letters is part…
Agassiz, British Columbia is a farming community near Harrison Hot Springs and where the hop industry began in the 1890’s when A. St. George Hamersley converted over 300 acres into the first commercial hop yard in British Columbia. Because of this, Agassiz is often recognized as the birthplace…
These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from Agassiz, British Columbia, offer a glimpse into his daily life during wartime training. Writing to his mother, he shares moments that are both routine and show the uncertainty of miliary life. Written in February and March 1917,…
William McRae’s WWI letters home to his parents describe his journey across Canada as he heads to England to finish his aero training and join the Royal Flying Corps. These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from Agassiz, British Columbia, offer a glimpse into his…
In 1916, William McRae made the decision to combine his passion for flying with his duty as a soldier. He leaves his family’s farm in Agassiz, British Columbia, and travelled to Vancouver to begin his miliary training. These letters from William McRae, a Royal Flying Corps pilot from…
This post concludes the Hazeley Letter series, a collection of family correspondence between 1896 and 1897 by the Wright family while living in Agassiz, British Columbia. Over the course of this series, these letters have allowed us a rare and personal glimpse into early colonial life in the…
A handwritten account of a Mount Cheam hike isn’t something you expect to find on official government letterhead, but that’s exactly what I came across in the archive at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum. At first it seemed to be a simple story of a hike of Mount Cheam, however,…
This post continues the Hazeley Letter series, a collection of family correspondence written in 1896-1897 by the Wright family living in Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada. These letters provide a rare look into everyday settler life in the Fraser Valley during the early days of the community. By June…