Great War Letter Archive of Colonel W W Melville Canadian Engineers, consisting of fifty-four uncensored letters of Col. WW Melville, Canadian Engineers, between September 1914 and September 1915. Mixing in the highest military and political circles his frank comments on officers and those conducting the war are revealing. Extracts include: ’11/Dec/14. Salisbury Plain, Larkhill. I have 2500 men at work erecting steel stables for 17,000 horses’. ‘7/May/15. NE France, Under fire of all kinds for 12 days, the Battle of Ypres was the big thing and such slaughter. Repaired town’s water supply and built 5 large bridges. One night we built 1200 yards of trench within 200 yards of German lines where they had broken through it, it took 2200 men to do it’. ’10/Aug/15, Had dinner with Maj. Genl Sam Hughes, Prince Alexander of Teck and Sir Max Aitken. Sam H. is very sore that we discarded the Ross Rifle; the Canadian Contingent all have new Lee Enfields, the Ross did not stand hard usage’. In generally good condition, torn envelopes; with 15 hand-written pages of abbreviated extracts. Also 19 condolence letters on his son’s death. (73 items) Worthy of personal viewing.