Morale Improves: RMR Takes A Bath in 1915

Sunday, March 28, 1915

In billets, Estaires

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: “Battalion being paid, and men sent by Companies to Divisional Baths in Estaires where they had hot baths and clean underclothes were issued to them.”  [1]

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY: “Here [billets at Estaires] the Regiment spent eleven days, the time, after the men had visited the Divisional baths and received clean underclothing, being devoted to training, with special attention paid to practice in bombing, entrenching, wiring, and attacking against wire.    [2]

“Near Canadian Headquarters at Sailly there was a large steam laundry which was used as a bath for our men. It was a godsend to them, for the scarcity of water made cleanliness difficult. The laundry during bath hours was a curious spectacle. Scores of large cauldrons of steaming water covered the floor. In each sat a man with only his head and shoulders showing, looking as if he were being boiled to death. In the mists of the heated atmosphere and in the dim light of candles, one was reminded of Doré’s illustrations of Dante’s Inferno. In one of them he represents a certain type of sinner as being tormented forever in boiling water.”   [4]

[1]    War Diary, 14th Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment, March 28, 1915.  Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e044/e001089702.jpg

[2]   R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 33.

[3]    CWM Archives/Archives du MCG : Photo Archives O.2568; Control no.  19930013-821

[4]    Canon Frederick George Scott, The Great War as I Saw It, Toronto, F.D. Goodchild, 1922. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19857/19857-h/19857-h.htm