Dearest Mother Pt 1: Hurrying Us Through

Postcards from a Métis Trooper in the First World War

In 2024, my father shared with me some postcards he had kept. They were passed down by his great-grandmother, Eliza Scheer (nee Desmarais) a Métis midwife who ran a boarding house in Fort MacLeod in the early decades of the 20th century. Most were from her son George, who enlisted for the First World War.

I think the postcards paint a picture of an ordinary young man who rarely missed a chance to write his mother, and a woman who had won love and respect from family and friends.

Now that they have come to me, I want to share them so that these words and pictures can connect family and friends across time as well as distance.

Eliza and George Scheer

Eliza arrives at Macleod by Red River Cart and Stage Coach, George departs for war by Rail.

Postcards from George

George and his regiment cross Canada and the Atlantic, seeing more of the country than any had likely done before – let alone England.

To Eliza, August 28 1914

The enthusiasm for the war was very high in Canada in 1914, save perhaps in Quebec. Trains full of soldiers were a regular sight. In Edmonton my hometown, one train left with the shout from a soldier “God help the Kaiser, if we get hold of him!”.

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To Wilbert, Aug 29, 1914

This postcard depicts a scene in Winnipeg (the Upper Fort Garry Gate), but Nipigon is a township in Ontario just east of Thunder Bay. Lord Strathcona’s Horse was mustering in Valcartier, Quebec and enlisted men like George and his friends travelled by train across a vast country. 

Wilbert was George’s youngest brother, born 1901, and thus just a teenager. This might be why Wilbert’s postcards survive to today in Eliza’s collection handed down to my father – his other siblings may have kept any sent to them in their own families. 

Wilbert attended school in Macleod and Pincher Creek and afterwards worked on the farm with his father and eventually took it over.

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To Wilbert, Aug 31, 1914.

The postcard was purchased in Winnipeg, but North Bay is on Lake Nipissing, on the Quebec border with Ontario. You may note that all these postcards are dated similarly, as George would have been purchasing and writing them at different times, but posting them all together when he was able.

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To Eliza, August 31 1914

The Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) arrived in Quebec by the end of August. By October, they sailed for England with 34 officers and 541 troopers.

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To Eliza, December 1914

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Laurence Long quoted in Fort Macleod History Book Committee (Alberta). 19771990. Fort Macleod–our Colorful Past. Fort Macleod History Book Committee. Pgs 439-443.

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I am a descendant of Eliza (Desmarais) Scheer through her daughter Mary, grandson Laurence, and great-grandson Richard. I am a storyteller and amateur historian. This story is part of my online exhibition Dearest Mother: Postcards from a Métis Trooper in the First World War.