Thomas Ernest Eardley was born in Shropshire, England, in January 1890. Eardley moved to Alberta prior to the war, and enlisted in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in December 1914. He served overseas with the Canadian Mounted Rifles until he was taken prisoner in June 1916. Eardley remained a prisoner of war until his release in 1918. The collection consists of more than eighty letters from 1914 to 1918.