Lieutenant Wilfred Earl McKissock

Lieutenant Wilfred Earl McKissock

Born 1890 in Owen Sound

Enlisted with 116th Battalion and served with 16thSquadron in the Royal Flying Corps

Killed in Action over Givency – June 2, 1917

Buried at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery, Lens France

Their decision was instantaneous. From the first time they sat down in the seat and reached for the controls, they knew they were never going to let it go. Sure, it was going to be a dangerous job, but it was ‘war’ and anything would have been better than having to endure the unbearable conditions of the mud of Flanders. Most of these men started out as ordinary Tommies…regular soldiers trudging up and down country lanes with a pack on their backs and a rifle over their shoulders. However, these men were different from the others. Whether it be during long marches with their platoons or practicing down at the range, the second they caught a glimpse of the majestic crafts flying above them it was love at first sight. From that day forward they would accept nothing but a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps.

This is a story of two men…two men who grew up in the same small town at the exact same time. One of the two was four years older than the other, however due to the relatively small population of the town and the fact that everyone knew everyone, they would surely have known of each other. The elder of the two was an elite athlete. He was a leader on the high school football team and excelled in many disciplines in track and field. But this man was not only well-known in the community, he was also an expert fencer…eventually rising to become the Dominion of Canada’s top fencing champion. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Hamilton’s McMaster University in search of a higher level of education.

The second man of the pair was also born in and grew up in Owen Sound, Ontario. While not necessarily unathletic, he tended to avoid team sports. Instead of blocking, tackling or jib-jabbing others with an epee, this young man was actually a bit of an oddball…some might even say a loner. His social standing was not helped out when his parent’s enlisted him in Miss Pearl’s Dance Studio in an effort to teach him how to dance...however, in retrospect, the skills he gained in taking on swarms of bullies in the playground may have actually prepared him for life in the future. Akin to his personality, as he grew older he focused his attentions on more solitary activities like venturing off to hunt squirrels, rabbits or other varmints with his rifle. The corresponding skills at marksmanship and burning desire to attack those who sought to attack him would both pay dividends in the end. Apart from his academically gifted fellow Owen Sounder, this man was unapologetically uninterested in academics. However, once he completed his high school studies, he did enlist at the Royal Military College in Kingston, where finished second to last in his class in two out of his three years spent there.

A simple review of the background of these two men, may demonstrate that one was setting himself up for a successful career in whatever he put his mind to and the other might be affectionally categorized as a bit of a lackadaisical slacker. The key word in this statement most evidentially is the word ”simple”. Akin to the war’s unyielding draw, both men would be pulled into the service. They both started in the rank of Lieutenant and served in the infantry. However, both of these men would be drawn towards the air service and shortly after enlisting would seek a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. It was at this instant where the relative trajectories of the two men would intersect, then dramatically be pulled apart. One of the men would eventually die in a blazing disaster, killed in one of his first battles. The other would become Canada’s most storied, respected and recognized airman and WW1 Ace Captain/Lt. Col./Air Marshall William “Billy” Avery Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC and ED.

The first of the two men was 26 yr old Lieutenant Wilfred Earl McKissock. Like Bishop, Wilfred was born in the lakeside port city of Owen Sound. As detailed, he was an active young lad and participated in a wide range of sports and activities. Contemporary records show that he was also an excellent student, both in high school and in university, and extended his social interests to become an active member of the YMCA. A magazine produced by McMaster University in Hamilton in 1914/1915 showcases the great results he was able to achieve in both their Track and Field program and Football program. In the spring of 1916, McKissock elected to delay his completion of his University degree and joined Sam Sharpe’s 116thBattalion being raised in Uxbridge, ON. As a Lieutenant he was assigned to assist in the training of men at Camp Exhibition and Camp Borden. Akin to his personal interests and unique skillsets, he was responsible for training the men in both physical fitness and how to effectively use the bayonet. When the 116thdisembarked to England in July of 1916, McKissock was attached to their sister unit, the 182nd Battalion, then moved onto the 1stCentral Ontario Regiment. It was from this unit where he was sent overseas and arrived in Liverpool on the 26th of September 26th, 1916.

Throughout the fall and winter of 1916/1917, the CEF was busy reorganizing, replenishing the men in the battalions of the First, Second and Third Divisions. A steady stream of troops ships carrying soldiers raised from communities across the breadth of Canada arrived in England. In most cases, these battalions were broken up and their men redistributed to units already located oeverseas. The CEF was gearing up for the forthcoming assault on Vimy Ridge (as part of the Battle of Arras) and needed to ensure they battalions were well resourced with fit and well-trained men. It was during this time when Lieutenant McKissock requested to be transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.

He was accepted and on May 1st 1917 and was attached to the 16th Squadron the following week. This unit was stationed in the area just west of Vimy Ridge around Givency. He was attached to a unit responsible for Aerial Observation with orders to survey enemy troops movements, harass the German trench lines through rudimentary bombing runs or strafe any unfortunate chap (or group of chaps) who gathered in sectors of the trench visible from above. McKissock provided the following account from his first solo flight while stationed with the 16th Squadron.

“It was early morning, about 5 am, and after making various landings I went off to see a monument in the direction of the morning sun. I circled around it several times in the indescribable grey morning mist, and then feeling like a small boy in unfamiliar territory I returned to the aerodrome. Just as I was descending I saw a machine turn a neat somersault to the ground. I made a forced landing and strange that the forced landing was the best I had done to date. I ran over to the upset machine and found the pilot looking at his broken propeller. Nothing exciting had happened to him except that he had been upside down for a while with castor oil, which if the lubricant used for rotary engines flowing soothingly over him.“

The account was taken from a letter McKissock sent back home to his mother. It demonstrates that apart from being a weapon of war, that McKissock found it a really cool toy. It represented freedom, excitement, adventure, exploration. With his comments on how a fellow airman was able to conduct a virtual somersault upon landing, it demonstrated how dangerous these machines could be. The final comment regarding the castor oil drenching the pilot further alluded to another hidden risk posed by these new instruments of war. A keen observer may also notice what was not included in the letter. There was no mention of the use of the craft as a weapon of war. He also seemed to think first about the well being of his fellow airman. This showed that McKissock showcased an air of empathy…however, while he probably did not know it at the time, this was an attribute that did him no favours as a pilot in the RFC in 1917.

McKissock served within the 16th Squadron in the Spring of 1917. It was during these same months when the German Ace of Aces, Baron Manfred von Richthoven and his Flying Circus ruled the skies over the Western Front. It was estimated that during this phase of the war the 5 Allied planes would be knocked out of the sky for every German aircraft. It was under these rather hostile odds, that McKissock took to the skies. The records do not reveal if he was assigned to sections that actively hunted German planes. Rather, he seemed to be assigned to a unit that was responsible for observing enemy artillery positions. From the date he was assigned to the 16thSquadron to June 1st, 1917 he was not recorded as claiming any victory over an enemy craft. It was on that final fateful day, when McKissock took to the skies with his squadron. The casualty description indicates that around 11AM he was swarmed by a handful of German planes. They came out of nowhere and he probably didn’t even know what it him. The last view of McKissock’s plane was that it had been seen ablaze and careening towards the earth. It was within these circumstances, where Lieutenant Wilfred Earl McKissock met his death.

Acres of trees have been felled to satisfy the countless volumes of books, articles and columns written about Canada’s most well-known WW1 Ace. Thus, we do not need to devote more words of glory and adulation in his favour. Rather, there is one final story and circumstance which relates to the pair of Canadian heroes that should be related. McKissock was killed in a when upwards of four Germans planes attacked his craft on the 1stof June 1917. A mere 16 hours after McKissock was killed, Billy Bishop took to the air in the skies east of Vimy. It was 3AM...well before sun began to illuminate the horizon. Akin to those days of his youth where he would quietly stalk woodland critters, Bishop quietly set out on his own to bag himself some Germans. Bypassing the first aerodrome he came upon as it was still sound asleep, he ventured deeper into German territory until he located a second one. It was here where he saw seven airplanes being readied for takeoff. In that instant Billy pounced…and then he pounced again…and again and again…attacking each plane as it tried to take to the skies. One by one he fearlessly took on the enemy airplanes and one by one he knocked them out of the sky. By the time he made it back home, his plane was riddled with bullet holes and he had added four more wins to his growing tally…oh and from his courageous exploits he was rewarded the Victoria Cross.

In the years that followed the war, the citizens of Owen Sound would all gather to remember and mourn those who did not return home from the war. The surviving veterans would put on their uniforms and take that sombre march down to the town square. Amidst this crowd of soldiers, Owen Sound’s own William “Billy” Avery Bishop would most certainly take his place of honour amongst the others. As one might expect, the crowd of locals would fete their hometown hero and honour him with rounds of applause…however when the applause died down and the ceremony began, when the officiant began to recited the names of those men from the town of Owen Sound and surrounding areas who did not return home, with his hat in his hand and his hand on his heart, Billy Bishop, Canada's Ace of Aces would be thinking of his fellow airman, Lieutenant Wilfred Earl McKissock…the ‘good’ pilot who did not make it back.

Remember him.

Corporal Gordon Hood and Private Arthur Doubt

Tragedy Strikes Port Perry

Corporal Gordon Wesley Hood

868008 116th Battalion

Born 1892 in Scugog, ON

Killed in action on Aug 27, 1918

Private Arthur Blond Doubt

868170 116th Battalion

Born in 1886 in Port Perry ON

Killed in action on Aug 27, 1918

Private Francis Clark

746280 116th Battalion

Born in 1896 in Mono Road, ON – lived in Port Perry

Killed in action on Aug 27, 1918

Time had passed by for what seemed to be so long that it was getting hard to realise that they were actually still over there… fighting…suffering… enduring…in one of the deadliest conflicts ever known to man. The letters would arrive from the boys and their loved ones would devour them, pursing every word in the attempt to learn about how they are faring…long detailed accounts of a spring and summer spent playing far behind the lines…baseball games, football matches, joyous nights laughing to the Dumbells or the chance fortnight away, maybe spent in the highlands of Scotland or the brasseries of Paris while on a well-deserved leave. Many of these letters were published in the local weekly, the Port Perry Star allowing readers to follow their boys as they served them overseas. Yet still…one month would pass by and be followed by another and thankfully the dark noticed of ‘supreme sacrifices’ would not come. Until the autumn of 1918, the city of Port Perry has somehow avoided absorbing great losses on the Western Front.

Almost two years had passed since the boys climbed aboard the troop train and waved their long goodbyes…the cluttered mass of hands or heads popping from the windows in a final attempt to see the image of their mom or dad, wife or sweetheart fade back into the distance as they pulled further and further away. Over the proceeding two years many of these young men did return home…some with fewer arms, others legs, some struggled to breathe as well as they once did and some returned simply as broken men…their bodies intact but their minds bearing the scars of the horrors seen, felt and heard ‘over there’. Yet still the town of Port Perry was somehow able to avoid receiving similar levels of fatalities that beset their surrounding communities, including those from other towns in the district, province and country. Starting with the big push initiated by the Canadians at Amiens on the 8th of August 1918, this fortunate respite from the repercussions of the Great War would come to a sorrowful end.

In the years 1915-1916, the town of Port Perry counted its’ population to be about 1,500 souls. In the recruitment drive of 1916, 68 men from the town and the surrounding region would attest to join the CEF specifically queuing up and joining the regionally raised 116thOntario County Battalion. These men were all poked, prodded, measured and weighed, given a number, a uniform and finished off with a pair of boots and called a Canadian soldier. These men were primarily farmers and farmer’s son or their hired help working on the countless family farms that blanketed the area. However, the call for volunteers saw men from all backgrounds respond. Two of these men were a 24 yr old Assistant Bank Manager, Gord Wesley Wood and the 30 yr old, son of a tailor, Arthur Blond Doubt.

Gordon Wesley Hood began his career as a bank clerk in the local branch of the Standard Bank. (Standard Bank was eventually merged into the Canadian Bank of Commerce which became CIBC) He earned his stripes and was steadily promoted within the bank and by the fall of 1915 found himself promoted to the Assistant Manager of a major bank branch located in Toronto on Bathurst Street. Socially, Gordon was active in Freemasonry and counted himself as a member of the Port Perry based Fidelity Lodge. Once can imagine that his prospects were strong with a solid career in business well in hand, however, Hood was also a perfect candidate to join the fray and on Feb 15th 1916 enlisted in his home town of Port Perry and became a soldier in the CEF.

Arthur Doubt also spent his childhood years in town and went to the same schools as Hood. His career would take him down a different path as his father Henry Doubt operated a clothiers and merchant shoppe in town. As expected, he would be trained in the family business with the hope of him one day becoming a tailor himself. However, aside of learning the trade of measuring, cutting and sewing Arthur was also a part-time soldier. Prior to the war he served alongside Lt. Col. Samuel Simpson Sharpe in the 34th Regiment. Thus, when officers from the 182ndBattalion arrived in town and began to set up their recruitment office, Arthur Doubt would provide none and quickly agree to serve under his former Major’s leadership. (As far more men responded to the call as could fit within the 116th Battalion, the 182ndBattalion would become the sister unit with many of the men joining the parent battalion as replacement soldiers once deployed in France)

Our awareness of the two men was highlighted in an article published in the September 19th edition of the Port Perry Star. The article admitted that the town had so far been spared from the same levels of devastating news that struck so many others. However, with that notification, it went on to advise the readers that while only two other local boys paid the supreme sacrifice in the war up to that date…news was just received notice that Corporal Gordon Wesley Hood and Private (formerly Lieutenant who reverted on his own request) Arthur Blond Doubt were killed in action. Both Gord and Arthur had just fought in one of the most fierce, impactful and deadliest battles fought by the Canadians in France…the Battle of Drocourt-Queant.

On the 27th of August 1918 the 116thand the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division were tasked with participating alongside their brother brigades in an assault on the German positions at Drocourt-Queant. Drocourt Queant referred to the section of front that spanned from the town of Drocourt in the north, just east of Arras down to the town of Queant. The front was a critical portion of the German Hindenburg Line and represented the lynch pin protecting the German front system on the west to the sea and east down through Cambrai to the French sectors further east. The job of the Canadians and the 116th Battalion was to race up the centre between two other battalions, the 52nd and the 58th and take the high ground…namely a city town called Boiry Notre Dame.

The specifics details behind their individual fates were not recorded, however by reviewing how the attack unfolded can assist in helping understand how they eventually were killed on that fateful day. The now Corporal Hood (he was promoted to the NCO position only four days prior) was tasked with helping lead a small contingent of men from their jumping off positions at Monchy and along a sunken road that led to the town of Boiry Notre Dame in the distance. The young Corporal did not make it very far after scaling the ladders and racing overland towards his objective. He was probably killed by the many entrenched machine gun positions on the right that has yet to be subdued.

The details behind Private Doubt’s demise are also quite murky. The record only states that he was killed between the Bois du Vert and Bois du Sart. These were the names of two small woods which edged the battlefields assigned to the 116th. Like Hood, Arthur most likely was killed by the machine gun fire that snuffed out the lives of so many men from the battalion that day.

The third Port Perry lad to fall was Private Frank (Francis) Clark, a 22 yr old from town. Francis lived on a farm near town and had been the first of the three lost that day to enlist. His parents lived in Uxbridge and on Nov 8th, 1915 be travelled to town and signed up to fight with the battalion. Frank was a 116thoriginal. He served his entire military service with the battalion and started his service by being one of the first lads to take the long dusty march through the county back in the spring of 1916. Clark would have been with the unit through the hell of 1917…Vimy, Lens, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. It is a true tragedy that he was cut down on the approach to Boiry Notre Dame as he had been able to successfully evade serious injury despite being in the heat and heart of combat for so long.

The deaths of these three local men were not lost in vain for on Aug 29th the town of Boiry Notre Dame was secured by the 116thBattalion and by the 3rd of September, the CEF had broken the formidable Drocourt-Queant Line…a loss that the German Army would never recover from.

The Roll of Honour from the 116th Battalion lists the names of 12 men from the town of Port Perry who killed while fighting alongside the unit overseas. The Township of Scugog would later list the names of 68 men from the town and surrounding communities. Each of these men…be they farmers or bankers, tailors or students…paid the supreme sacrifice in the service of their fellow countrymen. Remember them.

Sergeant Robert Brooks

Sergeant Robert Brooks

746277

116th Battalion

Lived in Zephyr, ON

Killed in Action at the Battle of Amiens on Aug 8, 1918

“Rolling fields and autumn furrows, acres of ripened corn, fruit-laden orchards, stubble lots and meadows through which sleek cattle roam in the warm September sunshine, are but part of the attractions of a 100 acre farm about a mile southwest of the village, which itself is forty-five miles northeast of Toronto in the township of Scott.  Robert F. Brooks read the name on the mailbox at the lane entrance, which “Bob” passed through the last time three years ago. 

104 years have passed since this majestic setting was relayed to readers of a Toronto-based newspaper.  While what was described would be unfamiliar to most of us modern day city-folk, it would have been recognizable to so many readers at the time as it reflected the pervasive circumstances shared by so many in so many communities across our country.   However, in describing what was left behind was not the pertinent message, rather was meant to reveal something else.  It was meant to remind readers of the chilling, eerie reality many of them found in their own homes and farms.  It was mean to share the feeling of emptiness left by these lost men. 

Years prior, fathers or sons, or brothers…from hired hands to individual proprietors took the last walk down their dusty lane.  Decked out in their patriotic best, these men wagered their lives in exchange for the cause of protecting the ones they loved the most.  And thus, as so beautifully portrayed in the piece, with their departure life was left to anxiously await for their quick return. 

The piece went on to state how the ‘fat pigs’ and the ‘industrious hens’ were left to their business and   the fact that ‘Tige’, Bob Brooks’ border collie welcomed every stranger who wandered up their dusty lane.  Tige, made it into the piece as he (or she) probably greeted the journalist as they visited Bob’s farm.

Robert Brooks was born in Zephyr, ON.   It also happened to be the town where the founder of the 116th Battalion lived, Lt. Col. Samuel Simpson Sharpe.  Bob would have been considered a highly-successful person by his friends and associates.  At 30 years of age, he managed to run the farm passed onto him by his father, built himself a new barn and held livestock.  Bob’s operation even grew to require additional hired help and he employed a gent from Drumdinright, Ireland, Joseph Newell to help on the farmstead. 

As the winds of war whipped its’ way through the county…and more than likely reasserted by the local Lt. Col who lived in town, in the winter of 1916 Bob decided to enlist in the 116th Battalion.  With his enlistment, he did so with the full understanding that he may not return.  Thus, Bob sold all his farm equipment and left management of the farm to his sister and husband.  With Bob’s enlistment, his hired man, Joe, stated “I’ve hired with Bob Brooke and if he is willing to go, I can go too.”

As successful Bob was in his life and occupation, he showcased this earnestness in his approach to military service.  Upon joining the 116th, Bob was successively promoted from Private to Corporal, then Lance Sergeant and finally full Sergeant.  Each of these promotions in rank demonstrated his desire to do whatever he could to serve his country and community of Zephyr and was on full display at the Battle of Amiens.  August 8th, 1918 was called the ‘black day’ of the German Army.   The 116th was positioned on the southern sector of the battlefield assigned to the 3rd Canadian Division.  The 116th was ordered to advance upon a section of front approximately 5 kms in length and 1 kms in width.  The final objective was a wood called Hamon Wood.  It was the battalion’s duty to attack along the breadth of the front, eliminate any of the German machine gun nests that protected the approach and then take the guns entrenched within Hamon Wood itself. 

With the bellowing of the guns in the early morning, Bob joined his men as they advanced towards the objective.  It is not defined where he was killed or when…other than ‘early in the monging of August 8th”, however Robert Brooks was killed in the battle.  Afterwards, the Lt. Col. of the 116th Battalion, George Pearkes, wrote his sister, Mrs. Janet Myers, informing her that Bob “led his platoon to their objective, and well past it but was killed early in the morning of August 8th in the third battle of the Somme while helping a wounded comrade to safety.  He was a good soldier, keen and showed marked ability in the leadership of men.  His loss to the company cannot be overestimated.” 

As detailed in the article that informed their fellow villagers of his loss, the death of Bob Brooks would have shocked the tiny community.  However, as it was experienced at the time, these small towns and villages suffered most by the losses of their men.  Prior to Bob’s death, the community of Zephyr experienced their first loss with the death of community leader, lawyer and Member of Parliament, Lt. Col. Samuel Simpson Sharpe.  Soon after notice that Bob was killed, a second telegram arrived.  This one informed the town’s blacksmith that his son, Pte. Clarence Lehman Myers of the 52nd Battalion was killed in combat (Aug 28th, 1918 at Boiry Notre Dame).  Each death would act as a significant blow to the family of the lost soldier and the entire community they lived within.  However, as proved to over time with the end of the war, not all those who went off to war would be killed in the conflict.  With their slow and gradual return, communities like Zephyr, Ontario would excitedly greet the return of their son and fathers as they walked back up their dusty lanes. 

However, while wives and children, brothers, sisters, neighbours and friends would have all rushed to greet their returning soldiers with open arms and great smiles, in laneway after laneway, from long winding dusty lanes on farmsteads to stout porches in cities and town, dogs like Tige, would sit and patiently, loyally await the return of their master. 

Major John Sutherland

Major John Sutherland

Born 1888 - 30 yrs at Hanover, ON

Originally with 61st Battalion – Royal Winnipeg Rifles

Served with the 52nd and 116th Battalions

Killed in the Battle of Drocourt-Queant at Boiry-Notre-Dame

Buried at Monchy British Cemetery

He could see the battalion’s objective, far off in the distance, silhouetted by the morning sun, the tip of the steeple acting as it were a flag waiting to be taken.  The steeple belonged to the church of St. Vaast and was situated in the village of Boiry-Notre-Dame. Huddled amongst his men, his job was to lead the 600 up the long incline, across the open fields then locate, kill or capture the defenders.  Their task was not expected to be an easy one…but it was situated directly in the centre of the hinge of the Hindenburg Line.  For the Allies to win, the village had to be taken and it was his job to take it.  The time was just after 5:00 AM on the morning of August 27th in the year 1918. 

The man selected to lead the 116th on that day was the second-in-command of the battalion, Major John Sutherland.   Sutherland was a 30 yr old officer.  He was born in the hamlet of Hanover, a tiny collection of farms and homes situated just north of London, Ontario. His family moved out west when he was young and settled in rural Alberta.  After finishing his elementary-level education, he embarked on a career in law in Winnipeg and was studying when the winds of war swept its’ way across the country in 1915 and 1916.  Taking advantage of his prior military experience through service with a Winnipeg-based militia regiment, Sutherland enlisted with the 61st Royal Winnipeg Rifles Battalion.  Once he was transported to France, Sutherland took a role as an instructor at Ferfay before being transferred to the 52nd New Ontario Battalion.  Sutherland found himself rising through the ranks within the 3rd Canadian Division and in February 1918 was sent to the 116th.  John Sutherland had risen to the rank of Major, a senior staff position serving as second in command to Lieut. Col. George Randolph Pearkes. 

Seeing Major Sutherland at the front lines, assembling, settling and preparing his troops would not have been a surprise to the men.  He was seen as a brave, valued leader since the time he joined the unit.  Three weeks’ prior he took a direct role in helping the battalion secure it’s assigned objective in the Battle of Amiens on August 8th.  It was during this operation where he would later be awarded to the Distinguished Service Order.  As B, C and D companies of the 116th were employed in attacking Hamon Wood, Sutherland coolly coordinated the men from the three companies and as they approached the wood.  He coordinated the men who were attacking the wood from both the right and left flanks along with those engaged in a direct approach after they took Bade Trench.  As the sounds of the guns drew to a close and the long line of surrendering Germans began to snake their way to areas behind the Canadian line, Sutherland proudly surveyed the 12 cannons captured by his men.   However, in this new battle Sutherland would act as Officer in Command of the Battalion.  After far too many episodes in the previous four years, the British Army had come to learn an important reality of modern warfare...it was bloody dangerous!  With many, many officers getting themselves killed or grievously wounded, to ensure continuity between commands junior officers were given the chance to gain some experience by leading men in combat situations.   Sutherland, as second-in-command to Lieut. Colonel George Pearkes, was given the opportunity to ‘step up’ and lead the men in taking Boiry-Notre-Dame.  

The plan for the attack, as designed, was for the battle to begin with an artillery barrage.  15 minutes later, the men of the 58th Royal Grenadiers would attack the Bois du Sart, a small forest situated on the northern side of the battlefield.  Meanwhile, on the southern side, the 52nd New Ontario Battalion would attack the Bois du Vert.  Each wood was occupied by entrenched German machine gun posts and protected the road that led down the centre into the town of Boiry.  Once secured and their defenders eliminated, Sutherland’s job was to lead his men up the centre and take out the German units that protected the central approach to the village. 

That…however…was just the plan. As the adage, so eloquently positioned by valiant warrior king and brawler Mike Tyson, “Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth”.  The early stages of the operation proceeded as expected, albeit the German defenders did not fold as swiftly as the 58th and 52nd had hoped.  Upon receiving his signal, Sutherland began by leading C and A Companies up the sunken road towards the village.  It was as they came within sight of the village, where the buildings began to rise up from the earth when all hell broke loose.  The defiant German machine guns began to wretch their misery across the breadth of the front.  The approaching Canadians were cut down in droves.  Meanwhile, Sutherland from the rear of the companies, watched in disbelief as his first command was decimated before his eyes.

John saw the wave of chaos and confusion wash over his men.  Bunch by bunch, groups of men on his left and right began to fall.  With each step forward, the boys wading into the wall of lead would drop to the ground.  One would imagine the rush of fear and dread that consumed the stand-in commander.  However, instead of being frozen, unaware of what to do, the officer reacted instantly.  He jumped to his feet and scurried back and forth between the groups of survivors attempting to reconsolidate and reorganize them and hopefully reconstitute the attack.   It was during this valiant effort where Sutherland rushed directly into the flood of machine gun fire and was instantly killed. 

Acting Commanding Officer, Major John Sutherland was the second commander from the 116th Ontario County Battalion to die.  The first was the founder of the battalion, Lieut. Colonel Samuel Simpson Sharpe.  Both men were valued, valiant warriors whose loss greatly impacted the men.  Visitors to Monchy British Cemetery who happen to pay their respects at the grave-marker for the up-start officer should know that they were in the presence of a truly extraordinary man.  John Sutherland was a truly brave man, soldier and leader of men…a man worthy of our remembrance. 

Private James Joseph Fox

Private James Joseph Fox

2537469

Born 1894 - Gort, Ireland

Lived in New York City, NY USA

Killed in Action at the Battle of Drocourt-Queant at Bois du Sart – Aug 28, 1918

Buried at Vis-en-Artois Cemetery, France

One wonders what gave him with that final push to jump aboard the train northbound and give it all up? To have the ‘ticket to opportunity and prosperity’ in his hand and trade it in for a tin hat? Over one hundred years may have passed yet we still are perplexed when trying to understand what made them go? After watching a bloodbath unfold in real time, why did so many still give up on their dreams, put their lives on the line and replace the fallen by wading into the torrent of death, undeterred, unabated, unyielding?

Three years prior, from amidst the fog and haze that obscured it, the place that represented opportunity, fortunate and freedom to him suddenly appeared in the distance. And as the fog separated and his ship glided into the docks at Ellis Island, New York City, this 21 yr old Irish-born lad would arrive in America. He had come to make a new life for himself. James Joseph Fox’s family had long since left their Irish homeland and moved to the English port town of Bootle. Bootle was situated just outside the modern industrial metropolis of Liverpool, England. His would have been a hard life offering Irish immigrants a tougher lot in life than their English cousins. The prospects for his life would consist of hard labour, unhealthy working conditions and poor pay to boot. Like millions of his fellow impoverished countrymen, he was not satisfied with this lot in life and decided to leave Bootle for America. Soon he found that he had replacing the dirt and soot-soaked dungarees for a sharp black suit, tie and shiny black shoes working as a butler, steps away from Central Park in midtown-Manhattan. It would have been a transition that his mother and twin sister back home would feel so much pride in his achievements.

And it was at this very apex of his transition, at a time where his prospects were the greatest when he decided to trade it all in for an entirely different form of service. The year was 1917. While it was not legal for Canada to recruit American citizens to join the war effort, the upwards of 40,000 Americans who enlisted in the CEF proved that these laws had no teeth. Across the city of New York and many other communities located along the US/Canadian border, men like James Fox would be bombarded with placards urging young men to “Come Join the American Legion, CEF”. (this was a battalion that consisted entirely of volunteers from the United States.) It was within this atmosphere, where the Irish-American decided to give it all up and travel to Canada to enlist to become a soldier.

On July 28th,1917, Private James Joseph Fox joined the 10th Royal Grenadiers Regiment, a Toronto-based contingent. Within four months he would find himself walking down the gangplank and setting his feet back down upon the shores he used to call home. Fox was back in Liverpool, England. James’ time as a soldier saw him transferred over to France and join the 116th Battalion on April 5th, 1918. With only a few months training in Canada and the UK, Fox would slowly finding himself learning the business of soldiery. While he did hear exchange of a colossal amount of gunfire between the Brits and the Germans in the Spring Offensive, he did not personally see war until the 8th of August when the Canadians executed their dynamic attack outside of Amiens. While some may call this as his baptism of war, the week that followed saw the 116th was engaged in hand-to-hand combat within the trenches at Parvillers. The battalion was pulled out of the line but given no rest. Instead, they were sent north to Arras and readied for participation in another colossal battle.

On the 28th of August, the 116th participated in what would prove to arguably be one of Canada’s greatest and most important victories in the war. Tasked with serving alongside their 9th Brigade mates, their orders were to drive up the centre of the field of battle and clear the area of any defending Germans. D Company from the 116th Battalion was attached to the 58th Battalion and ordered to clear out the German machine gun nests entrenched in a wood called Bois du Sart. It was presumed that Private Fox was assigned to D Company for when the guns died down later that morning, and the combined unit has achieved their objective, Fox did not respond when his name was called. Somewhere along the edge of the wood, probably from the dense machine gun fire that took out so many boys that day, James Joseph Fox, the butler from NYC would join the 59 other men from the 116th and die from wounds he received in combat.

Pte James Fox is buried at Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery. Remember him.

Private Arthur Edwin Anderson

Private Arthur Edwin Anderson

663303

Born Acton, ON 1898

Enlisted with 164th Battalion (Lorne Scots)

Served with 116th Battalion

Killed in Action at Cambrai on Oct 1, 1918

Twas the depths of winter…the last day of January in the year 1918. The days were short, the nights endless and unless you parked yourself in front of the hearth in the family farmhouse, it was guaranteed that any body part that remained unclad was going to freeze. It was cold…blistering cold. Yet, when the glow of the sun finally illuminated his bedroom that morning, he bound from his bed with eager joy. Why? Because, finally the day had come…His day. He had looked forward to it for a long time and neither the depressing crest of frost on the window pane nor the fact that he could still see his breath could keep him in bed for it was Arthur Edwin Anderson’s 18th birthday…the day he not only became a adult but it also was the day he would become a soldier.

While it was a good chance that many of his school mates from his hometown of Acton Ontario had already signed up…some by already reaching the required age of 18 years, others stretching the truth on their attestation forms. There may be more to his story, however the details behind that day have been lost to the sands of time. Arthur Anderson was the second son of a farmer, William Dutton Anderson. As was the case in those days, the children of farmers represented a free labour force. Running a farm as a business required help and Arthur’s strong hands and back would be missed if he chose to enlist in the war effort. Thus, his decision to pick the 31st of January as the day he travelled into town to sign his name in ink may not only have been his first decision as an adult, it was also a statement to his parents that from that day forward he was going to make his own decisions.

Arthur enlisted in the 164th Halton and Dufferin Battalion. This battalion was perpetuated by the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment). The Lorne Scots date back to 1866 and have acted as a regional militia regiment up to their participation in the Great War. Today they are the primary infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. Despite enlisting in early 1916, Arthur would remain in Canada training to become a soldier for over a year. Just days after Canada executed their successful attack in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Arthur jumped aboard the SS Carpathia landing in England on the 22nd of April 1917. He would then spend almost another full year continuing this training regimen in England and only arrived in France when he was transferred to the 116th Battalion on March 8th 1918.

Despite arriving in France at the onset of the great German Spring Offensive, Arthur’s training regimin would continue unabated. The next five months would consist of more time spent learning how to march, relearning how to shoot a rifle and more time spent learning how to poke a sandbag dressed up like a German with a bayonet…however while he could hear the din of the colossal artillery barrages in the distance he would still not get his chance to fire his rifle in anger. Truthfully, he, and the majority of the men of the 116th Battalion, spent more time practicing their pitching and hitting on the diamond than patrolling trenches looking for Krauts to kill. Yet, as the summer drew to a close on August 8th 1918 Arthur finally got his chance to experience the horrors of war first-hand.

The experience of Private Arthur Anderson was shared by many young boys and men in the CEF. By the time 1918 arrived, the CEF had endured a significant number of casualties from the battles of 1917…including Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. The Spring of 1918 represented a time where new soldiers were sent to replace the ones who had fallen…and there were many, many of them. Some of these lads did not make it past their first day fighting at Amiens. Many others would fall in the Battles of 2nd Arras at the Scarpe, Drocourt-Queant and specifically Boiry Notre Dame for the 116th. For those who survived…or whom were ‘plug-and-play’ replacements inserted into the various Battalions on the fly, the next objective for the Battalion was the Canal du Nord and the strategically important city of Cambrai.

On the 29th of September, the 116th was tasked to take out the German trenches that protected the approaches to the town of Ste Olle, situated just outside Cambrai. The attack went disastrously from the onset with both A and B Companies of the 116th being virtually wiped. Being in one of the support of reserve Companies, he would have been one of the men who personally saw the bloodbath which took the lives of 92 men from the Battalion. With only one day to rest, the survivors were gathered, reconstituted into a 3 Company unit and on the 1st of October sent right back out there. Placing the last day of his life into perspective helps to better appreciate the effort, the bravery, courage and determination that Arthur exhibited on that fateful day. In the morning, he was able to successfully wade through the immense shellfire enfilade that protected the Douai-Cambrai roads. He followed this up somehow following the line of men and making it through a barrage of blistering machine gun positions. Finally, Arthur was one of the survivors who took up positions in a wood facing the the village of Ramillies situated on the north-west outskirts of Cambrai. It was here where the Germans zeroed in on their position and killed him instantly with am array of whizz-bangs. He had come so far, prepared for so long and yet after a harrowing series of attack upon attack upon attack…this ever-eager farmer’s sons’ life and service would come to and end. A story to be told…Remember him.

Captain Wilfred John Preston

Captain Wilfred John Preston

22 Years Old

Born in Toronto, ON

Enlisted with 126th Battalion and served with 116thBattalion

Died of wounds as a POW – on Nov 5, 1918

Buried at Cologne Southern Cemetery in Recklinghausen, Westphalia

“To the Captain!”

“To the Captain!”

From within the cigarette and pipe smoke-filled legion halls, community centres and banquet halls, for years upon years after their time ‘over there’ in France the men would gather and reunite as a Battalion. With each reunion, glasses would be raised in the honour and memory of those who were left behind. Some were their close friends…the men whose memory led to more than a few tears shed in the eyes of the aging warriors. Other glasses were raised for the prominent men of the battalion…”To Lt. Col Samuel Simpson Sharpe…to Pearkes…to Carmichael! However, there were always glasses raised for those rare individuals who made such an impression and imprint upon the men that they just had to be remembered and recognized. Those were the ones who left a legacy in the minds and lives of those entrusted to their care. These were the battlefield leaders…the men whom with pistols raised, were the first over the top and shepherded their men across and into the fire. Those were the ones who they looked up to guidance and direction, for courage and comfort. These were the ones who gave the men hope…hope that if they followed him, they just might get a chance to see their wives, their children, their parents once again. One of these such men…a man whose name when recited was followed with the clinking of many glasses, was their Captain Wilfred John Preston.

Captain Wilfred John Preston was born in Toronto 1896 and grew up in the neighbourhood of Roncesvalles. His family’s house was situated in a rapidly growing area of the city where large homes accompanied well-treed streets. He attended the local high school, Parkdale Collegiate Institute and was well renowned as both a rugby player and paddler with the Parkdale Canoe Club. Like many of the boys his age, when the recruitment drive washed through Canada and Toronto in 1915, Preston decided to enlist. He had some military training from his time serving as a signaler with the 36thPeel Regiment and this positioned him well to become an officer when he joined the 126th Peel Battalion.

The transition of Preston from an ambitious young officer to noted leader of men in battle was rather remarkable. With his background as a signaller, upon being transferred to the 116th Battalion in October of 1916 he assumed the head of Communications for the Battalion. Following the victory at Vimy when the men were used as working parties, it would have been Preston’s responsibility to plan and engage his men in helping build the communications infrastructure within the trenches. Installing telephone lines from the newly acquired front line trenches back to the reserve and ensured that headquarters would be able to guide and direct their men in active operations. However, his first key battlefield position was to establish communications to support the two waves of troops deployed in the trench raid on Fosse 4 slag heap at Avion on July 23, 1917. His task was to design a diverse communications plan whereby the troops from the initial wave of the attack could signal back to the next company once they successfully completed their objectives. The plan was for a combination of lamps/torches to be used alongside telephone wires extending from the front to the rear. Unfortunately, his first important task almost turned out to be a colossal failure. Almost immediately, the Germans cut the primary telephone lines with shellfire. Plan two was also a disaster due to the immense amount of smoke generated from the artillery barrage. This hampered the men in the second wave from seeing the signals from the men in the first wave of the attack. Thankfully, the third option included runners and they rushed back to provide verbal confirmation for the men to proceed.

As the war proceeded through into the fall of 1917, Lieutenant Preston was promoted to Platoon Commander. This was followed in April 1918 as he was further promoted to Acting Captain then to full Captain in July. While these promotions were evidence that the officer staff saw value and promise in the young 22 year old, it would not be until the battle of Amiens on Aug 8th, 1918 where the men under his care would truly see the value of serving with a man of such bravery and character. The objective for the Battalion on that day was to traverse 2 miles over unfamiliar land, against enemies whose positions and bunkers were also indetermined. The orders were to kill or capture any German who stood between their jumping off position and Hamon Wood, 3000 yards away. It was during this drive that Preston was able to devise a plan, gather those who were not killed in a devastating machine gun barrage and ultimately take the high ground. Preston did just that…he led the smattering of soldiers across the battlefield, captured an enemy battery of field guns and took forty prisoners. For this courage and bravado, the young Captain would later be awarded the Military Cross.

After Amiens, in the following days the 116thproceeded to take another wood stand at Le Quesnel, move through and take a series of objectives called Middle Wood and then Square Wood. After that they would move on a take the village of Parvillers. In each attack that the 116th was ordered to execute, Captain Preston would lead his men over the to and up to the objective. The next operation where his efforts and courage was on full display was at Bois du Vert in the attack on Boiry Notre Dame on Aug 28, 1918. Throughout two days of fighting, Preston pressed on through gas attacks, artillery barrages, devastating machine gun attacks. With each leap forward he would collect his men and drive forward capturing territory and German POWs. In this operation alone, he was able to secure 2 German Officer and 65 men of their ranks. For these fine examples of bravery beyond the call of duty, he received a Bar to his Military Cross.

People could have attributed the success Preston gained on the battlefield to his bravado, to his professionalism, to his calm nature under times of immense pressure…however some would admit that the fact that he was able to make it this far was due to a healthy amount of good luck. However, in warfare, especially warfare in WW1 luck came in many forms. Luck could be in being in the right place at the wrong time. It could equally be being in the wrong place at the right time, whereby a slight flesh would give you a first-class ticket home. It could also be due to the fact that eventually your good luck may run dry and when combined with time, the chance that you get hit from the blizzard of lead that was hurled in your direction grew stronger. This happened to Captain Preston on the morning of Sept 29th, 1918.

As the sun began to illuminate the horizon on that fateful day the troops were readying themselves for another day occupying the tip of the spear. The evening prior was wet and rainy and the best they could conjure was some warm coffee and biscuits before heading to the jumping off point. For many of these untried and untested soldiers, this would have been a torturous time. Unsure of their chance of survival. Worried that they would never return home to their families. The old hands would have accepted that those chances were low long, long ago. Yet, for the men serving under Captain Preston, they at least had the comfort that they were under solid, stable, competent, and confident command. Between the start of this campaign seven weeks prior and that morning, Preston had participated in every operation and personally led his men over the top 9 successive times. The morning of the 29th would be his tenth…and as chance is a fickle fiend it proved to be victor on that sorrowful morn. Amidst the screech of the whistles and drowned out by the din of combat, somewhere between Ste Olle and Petit Fontaine on the outskirts of Cambrai, Captain Preston received serious machine gun bullet wounds to both of his legs and his left hand. He was the Company Commander in charge of one of the two Companies, A and B, which were both effectively wiped out. As the Battalion pressed on the wounded were left to their own devices…many who fell into the hands of the enemy Germans occupying the areas in and around the city of Cambrai. Severely wounded and unable to move Captain Preston was taken prisoner by the Germans and moved to sectors in their rear for care.

The final chapter in the story of Captain Wilfred John Preston was unfitting to a man of his achievements and character. Seriously wounded, he was now in the care of the enemy. He was transported 400 kms away to the Recklinghausen Hospital in Cologne. It was here amidst the deluge of German casualties from the devastating Canadian-led campaign where he was treated. As his injuries were severe, it was determined by the medical staff that his leg needed to be amputated. However, Preston was in terrible shape and needed a blood transfusion to make up for his significant blood loss. Despite requests from his injured comrade, Private Herrivan to assist and offer their blood to their stricken comrade, the German doctors refused. Thus, it was there, on a cot in the midst of a sea of enemy wounded that the Captain succumbed to his wounds. He is buried in the Cologne Southern Cemetery in Recklinghausen, Westphalia…a 400 km distance from Ste Olle where he sustained his injuries.

Raise a glass to his memory…raise a glass to the Captain. “To the Captain!”

Private Albert Ashbaugh

Private Albert Ashbaugh

757835

Enlisted with the 120th Hamilton Battalion

Served with the 116th Battalion

Died of Wounds at Passchendaele on Oct 27, 1917

Buried at Oxford Road British Cemetery

Every summer, the wooden propellers affixed to the nose of the craft chug into operation. The rhythmic hum reverberates over the watching crowd of onlookers causing smiles to instantly appear upon their faces of the onlookers. It is like getting the chance to see something new be created. The plane is a Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter and is from the Great War Flying Museum located just north of Brampton, ON. It is participating in one of the airshows held at the Warplane Heritage Museum located at the Hamilton International Airport. The original crafts were participants in the air war that took place over the Western Front and the modern replica versions help us remember what it may have been like to see or feel a plane from over a century ago. These shows attract tens of thousands of visitors every year and the growth in interest and support does tend to be successful in helping the next generation remember the service and sacrifice of those who piloted those machines back in the Great War. The airshow showcases a host of airplanes dating from WW2 era up to the present…all designed to help educate us and perpetuate the memory of those national heroes who piloted them in our stead during conflicts of the past.

In this spirit of remembrance, individuals planning their next visit to the Warplane Heritage Museum should include a side trip on their itinerary. It will not cost them anything and it is hidden in plain view from the airport…mere steps away in a place called the Mt. Hope Cemetery. Besides containing the final resting spots of pilots killed while engaged in training exercises during WW2, it also contains the memorial grave marker for two Canadian heroes who were actual participants in the Great War. Silently resting in the shadow of the airplanes circling overhead is a stone with the surname, Ashbaugh etched in granite. It details the names of two brothers who did not return home from the war…their names were Vernon and Albert Ashbaugh. Here is their story.

It was less than two months after the echoes of the guns first reverberated across the ocean when he made the decision to enlist. By the date of his enlistment, Oct 14th, 1914, over 300,000 Frenchmen had already fallen in battle…27,000 men killed on one day alone. The British contingent was desperately attempted to hold back the German behemoth at Mons and the Marne. A wave of men from across Canada with British roots, immediately flocked to recruitment stations to join up for the cause. One of these soldier’s was a gent from a community just outside of Hamilton. His name was Vernon Alexander Ashbaugh. At 25 years old, he was the youngest son of James and Isabella. Vernon travelled to Toronto, proceeded to the Exhibition Grounds and joined up with the 19th Battalion. The 19th was to serve with the Second Canadian Division of the CEF. It took almost a year for the 2nd Division to become organized and wasn’t until September of 1915 when they landed in England. It was around this time when he came to learn that his father, James had just passed away. His mother, Isabella had died 6 years earlier.

At this same time back in Canada, Vernon’s older brother Albert was serving with a Canadian militia regiment, the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Wentworth Regiment aka the 13th Regiment. His was married to a young lady named Anna and was working as a crane operator in Hamilton, now a bustling centre of industry. Being a natural potential enlistee for the cause, as the recruitment drives were ramping up across the country, on February 12, 1916 Albert joined the 120th Hamilton Battalion. The 120th were made up of men from the Hamilton areas and was perpetuated by the 13th Wentworth Regiment. Albert’s unit completed some training in Canada but was transported to in England in August of that year. By this time of the war, the hospitals in England and cemeteries in France were being overloaded with British soldiers. The Battles of the Somme had kicked off on July 1st and quickly became a bloodbath, costing the British Army’s hundreds of thousands of men. Albert would soon come to learn that his own brother, Vernon would be counted amongst the casualties from this colossal event. Approximately two weeks after Albert arrived in England, Vernon and the 19th Battalion was moving towards the front lines in the northern portion of the Somme sector at Thiepval. Vernon would turn out to be one of the first men from his unit to be injured in the context…incurring shrapnel wounds to his leg and hip from an exploding shell.

The Lance Sergeant was spirited away to England for care. As happened far too often in the war, the injury sustained by Vernon became infected and his conditioned slowly and continuously deteriorated. On the 9thof November 1916, Lance Sergeant Vernon Alexander Ashbaugh (55779) succumbed to his injuries. He was buried in Elham, England at Shorncliffe Military Cemetery.

Building upon his 10 years spent serving in the 13thWentworth Regiment, Albert Ashbaugh rose to the rank of Sergeant with the 120thBattalion. After spending a year training in England, in August 1917 Albert and a number of men from his unit were transferred to the 116th. The 116th has just experienced its’ baptism of fire with a full Battalion raid on German trench positions at Avion. While the raid was considered highly successful it also proved very costly with 37 men being killed in action and losing another 45 injured, wounded or gassed. Through this transfer to the 116th, Albert would help to replenish the men lost to the Battalion from the raid. With this move, Albert reverted to his permanent rank of Private and quickly tried to settle into his new unit. However, within days the 116th was ordered to move to the Lens Sector where they joined the front lines of the Battle for Hill 70 already in progress. They relieved the 43rd Battalion which has incurred significant losses from their participation in the ongoing operation.

While Private Ashbaugh made it through Hill 70, two months later the battalion joined the complete array of divisions in Currie’s CEF to help close out the Battle of Passchendaele for the Allies. On the 26th of October, the 116th moved into position and acted as carrying parties bringing war materials and supplies to the front-line troops. The next day they were sent in to relieve the units of the 43rd, 52ndand 58th Battalion. While digging into the mud-soaked hellscape and desperately trying to survive, the private soldier was on the wrong end of an exploding German shell. He was hit with shrapnel in both legs. Stretcher bearers were summoned, and the brave souls desperately attempted to save his life, dragging him to care stations in the rear. Tragically, later that day Private Albert Ashbaugh died while being attended to at the casualty clearing station. He is buried amongst 9 other men from the 116th at the Oxford Road British Cemetery.

Remember them…and the next time you visit the Warplane Heritage Museum make sure you stop off at the Mt Hope Cemetery and thank Vernon and Albert for their service and sacrifice.

Private Robert Lytle Burchfield

Private Robert Lytle Burchfield

1027596

Enlisted in the 235th Battalion CEF – Jan 6, 1917

Born – Valois, Schuyler Coiuntry, New York, USA

Died of Wounds – Aug 29th, 1918

Buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery, France

It is one of the most idyllic spots in the United States. His hometown was situated on the eastern side of one of the most beautiful lakes in New York. The tiny speck of a town is called Valois. From the raised perched upon which it was built is commanded a majestic view up to the north and down to the south of Lake Seneca. And in the evenings, when the sun begins its’ descent, the townsfolks would, once again, be reminded the meaning of serenity. Yet, it was from this spot where a 24 yr old American decided to give it all up and travel across the border to Belleville in Canada and join the 235th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Private Robert Lytle Burchfield would become one of the 2700 Americans who lost their lives in the service of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. In the course of the war, over 60,000 Americans enlisted to fight with the CEF. The majority of these men were expats who were born in the England or Scotland, had emigrated to the United States and decided to enlist and help their mother country in the war effort. However, not all of these young Americans volunteers were ex-pats. Many were attracted by the opportunity to participate in one of the greatest wars in modern memory. Despite the horrible stories that were being told of life in the trenches that were being told in the newspapers, these lads relished the chance to join in on the fun. The stories of the atrocities committed by the German troops on occupied France and Belgium were published in books and newspapers and contributed to the drive to attract men from the USA to consider coming up to Canada and get an opportunity to fight in France. The CEF even created a Battalion that primarily consisted of American volunteers. They were called the American Legion Battalion and trained together before being broken up and used as replacements once they arrived in England and France.

It is unclear why Robert Burchfield decided to enlist, however what is certain is that he came from a long line of American patriots. It is recorded that his gr-gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather was Thomas Burchfield. He lived in Baltimore, Maryland in 1731 while the United States was still a colony of Great Britain. It is unclear if he fought in the American Revolution, however his son, James Burchfield served in the US Army and fought in the War of 1812. Robert’s namesake and paternal grandfather, Robert Little Burchfield fought against the South in the US Civil War. Thus, when it came to service and sacrifice the Burchfield’s proved since they arrived in the colony’s they were brave patriotic Americans.

Once he signed up with the CEF, Robert trained with the Bowmanville-based battalion and travelled to England in May 1917. Soon after arrival in Liverpool, men from the 235th Battalion were transferred to the 208th Canadian Irish Battalion. Following more time spent in training, Private Burchfield was sent to France on Marc 29th, 1918 and joined the 116thBattalion. Most of the Spring and early summer of 1918 was spent in intensive training with the 116th. More than half of the men of the Battalion were ‘green’ soldiers and only recently arriving in the unit. These men needed to be fully trained on the new infantry tactics with the war changing from one of stalemate and stagnation to one of movement. Soldiers like Burchfield, needed to be able to be cross trained in a number of roles; from rifleman, to bomber, to Lewis Gunners, Scout or Stretcher-bearer. Each platoon within a battalion was composed of multiple sections and each needed to act independently from each other…yet all moving forward to achieve the objectives established for the unit.

With many of his fellow soldiers, his baptism of fire would take place on August 8th, 1918 in the attack on Amiens. Thankfully, he was able to survive this first day. The 116th was able to successfully achieve their assigned objective of taking Hamon Wood. Soon after, the Battalion was quickly moved north and assigned to participate alongside the other Battalions of the 9thInfantry Brigade in the taking of Boiry Notre Dame. This objective was assigned to the 116th in the Second Battle of Arras. On the 28th of August, the young American Private was hit in the legs by an exploding enemy shell. He was taken from the field and succumbed to his wounds the next day.

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. This is the day where Americans mourn those who lost their lives in the service of their country. While he wore a Maple Leaf on his shoulder, he was about as American as one can get. Today is the day where we should thank and remember Private Robert Lytle Burchfield for his service and sacrifice.

Remember him.

Private Joseph Charles Montgomery

Private Joseph Charles Montgomery

644829

Enlisted with the 157th Simcoe Foresters

Served with the 116th Ontario County Battalion

Born in Midland – 1891

Died of Wounds in a German POW Camp – July 24, 1917

It was a glorious morning. The crisp springtime air lifted the congregation as they rose to witness the union of two of their own. At the alter, standing erect and clad in the colours and uniform of his regiment, was one of Joseph and Isabella Montgomery’s youngest sons. The battalion was on leave and he used it to his fullest advantage, to marry the one he loved most dearly. Thus, as the organ sung the sweet song to signal the start of the ceremony Private Joseph Charles Montgomery peered down the aisle in Ebenezer Methodist Church. On the right and left stood the entire community, all joining in to witness and celebrate the solemn sacred ritual. With her first step down the aisle, the genuine look of adoration instantly appeared on Joseph’s face as he saw his bride-to-be, Margaret Ida “Myrtle” Guthrie join him to be married.

The couple participated in one of the most common ceremonies conducted by the men as they prepared for war. They and their girlfriends wanted to get married before they went off to war. One cannot specify why they were eager to squeeze this in before they went off on the most dangerous adventure once young man could take, however they did it and often. The challenge was in the Spring of 1916 Canadians knew that this war was a murderous affair and there was a good chance they would return with scars or injuries from combat…if they returned at all. Yet, couples like Myrtle and Joseph, got married and quickly celebrated their union…so to speak.

Private Montgomery was enlisted in the 157th Simcoe Foresters Battalion. The battalion trained at Camp Borden throughout the spring and summer of 1916. Joseph would have the chance to return home to Ebenezer to visit Myrtle on occasion. On one of these breaks he would learn that his wife was with child. Joseph was going to war and was going to be a daddy. Like many of the men in the unit, who were also fathers or father’s-to-be this news introduced another aspect of war that was rarely felt by the ordinary, single unattached soldier, he was needed by others…and they needed him to come back home….in one piece.

The Simcoe Foresters travelled to England as a unit in the fall of 1916, landing in Liverpool on the 28th of October. Soon after they arrived, the men of the 157thlearned the unfortunate news that despite enlisting together, training together and coming together as a unit for over 10 months they would be disbanded with the men be sent and integrated into other battalions. Montgomery would join a Company of his mates and be sent to the 116th Ontario County Battalion. Others were integrated into the 1st, 19th and 125th Battalion. With the men of the 157thcoming from farms and communities on the west side of Lake Simcoe in Central Ontario, the 116th was formed by men on the east side of the lake. Interesting, just before the men of the 157th joined the 116th, three companies worth of men from the 116th had been sent to reinforce other battalions, including the 2nd, 3rd, 18th and 19thBattalions.

While the men were training at Camp Witley, about 20 miles outside of London, Montgomery would have received the tragic news. With a bounce in his step, he would have excitedly tore open the letter in the hope and anticipation of learning if he was going to be a father of a boy or a girl. Unfortunately, the letter would not provide him with such elations, to the contrary, it informed him that the son that his wife Mrytle had delivered died soon after being born. Thus, as he returned to barracks the look on his face would have notified his mates of the most sorrowful of news.

Within days of receiving the sorrowful news, he would learn that his battalion was being sent over to France. They arrived on the 11th of March and immediately prepared for the upcoming operations centres around Arras. The Canadian forces were congregating at Vimy and prepared for the colossal upcoming battle. As the history of the battalion details, the 116th were kept in reserve at Vimy and were primarily used as a pioneer battalion in the Spring of 1917. Montgomery’s bulk 6 ft tall frame would have been put to good use as the men dug trenches and dugouts or building new roads needed to transport supplies and war materials to the front.

Private Joseph Montgomery first real introduction to the war happened on the 23rd of July. The battalion was ordered to participate in a raid on German positions near Lens at a slag heap called Fosse 4. The network of trenches was referred to the men as the Mericourt Maze. Their orders were to have all four companies participate in an early morning operation to raid the trenches defending the German, destroy their dugouts and take some prisoners. It was a test to see what the men were made of. And while the test would prove successful on the whole, it would tragically end the lives of 38 men killed in action. Montgomery’s role in the raid, being attached to D Company, was to rush forth and relieve the men of B and C Company that has led the attack from zero hour. From within the dense clouds of smoke and gas his unit snaked their way forward in search of their battalion mates. However, once found they encountered German soldiers responding with ferocity in a counter-attack offensive. Montgomery was hit in the back and spine and was unable to join his mates as they retreated back to the Canadian lines. Seriously injured, Montgomery was taken prisoner by the Germans and carried back by their stretcher bearers for care behind their lines. It was reported that Private Joseph Charles Montgomery succumbed to his wounds at C Reserve Lazerette C Prisoner of War Camp at Roost-Warendin.

The loss of her child would devastate the beautiful young Mrytle Montgomery and she would not have another. Thankfully, she was able to recover from her loss and remarried at the age of 40 and lived to the age of 86.

Remember them.

Lieutenant Ambrose Harold Goodman

Lieutenant Ambrose Harold Goodman

Born Cayuga ON, 1896

Lived in Whychwood Park in Toronto Ontario

Enlisted with the Great War Veterans Overseas Company

Served with the 116th Battalion

Killed in Action on Aug 8, 1918 – Battle of Amiens

Powered by the unbounded exuberance of youth the man, with all his might, he blew into the bugle and called the company to order. It was the cusp of Spring in March 1917 and 250 boys, the greenest fruit of the Toronto elite, had gathered and come to order as a new company of the 109th Regiment. By this time of the war and every man assembled was well aware of the risks and dangers that came with signing up. Every day for the past three years, local newspapers published what seemed like an endless list of the men who had fallen. Day after day they were listed…names of men who fell at Neuve Chapelle, then Second Ypres, then to those who fell in the battles of the Somme, Pozieres, Courcelette and Beaumont Hamel. The tragic and travesty of the war was well known to these lads…yet despite it all, the boys were smarty dressed in their uniforms and doing their best impression of a salute they stood there ready to be taken away to war.

These men were the draft of 250 volunteers who made up the Great War Veterans Overseas Company. The Company was established in early 1917 and was sponsored by the men who had already been over there, fought, got wounded or injured and then returned home to Canada. The GWVOC was attached to the 109th Regiment which was associated with the 169thBattalion. Previous drafts of the 169thwere already sent overseas in 1916 and many of the soldiers were fighting with the 116th Ontario County Battalion. The compelling aspect of the regiment in particular relates to the messaging they employed to attract and recruit new men. Despite the hardships, the death, the horror of war and the utter destruction of humanity itself which was taking place over there, the advertising of the Great War Veterans Company promoted the wonderful benefits one would get if they decided to join up and join this new company. Their unit was to be a place where an adventurous youth could serve their country in a delightful spirit of fellowship. The GWVOC was a brotherhood of men, a place where once can find comradeship with like-minded friends. Despite the nightmarish conditions spoken by those who survived the trenches the GWVOC provided a glass half-full view on the war. They highlighted the ‘thrills’ and ‘adventures’ one could get if they decided to join up. They even promoted the exhilaration once would feel when they took that first step over the parapet (incidentally and conveniently omitting the part about walking right into a wall of lead). Sure, the war was dangerous…but going up with the GWVOC was going to be a jolly good, rollicking time!

The aforementioned man blowing the horn, was one of the first from the unit to respond and probably one of the more vocal leaders in the regiment. Travelling to U of T club to U of T college he would have been a leader in promoting the message being used to attracted new recruits. His name was 21 yr old Lieutenant Abrose Harold Goodman. Goodman was the son of one of the city of Toronto’s wealthy elite. His family emigrated to Canada back in 1860 with his grandfather being a noted landscape artist. (Marmaduke Matthews) He lived in a magnificent mansion situated in the tony well-treed enclave of Whychwood Park. Ambrose was educated at the U of T Schools followed by two years of study at University College in the University of Toronto. He was accepted into and was scheduled to study law at Osgoode Law School however with the war needing men, he elected to postpone his education and join the CEF instead. Like his fellow OWVOC volunteers he wanted his chance to join into the fight over in France.

Goodman’s time as a soldier began with his arrival in England in December of 1917. From his early start with the 109th Regiment, he began his career with the CEF in the 1st Depot Battalion before being transferred to the 116thBattalion on the eve of being deployed to France. Upon joining the unit, Goodman assisted in preparing the 116th with all their relatively green recruits (Goodman included) for the upcoming planned operations against the Axis powers. His first and only taste of war happened on the 8th of August at the Battle of Amiens. After a 6km hike to the assembly positions, Goodman and his platoon found themselves at 2:00 in the morning situated outside the village of Hourges. Staring forward into the darkness, they waited. At exactly 4:20 am the thunder of the guns signalled the start of the monumental operation and Lieutenant Goodman, unholstering his sidearm led his men forward across the fields of battle. And they were fields…farm fields with row upon row of corn that the men had to navigate whilst the waiting Germans showered the area with shellfire and blasted away from their entrenched machine gun nests. Leading his men forward, it was not until the men were just about to achieve their objectives when Goodman was hit in the face, leg and thigh with shrapnel. With those injuries, despite the fact that it only started minutes prior, his war would come to an end.

Through the fog and smoke of war, and with the din of the guns still echoing across he sector Lieutenant Goodman found himself grounded with a serious injury and desperately needing help. His men were long gone, rushing forward and now out of sight looking to mop up the zone of all enemy and to consolidate their victory. It would have been at this time when the injured Lieutenant called over six Germans had just surrendered and were heading back towards the Canadian rear zone. These six men carried the stricken Goodman back across the battlefield to the casualty clearing station…the vanquished, glad they were spared doing their best to save one of the men who had come to kill them. He was first moved to the closest Casualty Clearing Station where he was stabilized, however due to the severity of his injuries he was later moved to the No.8 General Hospital at Rouen. With wounds to his face and thigh, while the Lieutenant seemed to be on the road to recovery, his situation quickly made a turn for the worse. On the 15th of August, after a short battle Lieutenant Ambrose Harold Goodman, the pride of Wychwood Park and the University of Toronto passed away.

Remember him.

Private Ewart Arthur Blatchford

Private Ewart Arthur Blatchford

868257

Born Brownsville, Lambeth, ON 1893

Enlisted in the 182nd Battalion

Killed in Action on Aug 27, 1918 at Vis en Artois

One by one the tragic ritual played out in the homes and farms of the families they served. With hat’s removed and their hands placed over their hearts, these men performed their indispensable acts of care, compassion and sympathy and delivered the mournful messages that one of their loved ones would not be coming home from the war. As the years carried on from the initial waves, from those lost in the summer of 1916 to the great battles of Vimy, Hill 70 and Passchendaele in 1917 to the impending colossal clashes expect in the coming year they men bore the burden of having to deliver the worst of news.

With one sombre year being eclipsed by another, the number of times the sound of their footsteps landed upon the porch or entranceway of their congregation’s homes increased ever more. These men were the faith leaders who lived among us…the Ministers, the Reverends, Priests and Rabbi’s. These were the men who soften the blow when news of the loss of a loved one was delivered. One of the men who bore this burden was a man called, Reverend Thomas Blatchford. He was a minister with the Methodist Church and his congregation was situated in and around his hometown of Brownsville Ontario.

Thomas and his wife Maria sent two sons to fight in France. Their first was their eldest son, Captain Thomas Lewis Blatchford. Thomas was a member of the 36th Dufferin Rifles Battalion and was attached to the 1st Battalion in France. He was born in Strathroy, Ontario and being a long-serving military man enlisted to serve in the CEF in May 1915. On April 27th, 1916 while communicating on a telephone in a dugout situated on the front line trenches at Voormezeele (near St Eloi, SE of Ypres) his position received a direct hit by an explosive shell. Captain Blatchford was killed instantly. News of his loss was communicated back to the Blatchford family in Canada. Interestingly, Sir Sam Hughes himself, the Canadian Minister of Milita and Defence, personally notified the Reverend of the loss of his son. After consoling so many families on the losses of their sons, Thomas now had to bear the burden of the loss of one of his own.

While the news of the loss of a son will forever be devastating for any family, the level concern for their other children becomes even more accentuated when these deaths occur. This situation much have struck the Reverend and his wife even more so for three days before his Thomas was killed, their youngest son, Ewart decided to resign from his position as a teacher at the Mount Elgin Institute and enlist with the 182nd Battalion. While the eldest son Thomas was a professional working withing the real estate and banking sector, his younger brother Ewart also had a promising life ahead of him. Ewart was an honours graduate student with a degree in education from the University of Toronto Victoria College. While at college, he served as Athletic Director for ‘Vic’ College and played as a member of U of T’s football team. To round out his university experience he was also a member of the Glee Club. After graduating, he set out to begin his career as a teacher…a fine choice for a man of so many positive attributes and prospects. Yet, the draw of duty was too much for the young man to ignore and whilst still mourning the loss of his older brother, Ewart, on the 31st of May 1916, he signed up to become a soldier.

Private Ewart Arthur Blatchford began his career as a solider with the 182nd Battalion, the sister battalion of the 116th. He was transported to England in May 1917 and immediately initiated training for the front. This process started with the 208th Canadian Irish Battalion where he saw himself getting promoted from Private to Lance Corporal and then up to Corporal. By the following Spring, as the CEF was preparing for the offensives planned for the fall, Blatchford was sent to France and joined the 116th Battalion. With this move, he reverted to an ordinary private soldier once again.

Ewart’s baptism of fire began with the colossal battle for Amiens on Aug 8th, 1918. On this day, the CEF broke through and smashed deep into the German Hindenburg Line. Without delay, following their success at Amiens, Currie moved his forces north to the sector located in the east of Arras. The section assigned to Ewart’s battalion in the next planned operation was called Artillery Hill or Boiry Notre-Dame. His final day began on August 27thin a series of trenches located near a town called Monchy-le-Preux. Ewart’s company was attached to the 43rdCameron Highlander Battalion, the brother-battalion to the 116th in the 9th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division. Fellow 9th Brigade battalions, the 58th and 52nd Battalion along with two companies of the 116th were ordered take a sector of front that consisted of two woods, Bois du Sart and Bois du Vert. These woods represented an area of land situated on the front right and front left approach to the town of Boiry Notre-Dame. By this time of the war, very few trees were left yet they still called these ‘woods’. Ewart’s Company’s task, was to move through and past the 52nd and 58th and then conduct the full frontal attack on Boiry Notre-Dame. It was during these operations which more resembled ‘co-ordinated chaos’ when it was recorded that Ewart was hit in the head by a machine gun bullet. He did not survive. He is buried in Vis-en-Artois British cemetery.

The burden of war creates many victims. With the lost of one son, followed by the loss of another, Reverend Thomas Blatchford’s quickly health began to fail. One can imagine the number of families he once had to console. Hundreds of solemn handshakes made with sincerity, sympathy and compassion. In the time of war, our society needs people of Reverend Blatchford’s level of emotional fortitude. They must be strong enough to bear through the emotional stress that comes with helping people who have endured great loss. They must listen well, console, care for and demonstrate a level of strength that the weak can use to help them make it through the most trying of times. However, we must be mindful that these men were still just men where the stress, hardship and the burden of war resulted in even more casualties…the spiritual leaders themselves…all scared by the war and all undocumented casualties.

In 1921, the Trinity Methodist Church published a book created to remember the men from the congregation who were killed while serving in the Great War. While the Reverend Blatchford had needed to step away from his pulpit due to his health challenges, the memorial written for Ewart provided a suitable substitute for the words his father would have been known to recite.

The memorial reads as follows…

“Is it too much to believe that he now knows the value of that charge in which he fell? There the Canadians first broke the Hindenburg Line and carried dismay to the hearts of the enemy. One who has been privileged to read his letters home finds these traits of character: ardent attachment to his pals, hatred of the drink evil, uncomplaining disposition, gratitude to friends, hopefulness and a tender solicitude for his parents.”

A fine tribute to a man, a soldier, a teacher and a son. Remember him.

Private John Cuicuilete

Private John Cuicuilete

3106697

Born Bailesti, Romania 1897

Living in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Enlisted in the CEF in Jan 1918

Served with the 116th Battalion

What motivates a man to give up on his dreams and offer to give up his life for a cause? Of course we know all the standard reasons…’For King and Country’, ‘Duty’, ‘Honour’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberty’ …and cannot forget ‘because all me mates were going and I didn’t want to miss out on all the fun’ or ‘because all me mates were going, really I cannot really stay here by myself’. However, what motivates the man who travelled all across the world to seek his fortune, thousands of miles from his homeland who at the time was not even an active participant in the conflict? What motivates a man to place his life into the hands of a country that prior to the war he doesn’t appear to have even visited? This appears to be the story of a one Private John Cuicuilete.

Private John Cuicuilete story began far from Canada in a small town situated in the south-west of the Eastern European country of Romania. Romania or translated from the original Latin meaning “citizen of the Roman Empire”. Just for that name origin story is enough to prove that Romania does not get enough props as that is pretty cool. Instead of its’ ancient origins, most people know of the country as the place where Nosferatu or Dracula lives. His home/castle is located in the northern state of Transylvannia and from my understanding is propped atop a mountain and has a driveway lined by heads stuck to the tops of sharp pointy sticks. Back to John…he was born on Christmas Day in a village called Bailesti. The population of the village at the time of his birth was about 1500. Details are not yet been uncovered, however it appears that John immigrated to the United States and landed in Indianapolis, Indiana.

From his quaint pastoral beginnings in a speck of the town in a rural portion of Romania John soon found himself in a city that was known as gateway to the west…the rapidly expanding city of Indianapolis. This move provided John with loads of opportunity and adventure. To be a 20 yr old lad landing in this spot must have felt to him like he won the lottery. However, there are some parts of this story that we know that we don’t know. By the fall of 1917 there was no mysteries about what was going on in France and Belgium. It was a virtual bloodbath…from Ypres to the Somme to the Battle of Arras and then Passchendaele or Third Ypres, the tallies of the dead continued to pile up. Yet…for the most part the dead included those from British or French origins. Why would John be motivated to enlist? And to travel all the way to Canada to ensure he can get to the front faster?

John’s homeland, Romania, has an interesting and wholly tragic war story of its’ own. While Romania had an allegiance with its’ neighbour, Hungary, the nature of the agreement was that it would only support them militarily if Hungary was attacked. However, as Austria was the aggressor in their fight against Serbia and with Hungary immediately joining in based on their alliance agreements with both Austria and Germany, this gave Romania an ‘out’ and allowed them to sit ‘out’ the war. As the events of the war proceeded and the years passed by, both England and Russia aggressively worked to entice Romania to their side. In 1916, Romania jumped onboard Team Entente and send their armies north to fight the Hungarians. Romania had a few things going for it when it joined the war. First, it had lots of men that they could put into arms. Second…wait, there was no second. Romania was an impoverished nation with an inexperienced, weak military armed with comparatively old and ineffective weapons. Their primary challenge was that their opponent, Germany didn’t suffer from any of these issues. They were an expert, talented army who had been fighting with success for two years and armed with some of the most modern, effective weapons known to man. The result of the ensuing conflict between the two sides in Romania are staggering. With less than a year of fighting, Romania suffered over 550,000 casualties. If compared against the Canadians who participated in almost all of the battles of the Western Front, we lost only 240,000 casualties. The KIA figures are even more lopsided…Romania lost 250,000 soldiers along with 300,000 dead civilians. Canada, on the other hand, lost approximately 61,000 dead. 4 to 1. From Private John Cuicuilete’s hometown of Baileski, 156 men died while fighting the Germans. 156! For John that would mean his brothers, uncles, cousins, school age friends, neighbours…they would almost all be victims of the war. From this perspective, the numbers are truly staggering and leaving us no question about one’s motivation to enlist, fight and seek revenge.

Thus, as we look down the long queue of men lined up to put their pen to paper and enlist with His Majesty’s forces, we can now better understand why a young 20 yr old lad from Romania was amongst the volunteers. Packed away in his satchel, practically containing everything owned would have been some dog-eared letters informing him of catastrophic losses that his hometown endured. That was all the motivation the young man needed. John’s ‘war story’ is rather short and unfortunately also rather uncomplicated. He enlisted on Jan 31st, 1918 in Toronto. Just over a month later he was walking down the gangplank in Liverpool and was soon learning how to shoot a firearm, bayonet a sack hanging from a post and obey the odd command or two. On the 24th of August, John was transferred to the the 116th Battalion. The unit was just about to participate in a series of attacks east of Arras where they were ordered to liberate a town called Boiry Notre Dame. John, still as green of a soldier as one can get, survived this first introduction to the war. However, a few weeks later the battalion participated in the drive to bypass the Canal du Nord and then clear the nearby city of Cambrai. Two full companies of soldiers were wiped out as the 116th tried to take a fortified trench in the village of Ste. Olle. John would not survive the assault. It was the 29thof September 1918. He is buried near where he fell at Ste Olle British Cemetery.

John did his bit and the magnificent memorial situated in the centre of the town of Baileski, Romania honours the loss of 156 of their sons who fell in the war. The memorial should be amended to 157 sons.

Remember him.

Lance Corporal Wilbert Gordon Lunan

Lance Corporal Wilbert Gordon Lunan

745684

Born 1898 in Toronto ON

Lived at 78 Lake Front in Kew Beach

Enlisted with the 116th Battalion CEF

Died of pneumonia on Aug 21st, 1916

“Sir, yes Sir”

“Looking forward to it, Sir. I will not let you down, Sir!”

And with that short exchange, a young man walked away with something that nobody could ever take away from him. Pride.

Pride. That reaffirming feeling one gets when they achieve something…something that they really wanted, something they worked hard to attain and something that was of value…to them. On this morning, as his mates were busying themselves with jokes and cheerful conversation and getting ready to board the troop-ship SS Olympic this young soldier was standing before his senior officer and being asked to accept a leadership position on the team. The rank may have been only Lance Corporal, however for a lad barely out of high school it was a sign that his hard work, his attitude and his proficiency was noticed, appreciated and valued. As the 116th Battalion was to be in England in less than a week, the officers commanding men knew it was important to assemble a team and ensure they were ready to turn these men into soldiers as soon as possible.

This newest N.C.O. to serve in the 116th Battalion was Lance Corporal Wilbert Gordon Lunan. He was an 18 yrs old native of Toronto living in Kew Breach and had only just recently left high school. The young man was employed as a silversmith apprentice in the William Rogers & Son Silver Company when the lines began to form around Recruitment Centres across the country. Both Wilbert and his older brother John Conroy Lunan (745683) decided to make the trek up to the recruiting station in Whitby and join the battalion being raised by Lt. Col. Samuel Simpson Sharpe. Less than six months after putting his pen to paper, Lunan was boasting about being able to sew a chevron onto his sleeve to his unit mates.

The voyage from Halifax to Liverpool took seven days. Seven days where the young lad was feted by his mates. Seven days where they also teased him for the last seven last day he got to serve as an ordinary soldier. However, it was also seven days stuck in a hot, cramped, stale hold. Men stacked together where they slept elbow to elbow in bunk beds. Seven days spent eating and sleeping with the same lads, breathing the same air and provided scant few opportunities to go up to the upper decks and get some fresh air. Seven days was long enough for germs and viruses to pass along between the men and enough time for the cheerful banter of men to be replaced by the sound of coughing and hacking.

The SS Olympic pulled into Liverpool on the 31stof July 1916 and the men were immediately transported down to the Canadian Military Camp at Bramshott in Aldershot, Hampshire. This was situated south-west of London. And probably following the voyage to England from Canada where the young upstart began to experience the early stages of pneumonia. It would start with the hacking coughs and the feelings of exhaustion and lack of appetite. However, as time passed his coughs would intensify and lead to sharp stabbing pains in his chest. As he was a healthy young man, one can expect that he tried to shake it off and bully through the pain…however with each day the condition got more and more worse. By the 5th of August, probably through the concern of his mates, he checked himself into the infirmary. By this stage he would have been suffering from a high fever, drenched with bouts of sweat followed by body shaking chills. He would have looked like a ghost of a man.

Lunan was be admitted to Connaugh Military Hospital in Aldershot on the 5th of August. He would never recover. The pneumonia rapidly spread to his other lung and on the 21st of August, Lance Corporal Wilfred George Lunan would succumb to the infliction.

Soldier’s die…some are killed in combat, some die from accidents while training to become a solider, others die from infections they receive after living/trying to survive in the putrid, poisoned mud of Flanders…and some die before they get the chance to even put one foot down onto a battlefield. Wilfred Gordon Lunan, the 18 yr old newest, almost Lance Corporal was one of these men. He was the second soldier from the 116th Battalion to die after they arrived in England from Canada.

Remember him.

Private Arthur James Allen

Private Arthur James Allen

678759

Born 1892 at Poney House in Crewgreen, Wales

Emigrated to Toronto in 1913

Enlisted with the 169th Battalion

Killed in Action at Cite St Pierre, Lens France Aug 31, 1917

It was a calamity of cheerful faces, bursting with love and laughter, gathered together, as they did every day and every night around the family dinner table. They numbered eleven in total. Over time, sometimes there would be more mouths to feed and sometimes one or two or even a few would be away…however when they were all home even for the most benign of days it would early outpace the grandest of feasts most modern-day families enjoy. The noise, the clatter and clamour of cutlery digging into the bounty produced on their own farm…the Allen family farm situated in the ancient rural heartland of Wales…a property named Wigwig. As we revisit those happy days we can see how as the young boys and girls grew and approached adulthood, and one by one, chairs at their family table would start to sit empty. In some cases, it would be because a child was away at school, others due to their new job and in their family’s case several of the children left to start a new life in Canada.

The first chair to sit empty belonged to their youngest…Edmond Wallace Allen. In 1911, at the tender age of 16, he decided to emigrate to Canada, settling in Toronto. It is unclear if he stayed with family or friends of the family, however it is recorded that Edmond found a position working at the Eaton Company. One year later his sister Elsie would follow in his footsteps and joined him in Toronto. She travelled with her ‘special friend’ George Burgess and in 1912, found their own space in the city and married in Toronto one year later. It was in that year, 1913, where the third Allen child, Arthur, joined his siblings in their new adopted country.

In the summer of 1914, as the echoes of “War!” reverberated across the oceans, thousands of miles away, young Edmond heard the call and on September 22nd found himself pen in hand at Valcartier Quebec signing up to be a soldier. His journey as a soldier saw him serve with the Queen’s Own Rifles, 3rd Battalion where after training in Canada and England, by the spring of 1915 he was alongside his countrymen in the trenches of Flanders. The young man was quickly promoted and designated to act as a Lance Corporal within his unit. Edmunds’ older brother Percy Maurice Allen was the second Allen child to join up. Edmund only beat Percy by 6 days. On September 28th, 1914, Percy enlisted with the 7th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Despite being eager to serve, a severe bout of varicose veins kept him out of the overseas units for the first drafts of men to the fields. He was discharged due to this condition in May 1915 but was later called up and served in both Egypt and India in the later stages of the war. The third brother to serve was the eldest of the three…Arthur James Allen. He enlisted in the winter of 1916 with the Toronto-based 169th Battalion and later was transferred to the 116th Ontario County Battalion. Private Arthur Allen was unmarried and joined at the age of 24. He was a handsome, stout young lad and while his intention was to move to Manitoba and take up farming, the war interfered on his plans and saw him in khaki instead of coveralls.

One can surmise that as they completed their training in England and prepared their move to the front that each of the Allen brothers made a trip back to Wigwig Farm. One by one they would have returned to visit their parents and siblings. Visits would carry them to the ancient medieval town of Much Wenlock and they would cathedrals and town squares that would soon commemorate their losses. The empty chairs at the table would be occupied for just one last time. Thus, one by one they rejoined their units and proceeded to join the war.

Of the three serving brothers, Private Percy Maurice Allen was able to safely return home at the end of the war. He served in India and Egypt in the later years of the war. It was during this time that he brought home a story that he once met the formidable English poet Rudyard Kipling. Per his account, the poet and author had visited the hospital looking for his son, John. The details on this story probably need a bit more ironing out as John was killed in the Battle of Loos on Sept 27, 1915…and this happened to occur after Percy was discharged from the BEF and before he was sent to the Egypt and India offices in 1916 ands 1917. He was remiss in expecting some future historian to call him out for his little white lies.

The first black telegram to reach Wigwig Farm was for their eldest son, Private Arthur Allen. He was killed in action on Aug 31st, 1917. On this night, his unit was manning the front-line trenches in the area around Lens, France. This was the site of the great clash called the Battle of Hill 70. During this evening, Arthur, shovel in hand, was helping to dig a new length of trenches near Cite St. Pierre. The Canadians had just won the day on the fight against the Hun in the battle and needed to concentrate the gains. This required them to connect some of the forward trenches back to new Communications trenches and further back still with support line trenches. It was on the night right before their unit was being relieved when Allen and three of his battalion brethren were hit and killed by artillery fire. He is buried in Aix-Noulette Communal Cemetery near Lens.

The second telegram to arrive at Wigwig occurred just after the great push, on Aug 8th, 1918. The youngest of the three Allen soldiers, Lance Corporal Edmund Allen, fell while serving with the 3rd Battalion. He barely survived at Ypres in May of 1916 where a machine gun bullet grazed his forehead. From that incident to the final major battle of the war, Allen was able to make it through the war relatively unscathed. However, as Currie’s boys attacked the Germans en masse at the Battle of Amiens, Allen was hit directly in the forehead. He was killed instantly. He is buried at Wood Cemetery, Marcelcave, France.

Thank you for your service Percy. As for Arthur and Edmond…Remember them.

Lieutenant Charles Vesta Victor Coombs

Lieutenant Charles Vesta Victor Coombs

Born 1879 in Exeter, Devonshire England

Enlisted with the 169th Battalion

Died December 27th, 1919, London, England

Buried in Canadian Military Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey UK

Two years after he laid down his arms, deep into the night on Boxing Day 1919 a colossal battle raged inside him. Lying amongst the sheets he thrashed and churned, grasping and punching and hopelessly trying to fight them back. With screams and bloodcurdling shouts, he attempted to ward off the unseen opponents, yet the enemy continually and relentlessly bore down upon him. He sought to evade their daggers with thrusts and violent spins, ducking every jab levelled upon him in the darkness. He dug his face into his pillow so as to not see them and clasped his hands around his ears to shut them out but the onslaught continued unabated. With increasing ferocity…louder…louder... the screams of terror, of fear and fright, of noises that he only last heard when he was in the trenches all but consumed him. There was no escape from it…for the enemy was inside his own mind.

This man…like so many, many others who served in the trenches of the Western Front and returned home a sick, broken, devastated man fighting for his life. The things these men saw; the inhuman, inhumane, unbelievably shocking and gruesome things they witnessed were imprinted into the back and fronts of their minds. In the daytime, they would seek shelter behind the normalcy they so much wanted and needed. They look to become human again by spending time with their children, or their wives, returning to their jobs and spending time with friends…however it was not the days these men feared. It was the nights.

Today, we refer to the condition where the minds of men are bombarded by the horrendous memories and experiences of war as PTSD…or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At the time it was referred to neurasthenia, PUO (Pyrexia of an Unknown Origin), Trench Fever or Shell Shock. The soldier whose experience were described above was Lieutenant Charles Vesta Victor Coombs of the 116th Ontario County Battalion.

Coombs was born in Exeter, Devonshire England in 1879. While he did not emigrate to Canada until 1913 at the age of 34, he would have been a successful business professional. When he arrived in Canada he worked as an executive in an Advertising firm and Charles and his wife Jesse lived in a grand house in the tidy neighbourhood of Danforth. From their house Charles would look out and down his serene tree-lined street and see only success, peace and prosperity. When he lived in England, he served with the Devonshire Territorials and joined the 109th Regiment, a Toronto-based militia unit, when he arrived in Canada. With the recruitment drive hitting every city and town in Canada in the fall of 1915, on the 17th of January 1916, Coombs decided to enlist with the 169th Battalion. It would not be until later that fall when Charles would bid adieu to his wife and set off with his unit to England via Halifax.

Charles descent as both a man and a soldier began late in the evening of July 22nd, 1917. It was on this night where his Company was positioned along a sector called the Mericourt Maze, outside of the suburb of Avion France. His orders were to lead his platoon over the top and following a bombardment of the German positions, take their front-line trenches which were situated in front of a slag heap called Fosse 4. That was the plan...however an hour before Zero Hour the Germans released a gas attack on the Canadian positions. Having never yet being entrusted to lead an attack combined with limited experience recognizing a gas attack, the men in his platoon grappled with their units and desperately tried to affix their box respirators in time. Struck with fear in the darkness, they stumbled and struggled to maintain composure when an artillery bombardment was set upon their position. Coombs was knocked out by the concussion and left helpless, prone and injured in the gas-soaked trenches. Lieutenant Coombs first time leading men in an attack also turned out to be his last. He was sent back to England to recover…and would never again return to the front.

Following the injuries Coombs received he returned to England and spent almost a year in recovery in hospital. While he was able to recover from exposure to the gas, it took him some time to recover from the accompanying paralysis and significant brain injury that resulted from the concussion of the shellfire. The injuries of the brain tend to do significant damage to the men fighting in the trenches. The challenge is that the shellfire on the Western Front was omnipresent, and every man was a potential victim from its’ effects. The second issue is the fact that brain injuries are hard to diagnose as there is no apparent damage to the skin or body of the solider. Yet if you can look inside their skulls, the damage was devastating. The concussion from the blasts caused a soldier’s brain to violently reverberate back and forth inside their skull deeply bruising the organ. The result was the men experiencing constant pain, headaches and confusion leading to feelings of anxiety, stress, speech disorder and unbearable nightmares. After a year slowly recovering and recognizing that he was in no condition to return to the front, Coombs was transferred to a to a safer, quieter, more relaxed situation. He was sent to the War Records Office before being discharged and sent home in May of 1919.

The details on the challenges he brought home to Canada are unknown, however he did return to England less than two months after arriving…and returned alone. Now, either separated or divorced, his descent continued. Many soldiers suffering from PTSD endured sleepless nights where they would suffer from hallucinations or have visions replay over and over again in their minds. With each sleep, the terrifying memories they experienced in the trenches would return to them. The horrifying sounds of death and destruction would violently wake them from their slumber. Often, the only thing they knew that could keep the monsters at bay was to drown them in the whisky. Thus, night after night, they medicated themselves with drink until they were reduced to a comatic state. While whisky may have provided them with a momentary respite, the nightmares always returned, often with a vengeance and offered the men no true respite from the enfilade.

Late in the evening of Dec 26th 1919, despite his desperate attempts to employ a bevy of whisky beverages to quiet and silence them, the beasts were reawakened in the mind of the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was staying at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. The hotel chambermaid afterwards admitted to serving him 3 whiskies, however this was probably on top of numerous ones he had already consumed before. He had friends from his time serving in the war and they were concerned about their mate. They would call upon him and call again…and on this night they felt that something was amiss and rushed over to the hotel to check in on him. However, when they arrived it would prove that they came too late. They opened the door to his room and saw a man wrestling with the monsters of his mind, “muttering to himself” and “grabbing at imaginary things in the air” above his bed. It was at this time, when in a fit of desperation, Lieutenant Charles Coombs reached beneath the pillow and grabbed his revolver and to the shock of those who had come to save him, he put the gun to his head and silenced the beasts.

Lieutenant Charles Coombs death was ascribed to be self inflicted whilst of unsound mind. He is buried at the Canadian Military Cemetery in Brookwood Surrey, UK. Remember him.

Private James Thomas Rogers

Private James Thomas Rogers

Born Littleborough, Lancashire England in 1886

Lived at 16 Carlisle St. Hamilton, ON

Enlisted with 173rd Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders

Killed in action Aug 27th, 1918 at Bois du Sart

Buried at Vis-En-Artois British Cemetery

Living mere steps from the dark, sooty, acrid smelling steps of the industrial sector of Hamilton, Ontario in 1916 would have been a challenge for any family. It would have been even more so if your household included two 8 and 10 yr old adolescents and a wife who was less than one month away from giving birth to your third child. The draw of duty and expectation was that strong in the time of war. To spend another long torturous day as a labourer in the nearby Westinghouse factory, return home and then see your dear wife, exhausted, struggling through the late stages of her pregnancy, trying her best to keep your family in order. In today’s environment, it would be inexplicitly confounding to try to understand how it could happen…yet it was a different time and era and those fateful words were uttered. James turned to his wife Ethel and simply said ”I am going to enlist tomorrow”.

I am certain that she knew it was inevitable and that he really had no other choice. He had spent three years serving in the local militia regiment, the 91st Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. The pay was almost nothing but it did help in feeding their youngsters. However, the very prospect of her husband and provider leaving her to head overseas and join the worst war in modern history while she stayed home to raise their kids on her own would have been daunting. Yet, it was expected and if viewed from the perspective of the times there would be few complaints nor expectations to the otherwise. Her husband, Private James Thomas Rogers would be going to war. He was going to send back what he could and she would look after their youngsters while he was away. She and her children were going to be okay.

Thus, on the 9th of February 1916, John Thomas signed his name to his attestation form and joined the 173rd Highlander Battalion. Thankfully, he was not immediately deployed as it gave him the chance to spend a few months with their new child. The boy would be named after him, James Rogers. James would grow up in the United States as his mother, Ethel would move the family there after she learned what happened. In time, just like his dad, he would become a solider himself. There is a chance that when he served in the US Army in WW2 that he too was able to try to find where his dad was killed and buried. He did have one memory that he could cherish his entire life. It was a picture of him sitting on the lap of his father, alongside his mom, older sister Nellie and brother Lord (who died too soon at the age of 14). Seeing himself clad in the colours of his battalion and surrounded by the ones he loved so dearly, one would think that a dogeared, well-worn copy of this same photograph would have been found on the body of Private James Rogers when it happened.

James Thomas Rogers was born on March 24, 1886 in Littleborough, England. Littleborough was a small town situated 12 miles north of the industrial megacity of Manchester. At the young ages of 18, James and his hometown sweetheart, Ethel Kershaw by his side would decide to emigrate to Canada. It was here where the pair settled in Hamilton, got married and decided to start a family. Theirs was the story of many soldiers who joined the CEF. An ex-pat from the auld country, responding to the call of their King to return and fight for the freedom they held dear.

Private Rogers and his mates departed from Halifax and arrived in England on the SS Olympic and arrived in Liverpool on the 20thof November 1916. His unit would be transferred to the 116th Battalion in March, just in time for the great Battle of Vimy Ridge. Rogers’ time on the march, in the front lines and support would have encompassed almost all the battles the battalion participated in. He would have scampered over the top in the great raid at Avion in July of 1917 and would have been scratching the earth looking for a safe place to protect himself from the terrible shellfire at Hill 70. And our course, he would have had to make it through the hell of Passchendaele. With each battle, the number of old hands would have dwindled further and further. Rogers, meanwhile, would have watch his pals die one by one or see them get carted off to a waiting ambulance never to be seen again. One by one he would watch the numbers draw down. His turn happened on the 27th of August 1918 when the battalion was asked to participate in an attack on a series of German strongholds east of Arras. Rogers was killed in action in the Battle of Arras in a place called Bois du Sart. The details regarding his passing are not listed however, the battalion history records that a large number of men were killed by machine gun fire while trying to take the position. The attack was initiated with very little preparation and very little artillery bombardment. The war had transitioned to one of movement…and when he moved forward across the field of battle, he would be stopped and his war could come to an end.

Remember him.

Lieutenant Russell Wright Soper

Lieutenant Russell Wright Soper

Born, Whitby ON 1889

Formerly served with 27th Lambton Regiment from Sarnia

Enlisted with 116th Battalion

Killed in Action – April 2, 1918, Vimy Sector

Dear sis…

The heartbreaking letter had to be written.  It was a brother writing to his sister informing her the saddest news that her husband had been killed in action.  The letter may be lost to time, passed from Alma to her son, Ernest and from him onto a child, cousin, dusty archive somewhere?  It may have spent the past 100 years being shuffled between stacks of family papers, lost, forgotten, found, passed along then forgotten again.  One never knows the current whereabouts or even if it even exists to this day.  However, what is certain is that the letter was written and it changed the life of so many. 

The brother-in-law knew it happened as he was there when it happened.  The battalion diary entry praised the efforts of the teams who participated.  The nature of his death was not mentioned. The only thing noted is that the success of the evening’s raid was marred by the loss of two officers, Lieutenant John Alexander Gibson and Whitby/Sarnia native Lieutenant Russell Wright Soper.  Their casualties were described with the simple words…Killed in Action.  However, more complete understanding of the circumstances surrounding their loss was provided courtesy of the family history. 

This is the story of Lieutenant Russell Wright Soper.  Soper was born in Whitby, ON in 1889 and grew up and gained his education in the Port Perry area.  Following his graduation from high school, he took stab at teaching for a couple years but decided to proceed with higher education.  In 1909, Soper was accepted into the University of Toronto and studied Architecture.  It was during this time where, as he self-described in the university yearbook that a career in Architecture was definitely “…the thing that I was born to do”. 

Following his graduation, Soper moved to Sarnia, a city situated at the confluence of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River and set up an architecture design business in the city centre.  Sarnia is a border city of approximately 10,000 (at the time) and was experiencing a significant amount of growth.  This was a perfect time for a professional architect, like Soper, to set up shop and help to design the myriad of industrial buildings that were being built in the area.  In time, Sarnia would grow to become a hub of industry and manufacturing with several oil refineries locating in the area.  (recall the back of the old $10 bill).  While Soper looked to expand his business and the war raging overseas he joined the regional militia, the 27th Lambton Regiment aka The St. Clair Borderers. 

Akin to the leadership he showed in business, Soper quickly raised in the ranks of the 27th Regiment and earned his commission as a Lieutenant followed up by a Captain in the Spring of 1916.  As a Captain in the 27th, he would have served under both Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Robert George Campbell Kelly and Lieutenant Colonel Lt Colonel William Wallae McVicar.  Both men were the commanding officers of the 149th Battalion, a Battalion raised in Sarnia and consisted of local Lambton County boys.  These men would have lobbied Soper to join them and help to lead the 149th Battalion as they readied themselves to join the war effort.  However, despite rising to command a Company of the 27th, Soper elected to travel to Camp Niagara and sign up with the 116th Ontario County Battalion. 

The reasons behind his decision to join the 116th are not entirely clear, however one would not be far off if he guessed that it had something to do with his marriage to Uxbridge native Alma Nutting.  The pair got married on May 24th, 1916 in Uxbridge.  Alma’s brother Earnest Hartley Nutting was already a solider in the battalion and had enlisted a few months earlier in February.  With the battalion departing from Canada to England in July, one additional part of the story would remain to be written as the boys waved goodbye as the battalion left town one final time.  Unbeknownst to her, but as she bid adieu to her just-married husband, Alma would carry Russell’s first and only son.

 The night when it happened.  April 1st, 1918.  One week earlier…the big offensive happened. 

On March 21st, over 1 million shells rained down upon the British sector of the front, from Vimy south to La Fere, just over 100 kms of front line was bombarded by the Germans.  The Germans had bolstered their ranks with the addition of over 1 million men who were formerly serving on the Eastern Front in Russia.  With the weight of fresh troops, the German Army quickly overran the British divisions holding the line.  On the first day along, 7500 British soldiers were killed in Operation Michael. The 116th was moved into position on the furthest north flank to the German action.  And it was on the 1st of April where Lieutenant Colonel George Pearkes, commanding officer of the 116th was asked to conduct a raid on the German position opposite and seek to find out who the soldiers were and what unit they were serving with. Understanding whom was opposite in a battle was essential as their quality and composition would signal to the general staff if and when further attacks may be planned.  It was the job of the 116th to seek out that information. 

At 10 pm on the evening of the 1st of April, 4 separate groups set out under the cover of darkness and in strict requirements to maintain silence for all those involved.  The objective was to sneak over across no man’s land, locate and snatch a few unsuspecting Germans, and hustle them back to the allied trenches.  The battalion diary records that the raid was successful with two men captured, killing 5 Germans in the process.  Missing from the story was why the battalion lost two of the men leading the men over the top. How did they die?  Why were they lost when so many others made it back to the lines safely?

The story has only snippets of details revealing hints as to how and why they died.  Apparently, when their fellow raiders successfully nabbed a couple Germans they shot flared into the heavens to signal the men to return to the Canadian front line trenches.  However, Soper and Gibson would have known that the German units opposite to them would have responded to the gunfire that took place during the raid.  With the enemy quickly approaching, Soper’s men, including brother-in-law Private Earnest Nutting, tried to block the approaching Germans from trying to recover their lost men by filling up the Communication trench.  With the men shovelling away with a fury, the two Lieutenant’s leading the patrol, Soper and Gibson, would have been at the front, revolvers at the ready and blasting away at the approaching shadows.  On that evening, only two men did not return to the Canadian lines… Lieutenant John Alexander Gibson and Lieutenant Russell Wright Soper.  As so many of the stories of the dead are lost on the field of battle, the exact circumstances pertaining to their deaths will never be proved.  The best we can do is remember and pass along the message that was once etched by Nutting in his letter to his sister…that Soper died bravely trying to do his duty. 

Remember him.   

Lieutenant Charles Russell Hillis

Lieutenant Charles Russell Hillis

Originally commissioned with 120th Hamilton Battalion

Born 1886 in Watford ON

Died of Wounds incurred at Lens on Feb 25, 1918

Buried at Longuenesse Souvenir Cemetery, St. Omer

13 is a magical age. It is a time where a young person is finally given a bit of freedom…a time where parent’s trust intersects with them getting tired of spending time to having to look out for you. 13 is also the age when you begin to look out for yourself. It is a time of exploration and education. Fewer boundaries where discoveries are made on foot powered by the combined forces of boredom, adventure and maybe a dog at your side. Now, picture yourself being that age and it is the year 1900 and you decide to meander along the old dirt road that led into town.

You happen to be an inquisitive young lad and your folks made their homestead just outside the farming town of Watford. The town was situated in south-western Ontario and was nestled between Sarnia, located on the border of Canada and the United States where Lake Huron drained into the St. Clair River, and the regional hub city of London. During your wander through town, you hear some strange noises coming from a nearby building. Due to your aforementioned inquisitiveness, you decide to check it out. And what you would discover would be something that is both remarkable and magical. And with those 10 to 15 minutes spent, mouth agape, watching this ‘thing’ is the exact circumstance that inspires a young person take a path that may be different from the one they originally thought they were destined for. The amazing discovery that you stumbled upon was the Maxmobile…one of the first cars ever invented in Canada and made in the sleepy town of Watford Ontario in the year 1900. It would have been one of the first horseless wagons to be seen on the roadways of our country and a few minutes watching this machine bark, sputter then move by itself would have been a changing force in a man’s life. Amazing.

The boy in question, was Charles Russell Hillis. While we do not know if that exact situation took place, however we do know that he lived in Watford at the time and as he grew older he let his own ambition drive him. Within a few years Russell was studying Engineering at the University of Toronto. After graduation, he got married and moved to Hamilton and joined one of the largest corporations in the world at the time, the Canadian Westinghouse Company out of Hamilton. Westinghouse was known as the company that alongside the collaboration of Nicola Tesla, introduced AC (Alternate Current) electrical services into our lives and Westinghouse created electrical products based on that standard. If your cell phone is about to die and it is plugged into the wall, you can thank the folks at Westinghouse and Tesla himself for your fresh charge. Aside from progressive position at the corporation where he worked in mechanical and electrical engineering, it was noted that he was also a member of the Lodge of Strict Observance, a freemason lodge. Belonging to Freemasonry in this era was very common among men and helps us understand a bit more about him as masons tended to be focused, ambitious and community-minded individuals.

When recruitment started to ramp up in the Fall and Winter of 1915, a significant number of men from Westinghouse decided to join up. Hillis, on the backs of his previous experience with the 13th Royal Regiment joined the 120thHamilton Battalion in Feb of 1916. While Hillis arrived in England in August of 1916, he did not join the men at the front until he was transferred to the 116tha year later in early August of 1917. This coincided with the battalion joining the fray during the Battle of Hill 70. Thankfully he was able to survive this baptism of fire and made it through the Battle of Passchendaele in late October/early November.

After a lengthy rest and some relatively quiet spots holding the front line in the winter of 1918, the 116th was ordered back into the line at Lens late February. Lieutenant Hillis was sent in an advance party to reconnoitre the trenches the battalion would soon be ordered to hold. It was on the 23rd of February where he was wounded by shellfire. The casualty record describes it as such…

“Died of Wounds, He had been selected to go forward from the Support Line to a portion of the front line which his company had been detailed to take over on observation duties. Whilst proceeding on the morning of February 23, 1918 he was severely wounded in the head and body by an enemy shell that exploded near him that he died at No 7 General Hospital near St. Omer, two days later”

Lieutenant Charles Russell Hillis was buried at Longuenesse Souvenir Cemetery in St Omer, France. 45 men who worked alongside him at the Canada Westinghouse Corporation in Hamilton gave their lives for their country and did not return to their positions at the plant. Hillis and his workmates are commemorated by the company on a memorial plaque. Remember them.

Lance Corporal William Russell Middleton

Lance Corporal William Russell Middleton

644073

Born in 1891 in Coldwater, ON

Enlisted with the 157th Simcoe Forresters

Distinguished Conduct Medal

Killed in action – Sept 29, 1918, Battle of Canal du Nord

Sleep was a luxury. Captured in snippets…momentary increments. A few chance minutes of kip here and there spent in the back of a lorry, men crammed shoulder to shoulder. It would have been quiet…not the excited chatter that was volleyed about in advance of earlier operations. By this time in the war, the men in the truck would have been virtual strangers to one another, tossed together in advance of a planned operation. For those old hands, like William Russell Middleton, they knew what was going to happen next…they had seen, felt, smelled war firsthand. The new recruits who just only arrived would have only heard about it…rumours validated by the look in the eyes of those who survived. These men were headed from rear areas to what appeared to be Amiens. It was dark and details were scarce. Being late summer, the days were still hot and dry. The men hid amongst the trees and forests in the daytime, away from the eyes of German airmen searching for any hints of movement that would call to a pending attack. These conditions necessitated that movement was only allowed at night, thereby ensuring the clouds of dust raised by the hundreds of trucks moving men and material closer to the front line would not be seen by the enemy. Division by division, brigade by brigade and battalion by battalion, tens of thousands of men from Currie’s CEF moved into position.

It was just past midnight on August 8th, 1918.

Darkness. Complete silence.

It was planned long in advance. A moonless night. The perfect time to launch a monumental assault on the Germans lines. Private Middleton, accompanied by a small party was one of the first teams to be dropped off into position. They were on the left most flank of the target zone assigned to the 116th Battalion. Opposite them was Dormart Wood. A forested area protected by an array of German machine gun nests. The remainder of the battalion was to be spread out across to eastern approached to the village of Hourges. Their objective…Hamon Wood. As the minutes ticked by, every effort was made to remain completely silent. One misstep might alert those enemy manning the many machine guns over on German front line, resulting in the certain death of many. Together they waited. Zero hours was 4:20am.

The number of men assigned to this particular sector was fairly limited…one platoon, 40 souls. Yet the 27 yr old man, whom two years prior was peacefully tending to his crops on the family farm in the tiny rural town of Coldwater Ontario, was now checking and rechecking his gear, steadying himself and preparing to participate in the greatest attack the Canadians had been engaged in thus far. Measuring this transition, from farmer to warrior, is quite spectacular to contemplate and furthermore, to appreciate what he was able to accomplish in the new few hours was even more so.

As the second hand struck the assigned time, the guns placed up and down the entire front erupted. The platoon’s orders were to remove the threat of the Germans holding the rear and left-hand flank of the position in front of Domart Wood. The record is not complete nor entirely clear, however his Distinguished Conduct Medal indicates that this farmer-come-soldier started out by single-handedly taking three machine gun posts out of action. In response a forth German manning a heavy calibre machine gun started to hold down the oncoming Canadians. Then, as if it was just out of a movie, Middleton rushed into the fray. Unphased, the adrenaline-fueled man, started to blast away with his gun at his hip towards the gunner. In the end, his brave, crazed scramble across the field of battle ended up one gun position and with seven sets of hands being raised in the air. Once can only imagine what fear will do to a man…as it would be certain that he did not conduct this brave assault powered by trained instinct alone.

The 116th Battalion lost 44 men killed and many more wounded from the actions taken by the unit that day. Most of the men who did die that day were killed by machine gun bullets as the unit advanced from Hourges towards Hamon Wood. How many more would have died if Middleton did not take out those machine guns can only be speculated…however it is certain that many of the men who were able to take the objective would be left as casualties on the field without the bravery demonstrated by William that day.

Approximately three weeks later, the 116th, along with the remainder of the 9th Brigade and the 3rdDivision, was moved to the sector just east of Arras. On the 27th of August, they participated in the Second Battle of Arras where the unit cleared out the Germans protecting the village of Boiry-Notre Dame. Middleton was promoted to Lance Corporal after this operation. During this phase in the war, the Allies executed new attacks against the entrenched Germans every day up and down the Hindenburg Line. From Boiry they moved to Bourlon Wood then onto Canal du Nord. This manmade canal needed to be taken to proceed onto the strategically important city of Cambrai. It was during the advance onto German positions at Ste Olle, a village situated on the western approach to town, when another series of machine guns went into action. This time, not bravery, bravado nor heroics would save his day. William Middleton, along with 131 other men from the battalion would fall in combat. He was one of the first to fall and is buried at Crest Cemetery, a small area of land that sits then as it does now, amidst the fields of local farmers…a perfect resting spot for the farmer from Coldwater, Ontario.