Corporal Leonard Frank Brittan
678537
Originally with 169th Battalion
Born Burton-on-Trent, England
Lived in Hamilton, ON
Died of Wounds – Sept 30, 1918
Buried at Duisans British Cemetery, Utrun France
It was a brutal desperate dash to try and save the life of a man.
“Stretcher bearer!!!” The team standing in wait near the jumping-off line immediately responded, bounding forward from their positions in search of the injured soldier. Undaunted and undeterred from the inherent risks they ventured forth, hoping that the armbands signifying themselves as Stretcher Bearers would be seen and respected by the German machine-gunners and sniper positioned out there. Finally, when they located him the men recognized immediately that his chances of survival would be slim. They had seen this situation far too many times. It had come to be that shells did as shells do and tore his stomach and back to shreds. Yet, with care and compassion they picked up the wounded Corporal and swiftly navigated him back through the concourse of trenches in hope of giving him a chance.
The man was moved with rapidity to a waiting ambulance where a vehicle was being filled with other seriously injured men waiting to be sported away for urgent care. The closest care centre from Ste Olle was the Number 4 Casualty Clearing Station…located 41 kilometers away in Agnes-les-Duisans. This meant hours and hours of time required to transport men who were suffering from machine gun bullets wounds, mangled limbs and devastating shell fire injuries. The trip would have been a tortuous one where every kilometer that was passed, every pothole that was hit would result in another tormented array of pain unleashed throughout his battered body. His only respite from the agony was from the occasional sympathetic dose of morphine administered into him by the medical attendant or the chanced opportunities where he passed out and transitioned into an unconscious state. However, the grace that each instance of unconsciousness provided would only be eliminated when the pain consuming his body was reawaken in a fury each time the transport smashed into another pothole.
The 29th of September was a most horrible day for the 116th Battalion. 260 men on that day were lost, killed or wounded. Corporal Leonard Henry Brittan was counted amongst the tally of loss for the day. He was a 27 yr old recent immigrant from England who lived and worked as a sprinkler fitter in the city of Hamilton. Originally hailing from a market town situated in the centre of Derbyshire named Burton on Trent, at the age of 23 he joined his parents and decided to move to Canada. It was here were he hoped to use his education as an electrician, find a new opportunity for himself and settle down within Canada. However, as the war disrupted the lives of pretty much everyone, it disrupted Leonard’s plans for a new life.
On February 16th, 1916, Brittan enlisted with the Toronto-based 169th Battalion. He trained with the battalion at Camp Niagara and on the 5th of November disembarked on the SS Corsican for Liverpool. Like so many of the regional battalions raised across Canada, Brittan’s company was absorbed into the 116th on the eve of 1917. It was in his new unit where Brittan would miraculously survive the next 17 months of continuous combat before finding himself being called to attend an officer on the eve of the units’ most tragic of battles. Later that day, Private Brittan became a Corporal.
Since the Battle of Amiens on August 8th, 1918, the 116th lost a colossal 575 soldiers from their ranks. This number represented over 60% of their fighting strength. As the unit progressed from battle to battle, from Vimy to Fosse 4 to Hill 70 and then to Passchendale the number of men from the 116th who first stepped down together on French soil grew smaller and smaller. The men who remained were referred to as ‘old hands’. These were the men who knew war. They knew when to duck and when to stand unconcerned of their personal safety as the angry echos of war exploded around them. And with the loss of so many officers, the ranks of leaders needed to be replenished. Thus, on the eve of their next ordered attack Leonard was asked to assume a leadership role. As a Corporal, his job would be to lead a platoon of 8-10 men in the execution of one portion of an attack. Tragically, this promotion would last one solitary day for on the 29th of September as the battalion looked to dislodge the array of German machine gunners protecting the western approach to the village of Ste Olle Corporal Brittan was grievously wounded by shellfire.
The remainder of the account of Corporal Brittan’s final day would be lost with his passing and the passing of those who he served with. He would succumb to his wounds upon reaching the Casualty Clearing Station in Duisans. His death was recorded as occurring on the 30th of September 1918. Also lost to our collective memory on that fateful day was the story that accompanied the awarding of Military Medal to the new NCO. To win a Military Medal, one must have been a non-commissioned officer, warrant officer or non-commissioned individual who demonstrated acts of bravery in the field. For a man, an ordinary lad, an electrician come sprinkler installer, to transition to a warrior then leader of men and in his first act as an officer demonstrate such bravery to be formally recognized by the Officer Commanding the Battalion is a wonderful, amazing and material thing.
Remember him or lest we forget.