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.
