Private Douglas Bernard Carr
228161
Enlisted in the 201st Battalion, served in 169th and 116th Battalion
Born Bala, ON
Died Bala, ON - June 22, 1957
How would you respond to the question if you were him?
“Yes, it was a heck of a scrap…but I made it home and it wasn’t all bad.”
“Yes, but it was an accident. It is ok…a have another one in perfectly working order on the other side”
“One day my son…I will tell you all about it.”
Chances are high that the third response was never uttered. For when the sounds of the guns grew quiet and the wounds were bandaged up and left to mend and the boys returned home, the horrors of the war were left behind. Only scars remained etched on the bodies, minds and souls of the men as they took their place back in society.
As the ships made their return journey, the transition amongst the men began. Most returned to their former communities and homes. They went back to their families with many reacquainting themselves with the sweethearts they left behind. Normalcy slowly returned. Thoughts of the past would be crowded out by new priorities, of wives, children and careers. Over the years, the boys of the 116th and their CEF brethren would come to gather, recollect and reminisce. The Royal Canadian Legion was founded in 1925 to give these men a place and setting where they could collectively heal. It was also a spot where over a beer and a smoke, friends would chat among friends. It was part of the healing process. Convention relates that these settings were places of laughter, comfort and safety where the men could revisit the fun and good times that so often represented their time in the trenches. Memories of pranks and pitfalls. Glorious times spent on leave or just the lads being lads at rest and at play. They would repeat the rollicking accounts of the times in reserve when their platoon scored a brilliant goal in the dying seconds of a football game or another where a mate knocked the ball out of the park in the Brigade baseball tournament. These were the times, the experience and memories that the men strived hard to remember.
One of these events that was most likely to be recited over pints for years after the war occurred late in the summer of 1917. It was the Brigade Rifle Competition that took place on Aug 9th. Platoons from such notable battalions like the RCRs, the Princess Pats, the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment or fellow 9th Brigade battalions like the 58th, 43rd and 52nd competed for the prize of Best Individual and Team in Marksmanship…and it was for the chance to represent the 3rd Division in the Corps Competition. One of the men who took the prize as top sniper was a 19 yr old student from Bala, ON in Muskoka. His name was Douglas Bernard Carr.
Obviously, the details behind his victory are only left as distant echo’s resonating from within the Bala Royal Canadian Legion Hall. However, one can imagine the cheering, the hooting and hollering as the young 5 ft 7 northerner calmly and from progressively further distances scored direct hits on the targets. The 116th were the newbies in the Corps…the youngest battalion to join the fight. The old hands who came to watch the competition would surely ask “Didn’t these lads just have their baptism a couple weeks ago?” It was during the raid on Avion on July 23rd, a mere 16 days ago, where the brass decided to toss them into the fray to see how well they would perform? They called it being ”bloodied”? And now, in the main competition for the best overall individual and overall team performance in Marksmanship, the 116th Battalion and their top shooter Private Douglas Carr were at the forefront taking the top prize!
As the years went on and the men reunited with their mates from the battalion, they would certainly raise a glass in the honour of their ‘one-eyed’ sharpshooter! One-eyed? Huh? Wha? How could that be? Stories would have been made up to account for both the victory and the lost eye. However, it was probable that the ‘real story’ did not make it to a round of cheers…despite it being as or more worthy than winning the contest. The tragedy of the real story was probably left where it should be… buried alongside their fallen brethren in France and Belgium. One-eyed Doug Carr didn’t win the shooting competition with only one eye. He made it through Hill 70, Passchendaele, the Spring Offensive, Amiens and Boiry-Notre Dame with both of them. It was only at Artillery Hill on the 28th of August where he was made a casualty of the war after his position was hit by gas. While certainly being irritated from the noxious substance, he made it all the way to November 11th with both eyeballs. Yet…as the years progressed and he supped from his pint glass and drew a puff from his smoke with his mates, he did so through only one eye. The question…whether it be by friends, family and most certainly inquisitive youngsters, asked would probably include…”Mr. Carr, how did you lose your eye in the war?”
Private Carr’s real story is as or more tragic and heroic than one could imagine. It was on the 15th of December, barely a month after the war ended where Doug and his friend Fred Smith were waiting for a bus in the town of Valenciennes. The pair were hanging out on the corner in front of the bus station and enjoying the relaxed freedom that comes with peace and victory. It was at this time, where Doug heard a sound behind him. It was the carefree joyous laughter of youth. Instinctively, he turned to see a little French boy playing with what appeared to be a Mills 45 bomb in his hands. A Mills 45 is what is now more commonly known as a grenade. Without thought or fear, Doug heroically rushed over to try to get the bomb from the boy hands when suddenly it exploded. He was seriously injured in the explosion losing his left eye from shards from the blast. The available records do not detail the fate of the young lad…however one can at best presume the worst.
Private Douglas Bernard Carr, returned to Canada, married Pansy Colborne and together they raised a family in Ohio. It was certain that the wounds Doug carried back home could never heal. One must imagine the shock from that blast…the blurred image of an injured child forever imprinted in his mind. Add the horrors that he experiences in the trenches, in the final 100 Days…a virtual bloodbath for the 116th battalion. Lost pals. Voices who would never respond to the final roll call. Add all those scenes and have them compete in his dreams against the time he beat the rest of the Canadian Corps in a sniping rifle competition. It didn’t have a chance. Yet…this is the exact reason why the men sought to remember the good….to never speak of the horrors then endured. With the passage of time….one can only hope that the Legion Hall in Bala forever echoed with the good stories…like the one constantly recounted and repeated…with joy and laughter… about how the time in 1917 when their ‘one-eyed’ local lad and Legion member won the prize as Top Sniper in the Canadian Corps Rifle Competition.
Doug died in Bala on June 22, 1957 and is buried at Burgess Cemetery.