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.