Private Lloyd Clair Park
678203
Born - Smith Falls, ON
Killed in Action – Battle of Passchendale; Oct 27, 1917
They called it being ‘in reserve’. A safer place to be when you are facing the murderous abyss of a Great War battle? But the location of their reserve assignment was the exact same section in the sea of mud that the front-line soldiers were occupying. While the front lines lads had to ‘stand to’ thigh deep in the mess, the men of the 116th were tasked with hauling supplies up to them. That was the job of the men in reserve. Also, the front-line soldiers, in this case at Passchendale Ridge in the autumn of 1917, were the men from the 43rd and 58th Battalions. They were ordered to navigate the putrid, viscous hellscape and knock the other guys off the slight rise in the distance. But how? This battlefield was different from all others. It was composed of a virtual ocean of deep, life-sucking mud where the only way to move forward, backwards or in any direction was to walk on some wooden planks…in direct view of the enemy…and in range of their guns. The job of Private Lloyd Clair Park and his 116th Battalion mates was to haul up those planks.
The wooden devices as described were called duckboards. They were 8-10 foot lengths of wooden planks nailed together in such a fashion that they looked like a ladder. The duckboards were laid end-to-end atop of the mud. Without these devices, movement was impossible. More importantly, if a man happened to slip off one of these contraptions or dive off one of them into the mud to seek refuge from incoming artillery, escape was often futile. The men would simply and slowly disappear into the mud. Gone.
In the fall of 1917, the Canadians and Australians were given the task of taking this important ridge. The attack went off on Oct 24th and for the first three days…and nights, it was the job of the 116th to carry duckboards up to the front. Once installed, they then needed to be used for something to walk on while they carried ammunition and supplies to the men executing the attack. Meanwhile, at the end of this makeshift duckboard highway two armies mashed each other with constant shellfire until the terrain became the consistency of porridge. By the evening of the 26th, the 58th had lost 6 officers and 57 soldiers. Another 27 were declared ‘missing’…formal for ‘consumed by the earth’. The 43rd had an equally horrific three days. 36 men were killed and the bodies of another 66 could not be found. They also lost 3 officers. In total 162 souls were lost by these two battalions.
In the early morning hours of the 27th of October, after continuously hauling ammunition, supplies, duckboards and his ass back and forth for three days Private Lloyd Park joined his battalion-mates in relieving the decimated battalions. Park was only 21 years old. He was originally from Smith Falls, a small town situated south-west of Ottawa. His family decided to move to Toronto whereby Lloyd elected to pursue higher education following his graduation from high school. However, like many of his friends his education was cut short by the war. In early 1916 he enlisted with the 169th Battalion. After completing his basic training on Oct 26th he climbed aboard the SS Corsican and set off for England. Park was later transferred to the 3rd Labour Battalion before joining the 116th on Aug 22nd, 1917.
Park’s first days with the 116th saw him participate in the attack on Hill 70 at Lens. After he survived this baptism of fire, the unit proceeded onto Passchendale. It was here where the young fresh-faced Torontonian’s time serving in His Majesty’s Canadian Expeditionary Force would come to an end. After days slogging in the mud, back and forth, soaked, chilled to the bone and utterly and completely exhausted on the 27th of October he joined his battalion as they relieved the 43rd and 58th battalions. The last record of him details that he assumed sentry duty as the men assumed the trenches. That was the last of him. The last of Lloyd Park. He was hit by incoming shellfire. Nothing was left. Nothing save the memories of family and friends back home and a few letters denoting his name that were carved into a wall at a place called Menin Gate.
RIP Private Lloyd Clair Park
Lest we forget.