Private James Patrick McGrath
3030969
Born: Brantford, ON
Lived at 240 Western Ave, Chicago Il USA
Died of wounds as a Prisoner of War – Oct 9, 1918
Buried at Mons Communal Cemetery
They lost almost 100 men two day’s prior. 95 to be exact. Another 200 or so were wounded in the attacking operation. It was the most brutal, bloodiest day the battalion had experienced since arriving in France. And that was including participating in the battles at Vimy, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. The men had yet to take the lead in a major attack…rather they were taking the more comfortable spot of following just behind those who were leading the main events. Everything changed on the 8th of August. It was at Amiens, the first day of the 100 Day Campaign (or Canada’s 100 Days for those who bleed red) when the men of the 116th were asked to assume a new role in the battle order. It wasn’t just them. It was all the battalions serving in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Divisions. Under the brilliant leadership of Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie, the CEF became the glistening point on the sharp end of the Allied spear targeted at the heart of the Reich and the 116th relished their newfound responsibility.
With the setting of the sun on the 29th of September, the 116th had just saw the battalion get virtually decimated. In only one day they lost approximately 30% of their fighting strength. About 10% of the men secured the highest honour a soldier could give to his country. Like a punch-drunk prizefighter, they needed to take the stool before returning to the ring. The 30th was spent scrambling about in the rear-guard collecting men from the Pioneering, Engineering or Supply battalions in the desperate search for replacements. The men also needed some time to rest and recharge before they moved onto the next objective. On the morning of Oct 1st, one of these men, a gent who was still caked in the blood of his comrades and coated in the sweat of battle, 38 year old Brantford-born Private James Patrick McGrath brushed himself off and went back into battle.
Private James McGrath was not an ordinary Canadian recruit. Mostly because, while he was a Canuck, he was an ex-pat Canuck, now calling America his home. He was a father to a daughter named Marjorie and lived with his brother in Chicago, Illinois. The family had emigrated to the United States and were living in one of the largest and most exciting cities on the continent. Despite his obvious parental responsibilities, like many other men at the time he felt the need and duty to enlist. Why should other men suffer and die for his and his daughter’s freedom? In our contemporary society, this burden tends to fall solely on the young …yet in 1917 people thought and acted quite differently. Thus, it was no surprise when on November 7th, 1917, James left his kid in the care of his brother and found himself in an entirely different country, queuing up to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Huh? Why? For an ex-pat ready and wanting to join the fray, the simple answer is that he was not willing to wait. US President, Woodrow Wilson may have declared that the US Army was going to make ‘the world safe for democracy’, it took him a boatload of time to get boat loads of men over to France to start making that commitment so. Many Americans, including those with dual citizenship knew they had an alternative to having to wait until his country got its’ ssit together. The answer was but a short train ride away. Ex-pat Canadians (and many, many Americans) merely hopped across the border and signed up in a recruitment office in Windsor, Montreal or Toronto. By choosing this pathway, it could take only a short few months before they found themselves disembarking a troop ship at Liverpool. As for James, he joined on the 7th of November, was placed with the 8th Reserve Battalion for training and later transferred to the 116th as a replacement on Aug 30th, 1918.
With almost no training nor the time needed to acclimatize themselves to this brutish form of warfare, by stage of the war while the Canadians and their allies were driving deep into German-held territory, Private McGrath was being quickly shovelled right into the fire. While he was treated like more fuel for the fire, the 116th did need reinforcements. They had lost well over 1/3 of their fighting strength since the Battle of Amiens on the 8th of August. And thus, like a fumbling child learning how to walk in the middle of a race he was asked to quickly learn how to fight under fire, do so with a little luck and while not getting himself killed in the process. On the 29th of September, McGrath was able to make it through the most devastating day the battalion had ever faced. McGrath would not have known the difference…for him, every day was a constant, never-ending hell. With one day to breathe, on the 1st of October the battle continued for the new soldier.
The night prior gave the men no respite from the unfortunate circumstances of fighting in the open, in the mud and with only a ground sheet to protect them from the elements. The sky poured down upon the men all night long. Thus, after having to struggle to desperately execute their orders, making it through just one more day, they had to do so within a deluge. Nudges signalled that their few hour nap was over and that fighting was about to begin once anew. The time was 4:00 am. Details regarding Private James McGrath’s day are not known. The battalion diary details how they incurred heavy casualties while attempting to cross the Cambrai-Douai Road and later experienced a great deal of chaos and confusion and additional losses at Ramilies. The sad tally amounted to 140 men killed, wounded or missing for the day. It was somewhere along this day of frantic fighting where McGrath was himself wounded and counted himself amongst those categorized as missing. A result of the rapid movements of the troops and the decisions to move forward or retreat, the wounded man was left out on the battlefield amongst the dead. Thankfully, a German soldier (or soldiers) picked up the McGrath and brought him back for medical care. The specific nature of his injuries are not known, however we do know that nine days later the Red Cross Society notified officials at the CEF that Canadian solider, Private James McGrath had died as a Prisoner of War while being cared for at the Lazarett Military Hospital at Mons. He was 38 years old.
Remember him.