an invaluable discovery - diary of Major Trotter
Dig out that that old trunk hid away up in your attic and wipe off the dust, there just might be some treasure hiding inside.
This is exactly what happened to Colin Trotter, the grandson of one of Canada’s long-lost Great War hero’s, Vimy architect and Distinguished Service Order Medal recipients. In October 2019, he found it. Colin rediscovered a document he feared was lost for good. Nestled in an old folder, at the bottom of a trunk was the unpublished diary of his grandfather, Major Clifford Thackwell Trotter DSO.
At 12 pages, foolscap, doubled-sided and single spaced, Major Trotter’s meticulously recorded the details, events and personal perspective from the time he served as a Major, leading Canadian Engineering battalions on the Western Front in France.
When Colin found his grandfather’s memoir, not only did he find an important piece of family history, he also discovered a document that is historically important for both Canada and for those who study Canada’s involvement in the war, specifically the seminal Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Major Clifford Trotter’s memoir, written in chronological form with dates added in the margins to each paragraph or event, starts on August 14th with the outbreak of war. As soon as Canada joined the conflict, Clifford left his role as the CIO and Electrical engineer for a firm based in New Glasgow, NS. It covers his order to barracks on Nov 5th to act as a Captain “assisting in the mobilization of the 2nd Divisional Engineers”. He was sent overseas on April 18th, 1915 now acting as second in command of the 4th Field Company. Upon arrival in England, Major Clifford was responsible for leading men to build soldier barracks at Shorncliffe in Kent to house the deluge of men arriving from Canada.
The memoir not only provides important details on the responsibilities of a Major for an Engineering Battalion, but give readers, future historians and his descendants an insight into his own perspective of the war and his role in it.
Clifford was keen to record those events that he found rather comical and ensured that he was able to showcase his typical Canadian sense of humour. On June 8th, 1915 he told of an incident where he was tossed from a horse when it was startled by a passing train. He described the incident as follows:
“I stayed with her until she stumbled then I described a neat parabola and landed hands and knees on a beautiful macadam road. I spoiled more than a good uniform and left considerable cuticle from my hands and knees to replace the dust I carried away with me. “
Like many soldiers heading into war, Clifford married his sweetheart just before he departed for the front. On Sept 14th, supported by friend and Major George A. Inksetter and his best man Lieutenant A. W. McKnight he married Miss Jean Sutherland. Two days later, with his honeymoon on hold, he arrived in France at Le Havre where he directly proceeded to St. Omer. He recalled describing his lodgings with “a French farm floor is about the hardest thing in floors that a person can lie on. They are tile and I don’t believe they soften with kind treatment.”
Clifford’s memoir follows his initial deployment where he set up his men with food and lodgings. Not long thereafter, he received his introduction to the trenches near St. Eloi, just south of Ypres . As an engineering officer, Major Trotter was responsible for training Canadian soldiers and preparing them for their introduction to trench warfare. His duty was to have his men build mock trenches and trench systems for the men to train in. However, upon arrival in the real ones he remarked “I remember how contemporaneously we looked upon it (Communications Trench) for it was not in the same class as the practice trenches we dug in England. However, it protected us alright and after quite a long walk we arrived at the front line although none of us would have known that it was a fighting trench if we had not been told. It was a mighty poor affair in our estimation and we then and there determined that before long it would be thoroughly overhauled and made into a “real” trench. It was a real quiet day up the line and much to our disappointment we didn’t see a single dead man lying around.” Suitable words and perspective for a man whose responsibility was to improve the trench systems the men would need to both live in and attack from.
Major Trotter served with his men in the trenches up until Jan of 1916 where he was given leave to France. On Feb 18th, 1916 he was reassigned to be the 2nd in command of the 7th Field Company under Major JK Dunbar. Trotter’s memoirs provide readers with an insight into the challenges that officers needed to resolve after a year and half of fighting. Terrible losses from the Battle of the Frontiers, Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Artois and Loos had tapped the battalions of their strength and effectiveness. With recruitment strong in Canada, new companies needed to be formed to replace and support those who had been suffering in the field for well over a year.
Trotter remarked that “the organization of the 7th Field Company was proceeding apace and the rif-raf we had to select was none too encouraging. The personnel of the Depot having rather run down, a canvas of the Infantry battalions that has to be resorted to with the result that the majority of the men obtained were the culls of the various regiments…..The drivers were a motley lot if ever there were any and quote a few of them came from a French Canadian battalion which had been disbanded on account of the lack of discipline and toughness of the personnel” The most telling statement he made was when he resolved that “I never saw a worse looking outfit than the 7th F.C.”
By early April, he was back in France, where he led his company to Zillebeke Bund where they rested prior to resuming their time in the mud.
Trotter provides a wider awareness of the day to day responsibilities of an Engineering officer. One interesting story told of their introduction to the concept and course in “camouflage”.
“We took in the course of Camoflage and saw many interesting things, such as imitation trees for lookouts, imitation sandbags and heads of men made up in the most lifelike way to draw fire from snipers and force them to disclose their hiding place. There were also a great many samples of painted canvas screens, so painted that from the air they would not look any different than the surrounding country. Also there were chicken wire screens with grass or painted canvas interwoven for hiding trenches and guns.”
The very next day, June 2, 1916, he casually returned his focus to the realities of war with a vivid description of the results on an attack at Mt Sorrel.
“The Huns preliminary bombardment was concentrated on the 7 strong points and Maple Copse and in a very short time all were absolutely wiped out. The garrison of the strong points perished miserably and it is doubtful whether any of the garrisons escaped alive. Maple Copse was a shambles and the next day when I saw the wood I could hardly believe my eyes for where trees of some 15-20 inches has stood on the 1st instant there was now nothing and one could count on the fingers of one hand the stumps of trees that exceeded 10 feet in height. All the dugouts were “na poo” and the wreckage was inconceivable.“
With smashed trenches leading to a vulnerable point in the line, Trotter’s job was to lead his men to restore the trenches back to working order. On June 4th, with the remains of the bombardment still smouldering, “We got the men in all right and I taped out the work and got the men busy. We were very close to the Hun and had to stop quite frequently when there were flares up. It was an eerie job and a difficult one, owing to the fallen timber and the dead bodies which we were continually digging up. Lieut. Mason and I took pick and shovel ourselves and worked the whole evening”
Within a week, with the position rebuilt, reinforced and restored, it was the Canadian’s time to return the favour to the Huns. Recalling his days at Sanctuary Wood, Trotter engaged his gallows humour when he wrote…
“When I got back to billets that night the Major informed me that the Canadian counter-attack was to be delivered in the early hours of the 13th of June and that I has been selected by the C.R.E to command the Engineer party co-operating in the movement. He instructed me to proceed at one to rear billets and to “rest up” for the show, fatten the calf for the killing as it were.”
“….The grand attack came off at 3:30 am just before dusk and the concentration of fire brought to bear on the Huns was the greatest up to that time in the British army.
How any man could live through such a hell was beyond understanding.
When the party arrived out they were the most wretched looking lot you ever saw. They had been out all night, lying in a trench half full of water and rained on by both shell and water, and they were caked from head to foot with mud.
After receiving his orders to rebuild the Durham Lane trench Trotter recounted that “The Pioneers had worked this piece of line all morning and had lost in killed or wounded about 80 per cent of their men and had finally quit, because of the impossibility of making any headway under the terrific fire on this area.”
Major Trotter received a fortunate break directly after these encounters. While he was reluctant to leave his men, he was ordered back to England. Upon arrival he was promoted to officer in command of the 13th Field Company. Lt. Colonel C.A. Inksetter, friend and commanding offer promoted him to this position. However, it was only a few months later when he would learn that Inksetter would be badly wounded and later die at Courcellette.
Major Trotter would lead the 13th Field Company back to France and would come to play a key role in one of Canada’s most storied and proud military achievements; The Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge, took place between April 9th to the 12th in 1917 and was one of the allies key victories in the Battle of Arras. The Canadian’s were tasked with taking the ridge that overlooked the town of Vimy and protected the German supply lines from its’ well positioned heights. The history of the attack is well documented and tells of a highly-trained, highly integrated and well-prepared force of Canadians attacking the position in unison and coordination to deadly effect.
The reason why Trotter’s memoir is of historical significance is because he was one of the officers tasked with leading his me to design and build the infrastructure needed to support the attack. While the attack did not begin until the spring of 1917, Trotter’s men were sent to the sector on November 27th, 1916.
On Dec 19, 1916, Trotter wrote “Shortly after we arrived, the C.R.E. was informed of an intended offensive that was to be carried out by the Canadians on some future date, and he passed this information onto us. To at this early date preparations were begun for the big battle of Vimy Ridge, which came off on Easter Monday April 9, 1917.
The first preparations that we were concentrated on was the increase in accommodations in the Villages, ruined or otherwise, in high and cellars, barns and houses and, where available, dugouts. The main preparations forward were the construction of galleries in the Ridge for the assembly of troops, construction of the Dressing Stations and Brigade H.Q. “
On the day of the battle, Trotter, as an Engineer, focused on the details and the problems his men were tasked with solving.
For example, after the initial attack and bombardment “the ground was a mass of interlocking shell holes at great depth and width and in most cases those were full or nearly so with water. As it was impossible to drain these in the short time at our disposal…decided to join the craters with a trench to provide a defensive line against the anticipated counter attack.”
Trotter’s account detailed the successes his men achieved on the first three days of the attack, their sustained focus on linking the trenches with the new forward lines linking the shell holes and laying mats that provided immense value to the men in enabling them to easily travel across the “waste of mud”. On the 3rd day the 13th FC was relived by the 3rd British Division but being newcomers to the ridge and “unaccustomed to the ground, the pursuit of the enemy was not pushed.” He concluded that “There was every reason to believe that the enemy evacuated the territory as far as an including Lens but finding that the British were not following up their success, during the night of the 13th-14th they came back and took up their lines in the outskirts of Lens.”
The memoir of Major Clifford Trotter concludes a short few months after the battle of Vimy Ridge, where he received his leave warrant on July 7th, 1917 and was able to travel back to Canada meeting his new wife, Jean on the docks at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. His final words summed up the feelings of one of Canada’s most highly decorated officers, architect and leader among men for our greatest military victory with the simple words “I was very happy then and I still am. 12-4-18”
The service records of Major Trotter details that he was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ on Nov 15th, 1916 for ‘Distinguished and gallant service and devotion to duty’ and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on June 4th, 1917.
Major Trotter’s service record also details final round of luck as while he was on leave in Canada he was appointed Assistant Director of Works and Buildings the Canadian Military Headquarters in Ottawa. He was discharged from the army on April 13, 1920.