Hold the Oxo! Read online

  On the night of October 10, the Third Canadian Division began to be replaced by the newly arrived Fourth Division. The exhausted First, Second, and Third Canadian Divisions withdrew from the Somme, having lost 20,000 men and having gained less than one kilometre since September 23.

  On October 12, an experimental “creeping barrage” (later perfected at the Battle of Vimy Ridge) was introduced. The men moved forward at a pace of 45 metres each minute just behind an advancing barrage of Allied artillery explosions. Since the creeping barrage was new and experimental, with little time for preparation, confusion was rampant. One in ten of the attackers were killed either because the soldiers moved too quickly or because the shells fell short of their targets.

  The wet and cold weather — rather than a decisive victory for either side — finally ended the Battle of the Somme on November 19, 1916. On November 18, the Allies reached their objective of the second German trench line north of Courcelette and captured 620 prisoners. When the Battle of the Somme ended, the line along the River Ancre had not advanced beyond the British objective for the first day of fighting — three and a half months earlier. The Allies now did have Beaumont-Hamel, Beaucourt, and Saint-Pierre-Divion in their possession, but were still nearly five kilometres short of Bapaume, which they had hoped to capture in early July. In his book The Battle of the Somme, Martin Gilbert estimates that the combined losses at the Somme and Verdun was on average more than 6,600 men killed each day — that’s 277 casualties every hour, an average of approximately five men every minute. Families across Canada mourned the death of approximately 8,000 Canadians.

  Thiepval Memorial to the Missing is the largest of all the Western Front memorials. On it are remembered, by name, 73,335 Commonwealth and South African soldiers whose bodies lie unidentified in the battlefield mud.

  10

  Women in War — The Bluebirds

  Many of the war’s “nursing sisters” died at the front along with the foot soldiers or died at sea along with the seamen. They nursed wounded prisoners, tended gunners, bandaged generals, drove ambulances, and wrote letters home for wounded soldiers. On June 27, 1918, 14 nursing sisters gave their lives aboard the hospital ship Landavery Castle when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Before the armistice was signed, 46 of the nursing sisters had died in the line of duty.

  But in the Canada of 1914, Canadian women were not considered “persons.” Although Canada had become a nation half a century earlier, its women were non-persons; they were legally excluded from voting. Their grandmothers had had it better. Before Confederation, women could vote if they owned property, although few actually did. The passing into law of the Dominion Elections Act of 1906, however, decreed that “no woman, idiot, lunatic or criminal shall vote.”

  In spite of the fact that they could not elect their own government, Canada’s nursing sisters answered when the call came for Canada to fight alongside Britain in the First World War. When Britain declared its support of France on August 14, 1914, Canada had five permanent force nurses and 57 reserves. By the end of four years of the war in which the most human lives in history were lost, 3,141 nursing sisters had served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corp, 2,504 of them overseas.

  LEST WE FORGET

  Bluebirds’ Service Remembered

  Three Canadian Nursing Sisters were killed in June 1918 when the 1st Canadian General Hospital in Étaples, where Jim had been treated and later died, was bombed by the Germans. After the war, nurses returned from overseas with new and better medical skills, and they had won the hearts of thousands of Canadian soldiers, who often referred to them as “Sisters of Mercy” or “Angels of Mercy.” A memorial to the service of the First World War’s “Bluebirds” was erected in 1926 in the Parliament of Canada’s Hall of Honour in Ottawa.

  Because of their blue uniforms, the soldiers in the trenches fondly called them “Bluebirds.” Soldiers had no doubt about the nursing sisters’ “personhood” >as they saw them moving among the wounded, who were being transported by stretcher from no man’s land to the Casualty Clearing Station close to the front line. The Bluebirds applied tourniquets to severed legs, bandages to mangled faces, and comforted the soldiers until an ambulance could transport them to a nearby hospital. These women worked with rudimentary equipment among the rats and lice and fleas. Exposed wounds on un-bathed bodies and under filthy conditions made soldiers extremely vulnerable to infection. The Bluebirds did their very best under those extremely difficult circumstances.

  In the 1917 Canadian federal election (sometimes called the “khaki election”), the Bluebirds were among the very first women to vote legally in a Canadian election. They met the requirement enabling military personnel to vote under the newly passed Wartime Elections Act.

  Historian Michael Bliss described the 1917 election as the “most bitter election in Canadian history.” It was fought over the issue of conscription. Sir Wilfred Laurier, head of the Liberal party, opposed conscription. To ensure victory for conscription, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden introduced two laws to skew the voting — the Wartime Elections Act and the Military Voters Act. The first law deprived conscientious objectors and Canadian citizens born in enemy countries who had arrived after 1902 of the right to vote. This act also allowed mothers, wives, and sisters of servicemen to vote.

  The second new law allowed soldiers serving abroad to choose the riding in which their vote would be counted. Government officials could guide the strongly pro-conscription soldiers into voting in ridings where they felt it would be most beneficial.

  In 1918, all Canadian women were given the same voting privileges as men in federal elections.

  11

  Wounded

  26 General Hospital

  B.E.F. France

  Ward 10

  October 12, 1916

  Dear Mrs. Fargey,

  You will have heard that your son has been seriously wounded in the right leg, and although his condition is serious at present; we hope to send him to England as soon as he is fit to travel.

  He is very good & brave & hopes this news will not worry you too much. He is getting every attention here & just now is not in very much pain. Your son will be able to write himself soon & I will let you know again how he is getting on.

  Yours sincerely

  A. Sadleir

  Staff Nurse-in-Charge Ward 10

  Jim himself writes to his mother on letterhead bearing the YMCA logo and beginning with:

  On Active Service

  WITH THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

  France Oct 13/16

  My Dear Mother,

  Sister told me she has written and explained the nature of the wound. Now Mother I expect you will have heard of me being wounded long ago as they took my name and number at battalion dressing station but this letter will satisfy you more.

  I am under the best of treatment and there is no danger at all. It will be some time before I get any of your mail but I will write regular myself.

  It is nice to be lying in a bed again and being fed on the best of food. I had porridge this morning, the first for months.

  I hope that Lance Corporal hasn’t confused you as I just got made one a couple of days before I went up to the trenches.

  Well, Mother, this is all for now.

  With love to all

  From your loving son Jim

  P.S. Now Mother Dear don’t worry much about me as I will get alright.

  But just two days later, Staff Nurse Sadleir writes to Jim’s mother with worrying news:

  15 Oct 1916

  Dear Mrs. Fargey,

  You will be grieved to hear that your son has become much worse & now his condition is very grave; he is very quiet and has no pain, but I feel I must let you know that the doctors fear that the end is very near. He is having every attention & is still quite conscious.

  Your brave son continually speaks of you and sends his love to all. He has just had his minister to see him and he seems quite happy & peaceful.
/>
  I shall write to you again later

  With love from your boy

  Believe me

  Yours sincerely

  A.M. Sadleir, Staff Nurse in Charge

  A second letter, written later the same day, confirms the worst:

  15th October 1916

  Dear Mrs. Fargey,

  Your grief will be great when you know that your son passed quietly away this morning. He was so good and brave and did not murmur once.

  He was anxious that you would receive his Bible and just a few things he had with him. He sent his love to all & then peacefully gave himself up. He was one of the finest lads I have ever seen — & an absolute hero; & I am afraid your sorrow will be great as he spoke continually of you & hoped it would not worry you too much.

  It may be a little comfort to you to know that everything that was possible was done for your boy, & know that all the soldiers’ graves are well kept & I shall put flowers on your boy’s cross with your love.

  With sincere sympathy for you in your great loss.

  Believe me

  Yours sincerely,

  Angela M. Sadleir

  During the few days in which Jim was hospitalized before his death, Sister Angela Sadleir had hand-written three letters home to his parents apprising them of his condition. The following is a letter from Chaplain W. Pitcairn Craig, who had visited Jim in the hospital:

  “These Four Boys Left Belmont to Fight for King — One Dead, Two Wounded” read the headline in the Belmont News. Shown are Corporal Arthur Abbiss and Private Leslie D. Smith (both wounded), and Private G. Money. James Henderson Fargey, our “Jim,” is seated. On the back of the picture is a handwritten note stating that Arthur Abbiss had also died in the war.

  23rd General Hospital

  A.P.O S. 11

  B.E.F.

  16.10.1916

  Dear Mrs. Fargey,

  I have no doubt that by this time you have heard the very sad news of the death of your son L/C Fargey, who passed away in Hospital 26 yesterday forenoon. I saw him for the first time on Friday, and shall long remember with pleasure and thankfulness my visit to him. He did not seem then to be very seriously ill, and he told me much about his home, and how you had brought him up in the love of Christ and of what was pure and good. He said that it was that that had kept him fine and strong to ... the many temptations of army life. Before I left he asked me to read him a passage from the scripture, and on my taking out my own Testament, he begged me to read it from the Bible his mother had given him which he said he had never failed to read day by day.

  On Saturday I had to be away from here all day — and yesterday (Sunday) morning, I received a message that your boy wished to see me. I went immediately and found him evidently near his end. He was, however, quite conscious, and asked me if I would, when all was over, write to you and say that he died happy and that his last thoughts were with you. After prayer with him, I had to leave him as it was the hour of my morning service — and, by the time I got back, he had passed away.

  May I express my deep and warm sympathy with you in the great sorrow that has come upon you — and my hope and prayer is that, amidst your grief, you may be comforted and cheered by the thought that your boy laid down his life a sacrifice in the noblest of causes, that he died in the faith and peace of Christ, and that now he has gone to receive the reward the awaits a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

  I am, yours sincerely and sympathetically

  W. Pitcairn Craig

  Chaplain

  In due time your son’s personal effects will be delivered to you by the authorities.

  Mac Woods had worked in the bank in Belmont before enlisting at age 17. Jim and Mac became very close friends while they served in the same company. Unfortunately, Mac’s flat feet caused him great pain during long marches so he was sometimes posted to office duty. After the war, Mac would return to Belmont, marry his sweetheart on New Year’s Eve, and move to a farm nearby. He would later buy the general store and bakery in the next town, Ninette. On hearing of the death of his friend, Mac expresses his loss in a letter of sympathy to Mrs. Fargey:

  153658 Traffic Control

  c/o Major Phillips

  Town Major A.P.O. (S.52)

  B.E.F.

  France, Nov. 14th, 1916

  Dear Mrs. Fargey,

  Oh Mrs. Fargey I received the terrible news today from mother of dear Jimmie’s death and don’t know when ever in my life I felt so bad over anything before, as Jimmie and I were like brothers and when I was in the battalion we never were apart for where you saw one, you would see the other, and I shall never forget what he has done for me for the things are too numerous to mention but I feel I owe him a terrible debt which now I shall never have the pleasure to return.

  I have had many of boy friends in Canada and also since I have joined the army but have not seen or ever met one that can compare with Jimmie, for we have never had a cross word and the least little thing he could help me or any of the boys, Jimmie was always first and with such a kind heart and cheerfulness. If ever there was a boy to be proud of it was Jimmie, for I will say there is not a man in the 43rd Battalion (and all the boys in A Company will say the same) that would beat him as a soldier. How better could one die knowing he has done his bit to save his King and country like Jimmie has done, Mrs. Fargey. None that I can think of and nobody else, I don’t think can. It is an honour that shall never be forgotten and we have to thank God for such men as those who have given their lives for us.

  If it is God’s will, Mrs. Fargey, that I shall return to see you all again, I shall love to talk of the times Jimmie and I have spent together. I would love to have someone here to-night who knew him, so that I could talk of the many kind things he has done for me, as I miss him more than writing or words can ever tell.

  God help and give you strength, Mrs. Fargey, to bear the loss of such a brave and noble son, who always thought of his mother and did exactly as he knew she wished him to do.

  Please give my kind regards and strongest sympathy to Mr. Fargey, Aileen and the boys as well as yourself. Hoping this finds you all the best of health.

  Always yours very sincerely

  Mac

  Charles W. Gordon was the well-known author Ralph Connor and the chaplain of Jim’s Division. Jim had mentioned him often in his letters as the chaplain who visited the trenches every evening:

  On Active Service

  SOLDIERS’ INSTITUTE

  Chaplain Service, Canadian Corps

  14. 11.1916

  My dear Mrs. Fargey,

  You have reason to be thankful to God for all he has done for you — for He has given you a wonderful courage and faith in a time when faith and courage are sorely needed. You say that I perhaps did not know your boy. But I did — and remember well his fine manly soldierly bearing. He was a splendid fellow and you do well to be proud of him. I wish I knew more of his death. But all we know is that he went forward with his company and did his duty — got this wound — a very bad wound in the leg — I fancy his thigh was broken — of this I am not sure. But you may be quite sure he received every care and comfort. It was a terrible day for the 43rd — our losses were proportionately very heavy — but we are proud to know that our boys went steadily forward — without faltering — reached the German wire — which was found uncut except in certain spots — some of the boys went through these lines into the trench and past the trench on to the second objective — but of these very few came back. As the General of the Division said to me afterwards “Had it been humanly possible the 43rd would have won their ‘objectives’ — It was an impossible proposition and our boys did all that men could do.”

  You may well be proud of your son — He died a hero, doing his duty in the midst of the most terrible storm of shell and machine gun fire.

  What more can you ask — He gave himself for our great cause — and in this sacrifice you share. God will not forget nor refuse to accept this offering your boy has made — nor the
daily sacrifice you make in bearing so heroically your great sorrow.

  With sincerest & respectful sympathy

  Yours sincerely — Charles W. Gordon

  Major — 43rd Bn

  Sr. Chaplain 9th Can. Inf. B’de

  Jim’s burial plot at the cemetery at Étaples, France, 1916. Today the location is well-tended and marked with a granite stone.

  When the 43rd battalion left the Somme, there were 257 men left out of the 1,000 who had arrived. The Battle of the Somme would not be the last battle name etched into the memories of Canadians. The next two years would add many others — among them Vimy and Passchendaele — each with its own special meaning in the history of Canada.

  12

  Eleventh Month,

  Eleventh Day,

  Eleventh Hour

  Today, you can still hear the echoes of marching boots on cobblestone roads, of anguished sobs from the battlefields, of comrades’ laughter floating over now pastoral fields of the Ypres Salient, and the rattle of the artillery barrage on the River Ancre or bullets whizzing overhead, ricocheting off the uncut wire in no man’s land.

  But the echoes reverberate most loudly from the names carved in stone on the Menin Gate, on the Thiepval hillside memorial, and from the memorials and headstones in tranquil cemeteries dotting the countryside where soldiers lie — some of their names are known, but many remain unknown. In his poem “Have You Seen My Boy Jack?” author and poet Rudyard Kipling, on the loss of his son at the Battle of Loos, echoes the grief of all those loved ones left behind: