Sands, James Prentiss Corporal The Highlanders Royal Canadian Infantry Corps M–36552

James Prentiss Sands was born on 14 March 1921 in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, . He was the son of Jim Hekob and Eleanor Loretta and had one brother, Cecil Nelson. It is not clear if his father had died but his mother remarried Clarence Sever Sands, the father of four children, Gertrude, Myrtle, Johnny and Carlyle. After the marriage, Prentiss changed his surname to Sands but his brother Cecil retained the name of Hekob. Clarence and Eleanor went on to have five children together, four sons and a daughter: Sammy, Chester, Marion, Billy and Larry. Whenever Chester thinks of Prentiss, now in 2018, he remembers him as tall and thin, a quiet young man.

PHOTO Front: Nelson and Prentiss

Back row: Carlyle? Clarence, Ralph Fry (Gertrude’s husband), Eleanor Loretta, and Johnny

(about 1931)

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Prentiss was a member of the Church of England. He left school at the age of twelve after completing five grades. He went to work on his mother’s farm and also on the farm belonging to J.P.Fisher; he sometimes earned extra money by chopping wood. On 24 October 1941 he joined the army as a single man who had been living with his mother in Horburgh, Alberta. He was found to be a healthy young man, 1.67m tall and weighing 69 kilos, with brown hair and eyes; on the left side of his chest he had two round scars. He said he wanted to settle again in Alberta after the war. The army placed him in the General Reinforcement Unit stationed in Calgary. He was sick in December that year with mumps and was cared for in the Camrose Mill Hospital, Alberta. After two months in a training centre he was ill again and admitted to the Belcher Hospital in Calgary with a severe throat infection and probably measles as well. Once when he was five hours late returning to camp, he was sentenced to three days confined to barracks.

PHOTO Prentiss visited his parental home again after enlisting.

Right: with Nelson and Johnny

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On Thursday, 9 April,1942 Prentiss embarked for England and arrived ten days later; he was placed with the infantry. He wrote to his family on 2 July:

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Prentiss spent more than two years training in England. After a week’s leave spent in Scotland in April,1944 he was transferred to Regiment and left for France two months later on 6 July, landing near Courseulles (Juno Beach).

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On 6 August,1944, probably from Fleury-sur-Orne where The Calgary Highlanders were having some days of well-deserved rest, he wrote to his mother:

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He was wounded on 29 August,1944 in northern France, probably in La Londe Forest on the banks of the river Seine and sent back to England for treatment at Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke; he remained there until 22 September. It is not clear what the nature of his wounds was.

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He wrote a letter to his brother Chester on 5 October:

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After his stay in hospital, he was sent for a further month’s training before returning to France on 28 October. After a few days he re-joined the Calgary Highlanders who at this point had moved across northern France and had been involved in the Battle of the Schelde. When Prentiss re- joined them they were having some days of rest at Lier, Belgium. Five days later the regiment travelled to Nijmegen, the Netherlands and was stationed on the road to Malden. The first part of winter they spent their time guarding the bridge at Grave and the frontline at Groesbeek. Two weeks on, one week off. Operation Veritable began on 8 February,1945 and Prentiss took part in the battle of the Reichswald, fighting in the cold, muddy and flooded trenches. His comrade Stan MacDougall was at his side and he related the following: “So I said to this Corporal Sands, he was on my right, he was a big, tall farmer, a nice man, I think he was twenty four years of age. Anyway, I said, "Will you give me covering fire? I'm going to try and knock this machine gun that's out on my left." So anyway, he said, "Alright." So anyway, I crawled over, I, I just forget the distance it was, they were firing away. I never took my Sten gun with me or anything. I took two grenades. And anyway, I got near where they were at and, and I, I threw one. I got a direct hit. So I said to myself, "I better throw the other one in case going back, a bullet will hit it and it's on my belt." So I threw the other one. So, I started to crawl back and I got up to run and this German paratrooper officer seen me and he had a potato masher in his hand and he was running for my trench, he seen where I was going and Corporal Sands shot him and when he fell, he fell right in front of me and he had the potato masher in his hand and I just pulled it and threw it and went off. At that moment I owed my life to Prentiss Sands. I have never forgotten him (…) He was my hero.”

Stan MacDougall at Prentiss’ grave, Groesbeek 1988.

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At the end of March, it was finally possible to cross the Rhine and, with an enormous army, begin the liberation of the eastern and northern parts of the Netherlands. On Easter Sunday, 1 April, the Canadians reached Doetinchem via the Terborgseweg. They were met on the eastern outskirts by members of the Dutch Resistance and after a short discussion, the town was surrounded and some of the Canadians continued to the centre. Heavy fighting broke out; the Germans had blocked the Canadian troops at the Terborgseweg, 1 April 1945 (Photo: Hans Hendriksen ©) roads with trams filled with concrete. The Canadians used flamethrowers among other weapons, to disable the enemy. Dozens of German soldiers were killed and many buildings were burnt out. Nine Canadians were also killed. It was not until the following afternoon, Monday, 2 April that Doetinchem was finally freed. Prentiss did not live to see this. On the Sunday, as he came into Doetinchem, he received a severe head wound with a mortar grenade. He was taken to the regiment ´s first aid post but he never recovered consciousness. The doctors could do no more for him. Prentiss Sands died on Easter Sunday at the age of twenty four, exactly a month after he had been promoted to the rank of corporal. He was buried temporarily in Bedburg Hau, Germany. Chaplain Bishop wrote to his mother: “Dear Mrs Sands, Word has just reached me that your son Pte.J.P.Sands died of wounds, on April 1st,1945: Chaplain E.C.Royle of S.C.C.S. laid his body at rest in a little temporary Canadian Cemetery. (…) ‘In my father’s house are many mansions, … I go to prepare a place for you.’ (John 14). May God bless you.. “ Chaplain Royle wrote: ‘As the Chaplain who conducted the burial service for your son, I am writing to express to you my very deepest sympathy and to tell you what I can about him. Unfortunately there is very little to tell because he had passed away before arriving at the CCS, and all I know is that he had received medical treatment and been made comfortable at the forward medical posts. It only remained possible for us to make arrangements for the funeral (…) It was Easter Day when he passed, and my thoughts at the service turned to Good Friday with its

9 message that God shares our suffering upon the Cross, including the pain of giving His Son to die for others. Good Friday without which Easter is impossible. Easter with its glorious message that death is but the gateway to the greater life of fuller service in the Nearer Presence of God.”

Letter from Major Heyland

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Letter from Major Keller

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James Prentiss Sands served 1256 days in the In total. For this he was given the following awards:  1939 – 45 Star  France & Germany Star  War Medal  Canadian Volunteer Service Medal & Clasp  Defence Medal

Prentiss was later reburied in Canadian Military Cemetery Groesbeek, plot XIV.A.9.

REST IN PEACE BELOVED

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Prentiss and his fiancée

(the Sands family assumes she was British, she wrote letters to Prentiss’ mom, but the letters got lost, nobody remembers her name)

Monument in the Mark Tennant Plantsoen, Doetinchem

We would like to thank the Sands family for sharing their stories and photographs.

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Life story by: Sigrid Norde, Research Team Faces To Graves.

Sources:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission National Library and Archives Canada http://www.calgaryhighlanders.com/history/highlanders/1939-45/dcompany.htm https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/video-gallery/video/7420 https://mijngelderland.nl/inhoud/canons/doetinchem/doetinchem-in-de-tweede- wereldoorlog https://www.hummelo.nl/geschiedenis-hummelo/tweede-wereldoorlog/547-de- bevrijding-van-hummelo-2-april-1945.html http://www.hanshendriksen.net/

TV broadcast 6 april 2020 ‘Omroep Gelderland’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s__- MSc38w&list=PLEVaKKTgLrZubXqi26RmrCxWCBuHcNArx&index=26&t=0s

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