Canadian Military History

Volume 22 Issue 2 Article 3

2013

“Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

Eric McGeer

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh

Part of the Military History Commons

Recommended Citation Eric McGeer "“Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War." Canadian Military History 22, 2 (2013)

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

Eric McGeer

his paper begins with a flight of advances in military technology that fancy meant to put its subject Abstract: Studies of the effects and made such a rigidly concentrated T memory of the Great War are sure to in a novel perspective. Imagine gain new impetus with the arrival of war so consumptive of human life. archaeologists at some distant time the centenary in 2014. This article An archaeologist sensitive to the in the future coming upon the British outlines the approaches to a body contradictory logic of human affairs memorials and war cemeteries of evidence not yet fully appreciated might perceive the trap into which clustered along the old Western by scholars examining the impact of the belligerents worked themselves, the war and the reaction to a tragedy Front. Suppose, too, that although of unprecedented proportions. The that victory alone, at any price, could the written sources for the Great War personal inscriptions engraved on the redeem the sacrifice that mounted no longer survive, the mandate of the headstones of the fallen preserve a with each year of the war. War Graves Commission to maintain record of grief and consolation unique The evidence responding to the monuments in perpetuity has in history, one that forges a bond of the basic questions of who fought sympathy between the Great War ensured a good state of preservation. generation and our own, yet one that the war, when and where and how In the same way that archaeologists also exposes the profound differences it was fought, would naturally test the historicity of the Trojan between their thought world and ours. lead to more speculative inquiry. War against the evidence from This preliminary survey of Canadian Anyone beholding these monuments Bronze Age sites, or reconstruct epitaphs reinforces the position that would marvel at the herculean effort if studies of the myth and memory the workings of the Roman army of the Great War are to flourish, it is involved in creating them and at the from its camps and fortifications, imperative that we ground them in scrupulous desire to commemorate our imagined archaeologists would the cultural, literary, and religious every last one of the fallen by name, set about collating and interpreting traditions that guided the bereaved signs of the debt of remembrance the details in the commemorative in their search for consolation and which the survivors felt they owed meaning. monuments to form a reasonably to the dead. In seeking answers to coherent picture of the Great War. the very human and very taxing They would infer from the sheer from all over the world into the questions as to how people at the density of the war cemeteries that it British Empire’s order of battle. The time justified so costly a struggle, had been a very static conflict; from number of nameless graves, tallying and how the victors rationalised the the dates, regiments, and nationalities with the registers inscribed on the appalling price of victory, our future incised on the headstones they memorials to the missing, would archaeologists would seize upon a could establish a chronology of induce recognition of a frighteningly body of evidence, unique in history, events and a latter-day “Catalogue destructive war that inflicted not only which historians of our age have been of Ships” listing the peoples drawn mass death but mass annihilation. slow to exploit in their study of the Some explanation for this would memory of the Great War. Thousands * From the inscription on the headstone of emerge from the insignia on the of personal inscriptions, engraved Lance Corporal Andrew Ramage, Princess headstones identifying artillerymen, on the headstones of the fallen, Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Wimereux machine gunners, tank crewmen, convey the grief of the families who Communal Cemetery). and fliers, which bear witness to the suffered the loss of fathers, husbands,

Published© Canadian by Scholars Military Commons History @, Laurier,Volume 2013 22, Number 2, Spring 2013, pp.19-30. 19 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3

brothers, sons (and, lest we forget, The personal inscriptions, let it be inscriptions originating in Antiquity,6 daughters), and the consolatory said, have not gone entirely unnoticed. to identify and elaborate upon their themes by which they reconciled The provision allowing next of kin to sources,7 and to integrate them within themselves to their loss. In their contribute short valedictions is duly the cultural history of the Great War, great abundance, cutting across all noted in histories of the Imperial a subject in which myth and memory levels of society, and in their affecting (now Commonwealth) War Graves have come to occupy the high ground. simplicity, the epitaphs preserve the Commission,4 even if its significance Such an undertaking lies beyond the voice of the generation that bore the as the first occasion in history that the remit of this paper, which proposes burden of the war and tried to find general populace could add a private instead to outline the approaches meaning in its terrible exactions. voice to the official commemoration to a deeper, and potentially more They invite us to explore the sources of the war dead is not as emphasized revealing, study of the personal of comfort to which they turned in as it might be. The poignancy of these inscriptions. Although the focus their distress, and – to do what our inscriptions – and many truly are is mainly on Canadian epitaphs, age finds it very hard to do with gems of compression – has inspired the sense of imperial unity and the respect to the Great War1 – to accord two anthologies, John Laffin’s We close cultural affinity between Great fair recognition to sensibilities and Will Remember Them, presenting Britain and the English-speaking attitudes which we have long since Australian epitaphs, and Trefor dominions make the observations discarded, and to beliefs and ideals Jones’s On Fame’s Eternal Camping offered here broadly applicable to which ever since the 1960s have come Ground, a wider selection of British the corpus of epitaphs from the First to have less and less meaning. “Our and Dominion examples.5 Both World War.8 dear Daddy and our hero”; “Baby of fulfill the purpose of anthologies in Any discussion of the personal the family. Mother still anxious for providing a selection of memorable inscriptions must first balance their his return”; “Also in memory of his personal inscriptions; and it is not worth against their limitations brother Samuel, killed at Courcelette, to detract from the value of these as sources. Though they echo 16th September 1916”2 – these are collections, particularly Laffin’s, to the sentiments of their time, they but three of countless examples point out that neither ventures into speak directly for only a small reminding us of the claim of the the larger questions of the cultural proportion of the dead and those bereaved on our sympathies and of context and provenance of the who commemorated them, as some our obligation in return to examine epitaphs. It is to say, however, that rough calculations will show. Of the the epitaphs through the prism of there has as yet been no attempt to 66,000 Canadians killed in the Great their emotions, values, and sources situate the epitaphs of the Great War War, 11,000 have no known grave; of consolation.3 in the long tradition of sepulchral of the identified graves, just under

Canadian graves at Niagara Cemetery, Iwuy, France.

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/320 2 : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

half carry a personal first to enlist. A worthy inscription, many of son of his father.”12 which repeat formulae The taut, pointed (“Rest in peace,” “Gone simplicity of these but not forgotten,” examples proves yet “Son of ... born in ...”) again that economy of of little more than words makes for much fleeting interest. The greater impact than does number of inscriptions prolixity, something that offer insight that into the minds of the and Frederic Kenyon bereaved, individually well understood and collectively, comes when they made their to about 3,000 by my recommendations on Photograph by author. by Photograph count, speaking for personal inscriptions.13 about five percent of The infrequent but Canada’s war dead.9 telling departures from Their form and realm of the norm also bring out expression, though not another point deserving without variety, adhere of emphasis. Whatever to the restrictions control the Commission imposed by the War exercised over the Graves Commission personal inscriptions and by the conventions should be construed of the time. Here the not as censorship exceptions prove useful but as a safeguard of in illustrating the rules propriety and dignity and, more importantly, in the war cemeteries. the latitude shown in The restrictions on their application. When length, and the small scanning the collection, fee charged for an for instance, it becomes inscription, were clear that while most deterrents against “the inscriptions stay within effusion of the mortuary the prescribed length of mason, the sentimental 66 characters (including versifier, or the crank,” the spaces between and are consistent words), a great many A little girl’s farewell to her father: “Death is not a barrier to love, Daddy.” with the opposition to do not, the most striking The headstone of Private Peter Lapointe, St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen. inappropriate epitaphs example being a text of that the proponents over 450 characters covering the bud on a slender stem, broken and of the cemetery reform movement headstone of a Canadian lieutenant wasted, our boy”; “Another life lost, of the nineteenth century had long buried in France.10 Similar discretion is hearts broken, for what”; “Sacrificed made part of their programme.14 evident in the content of the epitaphs. to the fallacy that only war can end They took the view that irreverent The Commission reserved “absolute war”; “Many died and there was or semi-literate inscriptions power of rejection or acceptance” much glory.”11 The lengths to which undermined the moral benefits to over the inscriptions submitted, the Commission was prepared to persons visiting cemeteries to reflect yet there are several noteworthy go in accommodating the wishes on the vicissitudes of this life and examples giving vent to anger or of next of kin stand out in one stark the promise of the one to come. resentment which demonstrate the inscription, indescribably moving As this view took hold, collections range of acceptability. “He did his in its restoration of honour to the of epitaphs judged suitable for Photograph by author. by Photograph duty. My heart knoweth its own memory of a soldier executed for sepulchral inscriptions proliferated bitterness. Mother”; “A bursting desertion: “Shot at dawn. One of the throughout the second half of the 19th

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 21 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3

century. The trend in civil cemeteries the generation that went through towards the spiritual edification of the Great War.17 “(Assurance) What visitors was even more pronounced time I am afraid I will trust in Thee. in the military burial grounds, Ps. 56.3”; “O Lord of hosts, blessed in which the common aim of the is the man that trusteth in Thee. Ps. architects and horticulturalists was 84.12”; “God hath delivered my soul to create the tranquil, contemplative from the place of hell for He shall atmosphere of an English garden, a receive me. Ps. 49. 15”; “My favourite Photograph by author. by Photograph setting designed to inspire reflection reading, 1st bk. Cor. ch. 13”:18 these and meditation on the sacrifice of are among the epitaphs that display the fallen. We must also take into the family’s awareness of the passages account the emotional restraint bred which the soldier read each day and into a generation of parents born in to which he turned in times of trial. the 1850s and 1860s commemorating The annotated Bible of a Canadian sons born in the 1880s and 1890s – in soldier killed in 1918 contains a list other words, people deeply rooted in of 18 passages, all from the New the Victorian Age – which surfaces Testament, connecting the teachings, in this epitaph, “Sadly missed, experiences, and tribulations of Christ silently mourned by his wife and and His followers to the various children,”15 and many more referring aspects of a devoutly Christian to private sorrows, silent thoughts, or soldier’s life on active service – and hidden tears – faultlessly Victorian in in two texts frequently used as concealing the intensity of the grief epitaphs, 2 Timothy 4: 5-8 (“I have behind the stoic façade presented to “First Canadian Contingent.” Pride in fought the good fight, I have finished the world. Private Austin Keens’s readiness to do the race, I have kept the faith”) and Few epitaphs represent original his duty. Headstone in Woods Cemetery, Revelation 21: 4 (“And God shall compositions. The Victorians . wipe away all tears from their eyes”) preferred to select their gravestone – to the eventuality of his death and inscriptions, and it seems to have the sound of a voice that is still”) reward.19 If these readings formed been the assumption on the part or Shelley’s “Adonais” (“He hath a kind of spiritual anchor for the of the Commission that next of kin outsoared the shadow of our night”) men in the trenches, other standard contributing epitaphs would draw – were required reading for high- selections supplied comfort to the from venerable authorities. In the school matriculants in English who, bereaved. The very Victorian habit years immediately following the like all students of the time, went of reading one’s experiences through war, a canon of remembrance verse through a thoroughly Anglocentric the lens of the Bible, and making took shape, including such familiar curriculum.16 Sunday school, sense of this earthly pilgrimage by pieces as Laurence Binyon’s “For following or followed by church, identifying oneself with its stories the Fallen” and John McCrae’s “In immersed people from an early age in or characters, guided the next of kin Flanders Fields,” which supplied a the hymns and writings, particularly who in like fashion turned to familiar number of apposite lines; but most John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress consolatory passages (“Blessed of those seeking literary valedictions and John Henry Newman’s “Lead, are they who mourn”) or sought turned to the poets whose works they Kindly Light,” which provided a reassuring parallels. The mother of had learned in their schooldays when plentiful source of spiritual comfort. a Newfoundland soldier killed on 1 memory work and recitation were But if the generation raised before July 1916 chose a line from Luke 7: 12, staples of pedagogy. A trawl through the war entrusted the expression “The only son of his mother and she the University of Toronto’s calendars of its grief, acceptance, or hope to was a widow,” that movingly depicts from the years before the war reveals one book, it was to the King James the loneliness of her grief, eased, we that the poems most often quarried Version of the Bible. can only hope, by the compassion for epitaphs – Tennyson’s “Ode on It is impossible to overstate the which Christ shows to the sorrowing the Death of the Duke of Wellington” centrality of the Bible in Victorian mother in the Biblical passage.20 (“The path of duty was the way to culture. To paraphrase one scholar, Epitaphs drawn from the Bible glory”), “Break, break, break” (“O Scriptural knowledge is a prerequisite broadened rather than narrowed for the touch of a vanished hand and for entering into the thought-world of the range of expression. There are

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/322 4 : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

examples to suggest that families of triumphalism that puts paid had denied victory to Germany; an selected passages to give voice to the Kaiser and all his works epitaph drawn from Psalm 68: 30, to feelings which, phrased in less without overtly hostile reference to “Scatter Thou the people that delight authoritative tones, might have the enemy, a practice discouraged in war,” issues a veiled call for divine been rejected as too contentious or by the Commission.21 “By this I retribution against a militaristic excessive. “Young men, ye have know Thou favourest me, that mine enemy held responsible for causing overcome the wicked one. I John enemy doth not triumph against me” the war.22 Those opposed to war were 2.13,” represents a rare instance quotes Psalm 41.11 to imply that God aware that no one could object to the Canadian War Museum 19710261-0662 Museum Canadian War

In Charles Sims’ Sacrifice (ca. 1918) Christ looks down from the Cross upon the agonies of the soldiers struggling to save a world in which their parents, wives, and children would dwell in peace, and the mourners find solace in the Christian heroism of Canada’s soldiers. This painting was to be the centrepiece of Lord Beaverbrook’s projected (but never achieved) memorial art gallery in Ottawa.

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 23 5 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3

injunction against violence experience a warning to uttered by Christ, “They that the future: “If death be the take the sword shall perish price of victory, O God with the sword. Matthew forbid all wars”; “Break, 26: 52,” or His promise of day of God, sweet day of benediction, “Blessed are peace, and bid the shout the peacemakers.”23 of warriors cease.”28 The The depths of love unquestionable sincerity between a wife and of these pleas compels us husband might find their to recognise the consoling most tender expression vision of a better world in Scripture, particularly which the people of Britain in the oft-chosen Song of and the Dominions drew Songs (“Mine till the day from the Allied victory. The Library and Archives Canada e007914135 Library and Archives break and the shadows losses, terrible as they were, flee away”; “Many waters had resulted in the triumph cannot quench love”), or in of one set of principles and this richly allusive passage: values over another: “Right “My beloved is unto me is stronger than might”; as a cluster of camphire “For King and country in the vineyards of En- thus he fell, a tyrant’s Gedi.”24 The great number arrogance to quell.”29 The of personal inscriptions defeat of autocracy and citing the Song of Songs militarism which had should also remind the brought on the war, and the present generation, no moral obligation imposed longer on instantly familiar by the horrendous cost terms with the King James to uphold the ideals of Version, not to overlook the freedom, democracy, and significance of epitaphs that concord among nations can sometimes pall through “A hero. He suffered and died for freedom’s cause. Asleep in (“Justice owes them this, repetition. Though often Jesus.” The epitaph of Private George Fitch, 54th Battalion that what they died for interpreted in allegorical (buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension) is one not be overthrown”),30 or mystical ways, the Song of many that express in words what James Clark’s The Great would ensure that such a of Songs was for the people Sacrifice conveys in image – the community of sacrifice catastrophe could never between Christ and the Glorious Dead. who lived at the time of happen again. In the minds the Great War the most of contemporaries the powerful expression of married love general belief that this had been replacement of Tsarist Russia with and the firmest pledge that this love “the war to end all wars.” From our democratic America in the Allied was stronger than death.25 disillusioned perspective a century coalition had reinvigorated the Where the study of Canadian on, this idealism seems wishful and Allied cause by transforming it into epitaphs proves most fruitful, naive, but the people who had these a crusade to create a better world however, is in further elucidating the epitaphs engraved on the headstones (taking Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen themes of consolation so thoughtfully of their loved ones had grown up Points as its blueprint) that would explored by Jonathan Vance and in with the Victorian world view that abide by a just and stable peace.31 The broadening our understanding of the suffering and death had purpose, all belief that a husband, son, or father meaning assigned to the Great War disasters had a moral, and progress had given his life in what was surely by those whose lives were blighted came at a price.27 They also belonged a divinely sanctioned cause (“Yet by loss and grief. Two inscriptions, to the first generation to realise remember this, God and our good “He gave his all for freedom, the what kind of war the technically cause fight upon our side”)32 found whole wide world to save” and “I advanced armies of industrialised, its way onto many a headstone: “He have given my life to promote peace fully mobilised countries could allured to a better world and led the between nations,”26 encapsulate the fight; and they saw in this harrowing way”; “We grudge not our life if it

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/324 6 : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

give larger life to them that live”; artilleryman who died four days after servants: “And I will restore to you “Liberty and freedom had to be won the Armistice.38 The war was over, the years the locusts have eaten”; by the willing sacrifice of life”; “He the long agony had ended, and death “And their sins and their iniquities died so that life might be a sweeter had been swallowed up in victory, will I remember no more. Heb. 8. thing to all. He liveth.”33 leading many families to exalt their 12”; “If we suffer, we shall also reign “Christ Jesus Who gave Himself, dead as “One of Christ’s faithful with Him.”40 But where the soldiers’ a ransom for all”; “By his death our warriors,” “A volunteer for Jesus,” endurance and sacrifice had won life revealing, he for us the ransom or “A Christian hero,”39 as they found them salvation and life everlasting, paid”; “He died for others. Even so solace in a conviction widely shared the mourners had to carry on along did Christ.”34 From casting a soldier’s among Canadians that the battlefields their own Via dolorosa: “I lift my cross death as an offering towards a world of France and Flanders had been, each day and think of thee, brave made new, it was but a short step to in the words of John Arkwright’s heart”; “He wears a crown. I wear a hallowing the fallen as an elect who hymn “O Valiant Hearts,” “a lesser cross. Mother.”41 had died that their kin and country Calvary.” For those pondering the “For God and right. Let not a might live and, in the highest sense reward for the soldiers who had not whisper fall that our hero died in of sacrifice, laid down their lives for lived to see the victory which their vain.”42 Confronted by a death toll humanity: “Our soldier boy endured travails had helped to achieve, there so terrible and benumbing, those the Cross and won the crown” is one of were comforting reminders from left to cope with their grief were many epitaphs assigning redemptive Scripture of God’s covenant with His understandably inclined to embrace significance to the suffering of the the idealism or religious faith that soldiers who in remaining “faithful made the sacrifice meaningful and unto death” had given the ultimate necessary. These were not the only proof of their devotion: “He gave his barriers against the unwelcome – and pure soul unto his captain Christ”; unbearable – feeling of despair or “Jesus died for me. I’m not afraid to futility at so great a loss of life. “I will die for Him.”35 As Vance has shown, give him a white stone and in the stone after the Somme or Passchendaele, a new name – victory.”43 Canadians the established churches, which had could also take considerable pride in

wholeheartedly supported the war, author by Photographs the exploits of their soldiers which in were at a loss to explain the carnage many cases tempered the grief of the in terms of historical theology or as mourners. The same impulse that led the operation of God’s providence.36 Canadians to name schools, streets, The only explanation lay in passages geographical features, and even emphasizing the Christian virtues their children, after famous battles of suffering and sacrifice (“Thou, is apparent in epitaphs proudly therefore, endure hardness as a noting soldiers’ deaths in the feats of good soldier of Jesus Christ”) which arms that made the reputation of the bestowed meaning and purpose on Canadian Corps: “Died of wounds the deaths of so many soldiers whose received at ”; “He fell at the sacrifice had led to victory (in itself confirmation of the righteousness of the Allied cause) and the prospect Above left: The Lusitania sinking affected of a world purged of iniquity: “The Canadians as well as Americans. The blood of Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth headstone of Driver Albert Morrison, us from all sin,” on one soldier’s Canadian Field Artillery, “Whose father, Kenneth John Morrison, was lost on the headstone, could not proclaim Lusitania, May 7 1915.” more forthrightly the belief that the Below left: “Go on, I’ll manage.” fallen had done their part to redeem Testimony to the self-sacrifice of Private mankind by shedding their blood in Ernest Proven, mortally wounded at willing emulation of the Redeemer.37 Vimy Ridge and buried in Boulogne “It is finished,” Christ’s dying Eastern Cemetery. His brother, Sergeant words in the Gospel of John, is Harry James Proven, was killed in September 1918. inscribed on the headstone of a young

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 25 7 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3 Photograph by author. by Photograph

Headstones of Canadian soldiers killed in the , 1916. Rifle House Cemetery, one of three Commonwealth cemeteries in .

Somme. It is immortal honour”; inspired the inscription on a soldier’s had the American general Pershing “Mort à Vimy à l’age de trente ans en grave. annoyed about the late arrival of combattant pour la grande cause”; Just how protective Canadians his cab in Paris. “When it did arrive, “Killed near Passchendaele”; “Killed were of the heroic and morally Pershing protested to the driver, in action at Cambrai”; and one more bracing legacy of the Canadian who was a female, ‘My good woman, that reflected the renown won by Corps can be seen on the headstone you’re three minutes late.’ And the the Canadians in spearheading of a soldier killed in May 1917, lady replied, ‘My good man, you’re the war-winning offensive that five weeks after the United States three years late.’”48 When borne in began at Amiens on 8 August 1918 – entered the war. “I raised my boy mind that the Dominion of Canada “Tomorrow will be Canada’s day.”44 to be a soldier” states the epitaph had lost a much greater proportion Other epitaphs no less proudly supplied by his mother.46 Her choice of her young manhood than had record the soldier’s courage in the of words, baffling to our eyes, would her far more populous, late-coming performance of his duties or the have met with grim approval at the neighbour, both the levity and the esteem in which his comrades held time. It is a Canadian retort to the epitaph make palpable Canadians’ him: “Died for King and country popular American song, “I Didn’t resentment at the diminution of while keeping line open under Raise My Boy to be a Soldier,” which their efforts in the Great War, not shell fire”; “Killed leading an attack grated on Canadian nerves when the simply for patriotic but for intensely at Regina Trench”; “Mentioned sanctimonious Yankees stayed out of personal reasons. in despatches for gallant and a struggle that strained Canada to the A new appreciation of the distinguished conduct;” “Beloved limit, and again when the Doughboys composition of the Canadian by officers and men”; “His captain began to claim all the credit for Expeditionary Force, and of the said ‘No braver soldier ever led men winning the war.47 The doyen of assorted backgrounds and loyalties into battle’”45 – this last being one Canada’s military historians, Charles of the men in its ranks, emerges from of several examples indicating that Stacey (1906-1989), recalled a joke the epitaphs. If the CEF is pictured as letters of condolence to next of kin passed around after the war which a pyramid, the “Canadians” born in https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/326 8 : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

Britain would form the broad base of another drawing attention to Canada’s a part of Canada’s experience of the structure, their origins indicated rediscovered war poets: “In years to the Great War as the deeds of her by the hundreds of inscriptions come when time is olden, Canada’s soldiers. May we take, for instance, noting addresses or birthplaces in the dream shall be of them.”52 Within the many epitaphs emphasizing the United Kingdom, and by professions the great cross-section of Canadian soldier’s voluntary enlistment or of allegiance to their native lands society represented in the epitaphs the ready acceptance of his duty (“I and empire: “A son of England – (“From a homestead, Quantock, am going. My country needs me”) from Canada, given to the Empire”; Sask.”; “Dearly beloved son of Maj. as the last shots in the battle over “Mortuus est pro Scotia” (i.e. “He Gen. S.C. Mewburn C.M.G. Minister conscription?54 “Rejected four times, died for Scotland”).49 A sprinkling of Militia & Defence, Canada”),53 we accepted the fifth”; “Discharged of epitaphs in Welsh (“Yn eich Duw find faint but perceptible echoes of from N.Z. forces as unfit, having lost coeliwch uchw dig gelyn all alw’n the trials and controversies as much the sight of an eye. Re-enlisted at iach” – “Believe in God Vancouver”55 – what do and even your enemy The headstone of Private Victor Hugo Sorensen, a Danish these two extraordinary will respect you”) and volunteer “kept in loving memory by his loved ones in Denmark.” examples tell us in Scots Gaelic (“G’un about the standards robh dia grasmhor for enlistment as the ohuit a mhic” – “God need for men became be gracious to you, my ever more desperate son”) show that English after 1916? The was by no means the paucity of epitaphs mother tongue of all in French testifies to the British immigrants Quebec’s indifference who made up half the to an English war, CEF.50 The next layer yet if few in number Photograph by author. by Photograph up would contain the these adieux attest to men born in Canada, the determination whose epitaphs display of the only French- an increasingly self- speaking battalion in conscious national the teeming hosts of identity. Many record the British Empire to Canadian birthplaces; uphold the reputation and while declarations of their people on the of loyalty to Britain field of battle: “O Dieu, and Empire abound prenez ma vie pour (“One of Canada’s Votre gloire et celle du gifts to the Empire, a Canada-français”; “A la life”), a swelling tide of fleur de l’age il sacrifia Canadian sentiments héroïquement sa vie (“Our lad is a hero, pour son pays.”56 Also great Canada’s pride”) among the epitaphs that support the general should spur interest in consensus that the Great the groups which have War marked the first until recently gained step on the road from little purchase in the Dominion to nation.51 predominantly English- Nor was all the patriotic Canadian narrative of phraseology penned the war are the ones in Britain, for we find which commemorate an epitaph citing what native soldiers (“One would one day become of the many Canadian the national anthem Indians who died (“O Canada, he stood for the Empire”) and on guard for thee”) and the men from non-

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 27 9 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3

British backgrounds (“He was the Austro-Hungarian rule: “Lehkou ti would sustain a following generation first Icelander to give his life for zeme Belgie chloubo matky čechie” faced with the mass evil of the Great Canada”).57 – “May the earth of Belgium be War’s sequel.65 Only by excavating, As we move up towards the light upon you, pride of the Czech so to speak, down to the foundation apex of the pyramid, the CEF begins motherland”;62 that of a Serbian of the epitaphs, unearthing clues to to resemble the Foreign Legion. Not immigrant and volunteer leads us the reasons behind their choice and surprisingly, given the geographical to shake our heads yet again at the setting them firmly in the cultural proximity, we come upon Americans incredible interplay of events that context of their time, can we hope who headed “over there” by way of linked Canada in common cause with to retain our ever attenuating link Canada long before April 1917. One a country to which few Canadians can with a generation whose response acted on the outrage felt by Americans have given much thought before 28 to the tragedy of the war is so rich in at an incident that nearly brought the June 1914: “Za otatsbinu i saveznika historical and human interest. United States into the war in 1915: “A život svoj dao” – “For his fatherland volunteer from the U.S.A. to avenge and ally he gave his life.”63 the Lusitania murder.”58 Some were The study of the personal Notes students (“One of American Harvard inscriptions, as this paper has vanguard, entering Canadian service attempted to show, touches on . 1 The contrast between the attitudes of in 1916”) motivated by the desire to subjects ranging from the broad to the one time and those of another struck one historian at Tyne Cot War Cemetery help not Britain but a country much particular, casting light on national, as he compared the inscriptions on the dearer to American hearts: “A citizen cultural, and social history, and, headstones with the comments in the of the United States who fought and above all, on the myriad experiences visitors’ book; see Paul Reed, “Vestiges 59 of War: Passchendaele revisited,” in Peter died for France.” One wonders if and stories submerged within the H. Liddle, ed., Passchendaele in Perspective. this young man ever crossed paths vast depths of the Great War. “Be The Third Battle of Ypres (London: Leo with Private Victor Hugo Sørensen, ashamed to die until you have gained Cooper, 1997), pp.467-78, esp. 471-72. 2. Epitaphs of Private George Brignell, one of a surprising number of soldiers some victory for humanity’; “Son of 54th Battalion Canadian Infantry [CI] identified by their inscriptions my heart, live for ever. There is no (Cantimpré Canadian Cemetery); Private as a “Dansk frivillig” (Danish death for you and me”; “It is well Albert Kick, 4th Battalion CI (Sancourt British Cemetery); Private Alec Feltham, 60 64 volunteer). A handful, like Sørensen done, Dad” – ennobling, saddening, 52nd Battalion CI (Nine Elms British and the impressively named Count austere, rarely bitter, never cynical, Cemetery). Ove Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs,61 had the epitaphs cannot fail to touch 3. Best described by David Cannadine, “War and death, grief and mourning in immigrated to Canada, yet most were the hearts of sympathetic readers; modern Britain,” in Joachim Whaley, ed., Danish citizens motivated either by however, to return to the flight of Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social the strongly Francophile tendencies archaeological fancy with which we History of Death (London: The Stanhope Press, 1981), pp.187-242, esp. 212-17. See shown in Private Sørensen’s given opened, it has been the purpose of also Jonathan Vance, “Remembering names, or, as is more likely the case, this paper to take the reader below Armageddon,” in David Mackenzie, ed., Canada and the First World War: Essays in by lingering anger at Bismarck’s the layer of emotion and expose the Honour of Robert Craig Brown (Toronto: craftily orchestrated annexation strata where further investigations University of Toronto Press, 2005), of Schleswig-Holstein in 1864 and must begin if the epitaphs are to pp.409-33, and Alan R. Young, “We throw the torch’: Canadian Memorials of the concerns that the Kaiser’s Germany enhance our understanding of the Great War and the Mythology of Heroic had the same regard for Danish memory of the Great War. It is Sacrifice,” Journal of Canadian Studies 24, neutrality as it did for Belgian. A no great revelation to say that the no.4 (Winter 1989-90), pp.5-28. 4. Philip Longworth, The Unending Vigil: A handful of epitaphs in Dutch may hint epitaphs speak with the voice of a History of the Commonwealth War Graves that men from another traditionally very different time, not of artists Commission (Reprinted Barnsley, South neutral country bordering Germany or writers, but of a populace in Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books, 2003); Mark Quinlan, Remembrance (Hertford: shared these apprehensions. If the mourning. It warrants saying only Authors OnLine Ltd., 2005, pp.69-153). Danish and Dutch volunteers were to point us in the direction in which The cemeteries in which Canada’s Great 20 years ahead of their time, there further research should proceed – War dead are interred are the subject of Norm Christie’s projected Sacred Places: were others whose motives to enlist back into the nineteenth century, not Canadian Cemeteries of the Great War in Canadian service had more to do forward into the twentieth, led by (Ottawa: CEF Books, 2011-). 5. John Laffin,We Will Remember Them: AIF with defeating Germany’s major ally. Jay Winter and other scholars who Epitaphs of World War 1 (Kenthurst, New The epitaph of a Czech who died have rightly insisted on the durability South Wales, Australia: Kangaroo Press, on active service with the Canadian of the cultural traditions which 1995); Trefor Jones, On Fame’s Eternal Camping Ground: A Study of First World Pioneers strikes the nationalistic note sustained the generation faced with War Epitaphs in the British Cemeteries of of a people longing to be free from the mass death of the Great War, and https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/328 10 : “Time but the impression deeper makes”* Approaches to Canadian Epitaphs of the Great War

the Western Front (Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Infantry (Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery); Schweitzer, The Cross and the Trenches: Cromwell Press, Ltd., 2007). Lieutenant Arthur Young, Royal Irish Religious Faith and Doubt among British and 6. The study of the epitaphs and the Fusiliers (Tyne Cot Cemetery); Sergeant American Great War Soldiers (Westport, standard themes of consolation which William Clegg, Canadian Army Medical CN and London: Praeger, 2003), pp.84- have endured in western culture from Corps (Bramshott Churchyard). 117, 129-39; see also Duff Crerar, Padres Antiquity down to the present day 12. Private Albert Ingham, Manchester in No Man’s Land: Canadian Chaplains begins with Richmond Lattimore, Themes Regiment, (Bailleulmont Communal and the Great War (Montreal-Kingston: in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana: Cemetery); on his execution and his McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995), University of Illinois Press, 1962), esp. father’s insistence on having the details of pp.161-65. pp.215-65, and Joshua Scodel, The English his death inscribed on his headstone, see 20. Private Arthur Jones, Royal Poetic Epitaph: Commemoration and Conflict Cathryn Corns and John Hughes-Wilson, Newfoundland Regiment (Knightsbridge from Jonson to Wordsworth (Ithaca NY: Blindfold and Alone: British Military Cemetery). Cornell University Press, 1991). Executions in the Great War (London: 21. Private William McGreer, 47th Battalion 7. This cuts both ways, since scholars Cassell and Company, 2001), pp.256-60. CI (Cérisy-Gailly Military Cemetery). The writing on the epitaphic tradition have 13. The recommendations on personal Australian historian Bruce Scates gives not taken the personal inscriptions of inscriptions were set out by Sir Frederic an example of an epitaph rejected by the the two world wars into consideration. Kenyon, War Graves. How the Cemeteries Commission (“His loving parents curse They have no place, for example, in Abroad Will Be Designed (London: His the Hun”) and again when resubmitted Karl Guthke’s otherwise valuable study, Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1918) (“With every breath we draw we curse the Epitaph Culture in the West: Variations on (reprinted in Quinlan, Remembrance, Germans more”); see Return to Gallipoli: a Theme in Cultural History (Lewiston- pp.245-63 (the relevant passage on Walking the Battlefields of the Great War Queenston-Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen pp.251-52); Rudyard Kipling, The Graves (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge Press, 2003), pp.325-58. of the Fallen (London: His Majesty’s University Press, 2006), pp.48-53. 8. British, Canadian, Newfoundland, Stationery Office, 1919), passim. See 22. Private Vernon Earle, 27th Battalion CI Australian, and South African epitaphs also Jones, On Fame’s Eternal Camping (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery). would come together within this corpus. Ground, pp.8-14, and Laffin, We Will 23. Private Eugene Smith, 2nd Canadian The New Zealand government forbade Remember Them, pp.24-27, with examples Mounted Rifles (Bouchoir New British personal inscriptions on the grounds of the inscriptions suggested by the Cemetery); Private William Harpham, that not all families would be able to Commission. 50th Battalion CI (La Chaudière Military afford the cost involved. Though one 14. See John Morley, Death, Heaven and the Cemetery). can appreciate the egalitarian spirit of Victorians (London: Studio Vista, 1971), 24. Private Kenneth Neil MacDonald, 13th this decision, it must be reckoned a great pp.42-44, 52-57; Guthke, Epitaph Culture in Battalion CI (Rue-Petillon Military loss to posterity that the families of New the West, pp.67-81; Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Cemetery). Zealand soldiers – so highly regarded “Decomposing: Wordsworth’s poetry 25. The interpretative approaches to the for their performance in both world of epitaphs and English burial reform,” Song of Songs in Jewish and Christian wars – could not add their voice to the Nineteenth-Century Literature 42, no.4 exegesis are reviewed by Marvin H. commemoration and popular memory (1988), pp.415-31. Pope in The Anchor Bible: Song of Songs. of the Kiwis. 15. Private Alfred Cogan, Canadian Army A New Translation with Introduction 9. Jones estimates that about 45 percent of Medical Corps (Oxford Road Cemetery). and Commentary (Garden City, NY: identified graves have an inscription, 16. On the reading material in Ontario Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1977). noting that the percentage on officers’ schools before and during the war, 26. Private Adon Smith, 87th Battalion CI graves is much higher since their families and the values it imparted, see the (Adanac Military Cemetery); Private could afford the fee charged by the illuminating, well-judged new study by Emanuel Fulton, 31st Battalion CI Commission (which was eventually Susan Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s (Passchendaele New British Cemetery). made voluntary, but too late for poorer Land: English-Canadian Children and the 27. It is very striking to compare reactions families who had declined to submit First World War (Toronto: University of to the First World War with reactions an inscription). The issue of cost did Toronto Press, 2011), pp.15-27, 51-103. to various catastrophes in the Victorian not affect Canadian families since the 17. Timothy Larsen, A People of One Book: The Age. To take one example, the collapse Canadian government covered the cost Bible and the Victorians (Oxford: Oxford of the Tay River Bridge in 1879 was seen of inscriptions. See On Fame’s Eternal University Press, 2011), pp.1-8, 295-98. as a regrettable but acceptable accident Camping Ground, pp.11-12; Longworth, 18. Private William Barnes, 19th Battalion CI in the great march of progress. As one The Unending Vigil, p.44. (Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery contemporary put it, “life is not lost 10. Lieutenant Alfred Evans, buried in Extension); Private James MacDonald, which is spent or sacrificed in the grand Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension. 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Menin enterprises of useful industry.” See John In full it reads: “In loving memory of Road South Military Cemetery); Driver Prebble, The High Girders (London: Pan Lieutenant Alfred James Lawrence Evans. Charles Maxted, Canadian Engineers Books, Ltd., 1959), p.59. B.Sc. McGill. 1st Canadian Division 7th (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery); Private 28. Private John Wray, Lancashire Fusiliers December 1915. Aged 26 years. Born at Alfred Blackmore, 46th Battalion CI (Authuille Military Cemetery); Sergeant Quebec. Died of wounds received on (London Cemetery and Extension). Wellesley Taylor, 14th Battalion CI 23rd November 1915 while in command 19. Michelle Fowler, “Faith, Hope and (Chester Farm Cemetery). of 1st Bde Mining Sec. 3rd Btn. front Love: The wartime motivation of Lance 29. Private Albert Boustead, 15th Battalion CI line trenches, Belgium. Mentioned in Corporal Frederick Spratlin, MM and Bar, (Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension); despatches for gallant and distinguished 3rd Battalion, CEF,” Canadian Military Private Harrison Allen, 16th Battalion CI conduct in the field. ‘The brave die never, History 15, no.1 (Winter 2006), pp.45- (Villers Station Cemetery). being deathless they but change their 50. Lance Corporal Spratlin died on 8 30. Private George Hargrave, 29th Battalion country’s arms for more, their country’s August 1918, and lies buried in Toronto CI (Brussels Town Cemetery). heart.’” (Demuin) Cemetery. Given the strength 31. The ideological contest of the Great War, 11. Private Reuben Haley, Duke of of his character and convictions, the and the issues at stake in the minds of Wellington’s Regiment (Puchevillers inscription on his headstone, “I died that contemporaries, are well expounded British Cemetery); Private Thomas truth and honour might live,” is no empty by John Bourne, “The European and Quinlan, Royal Warwickshire Regiment sentiment. The evidence of the epitaphs International consequences of the (Ration Farm Cemetery); Private also throws light on the religious beliefs Armistice,” in Hugh Cecil and Peter William Rae, 20th Battalion Australian of Great War soldiers studied by Richard Liddle, eds., At the Eleventh Hour.

Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2013 29 11 Canadian Military History, Vol. 22 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 3

Reflections, Hopes and Anxieties at the Arthur Goyette, 22nd (French Canadian) An Anthology (Toronto: Oxford University Closing of the Great War, 1918 (Barnsley, Battalion (Bruay Communal Cemetery Press, 2009). South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books, Extension); Private Edward Beldam, 53. Private Ayrton Wragge, 13th Battalion 1998), pp.315-326. The impetus given 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (Tyne Cot CI (Puchevillers British Cemetery); by American churches to the notion of Cemetery); Private William Bartling, Lieutenant John Mewburn, 18th Battalion a Crusade for a better world has been 52nd Battalion CI (Canada Cemetery); CI (Courcelette British Cemetery). analysed by Richard M. Gamble, The War Lieutenant-Colonel Elmer Jones, DSO 54. Private Edward Panabaker, PPCLI (Nine for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, and Bar, 21st Battalion CI (Longeau Elms British Cemetery). the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic British Cemetery). It is worth noting that 55. Private Charles Turner, 10th Battalion Nation (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003), references to the battles of the war set CI (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery); pp.163-79, 209ff. the corpus of Canadian epitaphs apart Private Arthur Hackney, 29th Battalion 32. Private Sydney Turner, 2nd Battalion CI from British and Australian collections, CI (Rosières Communal Cemetery (Fosse No.10 Cemetery); Private Reginald in which one finds comparatively fewer Extension). Aldridge, 5th Battalion CI (Bully-Grenay specific mentions of the engagements 56. Lieutenant Joseph Hudon, 22nd (French Communal Cemetery, British Extension). where the soldier lost his life. Canadian) Battalion (Tranchée de 33. Company Sergeant-Major Arthur 45. Sergeant Harold Flynn, 38th Battalion CI Mecknes Cemetery); Captain Maurice Dunlop, 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (Albert Communal Cemetery); Lieutenant Bauset, 22nd (French Canadian) Battalion (Nine Elms British Cemetery); Captain Willoughby Chatterton, 3rd Battalion CI (Sunken Road Cemetery, Contalmaison). Alexander MacGregor, 28th Battalion (Adanac Military Cemetery); Major On the 22nd Battalion as the standard- CI (Rosières Communal Cemetery and Edward Norsworthy, 13th Battalion bearer of French Canada’s martial Extension); Private William Stanley CI (Tyne Cot Cemetery); Corporal reputation, see Jean-Pierre Gagnon, Mills, 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles George Brown, Canadian Field Artillery Le 22e bataillon (canadien-français) 1914- (Maple Copse Cemetery); Private William (Brandhoek New Military Cemetery No. 1919 (Ottawa et Québec: Les Presses de Sime, 29th Battalion CI (Adanac Military 3); Lieutenant Eric Lane, 85th Battalion l’Université Laval, 1986), pp.301-307. Cemetery). CI (Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery). 57. Private Lawrence Marten, 52nd Battalion 34. Private Mackie Stewart, 102nd Battalion 46. Private Mostyn Scott Sands, 28th Battalion CI (Wimereux Communal Cemetery); CI (Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery); CI (La Targette Military Cemetery). Private Magdal Hermanson, 8th Battalion Private Alexander Dunn, 78th Battalion CI 47. Vance, Death So Noble, pp.176-80; see CI (Wimereux Communal Cemetery). (Barlin Communal Cemetery); Lieutenant also Paul Litt, “Canada Invaded! The 58. Driver Leland Fernald, Canadian Thomas MacKinlay, 29th Battalion CI Great War, Mass Culture, and Canadian Field Artillery (Lijssenthoek Military (Boulogne Eastern Cemetery). Cultural Nationalism,” in Canada in the Cemetery). 35. Private Charles Everett Clark, 5th First World War, pp.323-49, esp. 333-40. 59. Lieutenant Phillip Comfort Starr, Royal Battalion CI (Maroc British Cemetery); 48. C.P. Stacey, Canada in the Age of Conflict: A Engineers (Bedford House Cemetery); Lieutenant Guy Drummond, 13th History of Canadian External Policies. Vol.1: Private Roy Marshall, Canadian Army Battalion CI (Tyne Cot Cemetery); 1867-1921 (Toronto: University of Toronto Service Corps (Lapugnoy Military Private Alexander McDonald, Canadian Press, 1984), p.234. Cemetery). Machine Gun Corps (Bac-du-Sud British 49. 2nd Lieutenant Francis Lawledge, 60. Private Sørensen, 4th Battalion CI, is Cemetery). Royal Flying Corps (Bailleul Road East buried in Quatre-Vents Military Cemetery. 36. Jonathan Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Cemetery); Private Harry Walker, 29th His name is incorrectly rendered on his Meaning, and the First World War Battalion CI (Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Canadian attestation paper and in the (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), pp.35-48. Road Military Cemetery). Commonwealth War Graves Commission 37. Private Ernest McClelland, 1st Battalion 50. Private Llewellyn Jones, 1st Canadian database as “Sorenson.” CI (Chester Farm Cemetery). Mounted Rifles (La Targette Military 61. Buried in Kemmel Chateau Military 38. Driver Alex Henderson, Canadian Field Cemetery); Lance Corporal Alexander Cemetery; his inscription in Danish Artillery (Etaples Military Cemetery). MacDonald, 72nd Battalion CI (Nine Elms would read in English: “Now my eyes 39. Lance Corporal Colin Broughton, British Cemetery). are closed, Father in Heaven, and I enter 5th Battalion CI (Railway Dugouts 51. Private William Smith, 49th Battalion the care of the world above.” Burial Ground); Private John Reid, CI (Raillencourt Communal Cemetery 62. Private Dominick Naplava, Canadian 52nd Battalion CI (Nine Elms British Extension); Private Wilfrid Spicer, 2nd Pioneers (Tyne Cot Cemetery). Cemetery); Private Leslie Unthank, 18th Canadian Mounted Rifles (Caix British 63. Private Chris Meti (Metič), Princess Battalion CI (Ridge Wood Cemetery). Cemetery). Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Bois- 40. Corporal William Bowyer, 7th Battalion 52. Private Reginald Box, 16th Battalion CI Carré British Cemetery). CI (Bailleul Communal Cemetery (Sancourt British Cemetery); Gunner 64. Lance Corporal George Edward Pike, Extension), citing Joel 2: 25; Corporal Donald McKinnon, Canadian Field Royal Newfoundland Regiment (Y Alfred Jones, 20th Battalion CI (Ridge Artillery (Aubigny Communal Cemetery Ravine Cemetery); Private Hal Sutton, 5th Wood Cemetery); Sergeant David Hunter, Extension). The line is taken from a Battalion CI (Hinges Military Cemetery); 102nd Battalion CI (Givenchy Road poem by Helena Coleman (1860-1953), Private Richard Boughton, 21st Battalion Canadian Cemetery), citing 2 Timothy 2: “Autumn, 1917,” which appeared in her CI (Courcelette British Cemetery). 12. Marching Men: War Verses, first published 65. The reliance on Great War precedents in 41. Lieutenant William Clipperton, 8th in 1917 and republished in 2008 by the epitaphs commemorating Canada’s Battalion CI (Lapugnoy Military Dodo Press. The themes and diction of Second World War dead is discussed Cemetery); Private Charles Ainslie, Canadian war verse would make for an in my book, Words of Valediction and 8th Battalion CI (Brookwood Military interesting comparative study with the Remembrance: Canadian Epitaphs of the Cemetery). epitaphs; see Jonathan Vance, “Battle Second World War (St. Catharines: Vanwell 42. Lieutenant Lloyd Scott, 38th Battalion CI verse: Poetry and nationalism after Vimy Publishing Ltd, 2008), pp.44-54, 57-91. (Bourlon Wood Cemetery). Ridge,” in Geoffrey Hayes, Andrew 43. Private Hal Bowers, 47th Battalion CI (La Iarocci, and Mike Bechthold, eds., Vimy Eric McGeer teaches Latin and History Chaudière Military Cemetery). Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment (Waterloo, at St. Clement’s School in Toronto. He is 44. Private Eusèbe Loiseau, 22nd (French ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, currently working on the military history Canadian) Battalion (Wimereux 2007), pp.265-77. On the resurgence of of the University of Toronto, focussing Communal Cemetery); Private James interest in Canada’s war poets, see Joel mainly on the university’s contingent of Stickels, Royal Canadian Regiment Baetz, Canadian Poetry from : the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps. (Contay British Cemetery); Private https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss2/330 12