Canadian Military History Volume 19 Issue 1 Article 7 2010 A “Soldier of the Line” Sergeant John Anderson Church, 38th Battalion, CEF Ken Reynolds Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Ken Reynolds "A “Soldier of the Line” Sergeant John Anderson Church, 38th Battalion, CEF." Canadian Military History 19, 1 (2010) This Feature 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]. : A “Soldier of the Line” Sergeant John Anderson Church, 38th Battalion, CEF A “Soldier of the Line” Sergeant John Anderson Church, 38th Battalion, CEF Ken Reynolds ergeant John Anderson (Jack) medical officer, Lieutenant James everyone knew – kept beckoning SChurch was awarded no bravery Munro, M.D., found him “fit” for him. “As the only unmarried son I decorations, returning home from service with the Canadian Overseas felt it my duty to represent the family the First World War entitled to the Expeditionary Force. Lieutenant- in the defense of our country.”3 In Victory and War Medals like many Colonel Cameron Edwards, the early November he tried to join the other Canadians. He did not serve commanding officer of the 38th, then 2nd Battalion, CEF. Unfortunately until the end of the war, nor even close signed Church’s attestation form. for him, anyone under the age of 21 to the conclusion of that dreadful With that, Jack Church was a Private required parental consent to enlist. conflict. Indeed, of the hundreds – serial number 410472 – in the 38th Mrs. Church would not cooperate: of thousands of Canadians who Battalion.1 served in the war there would seem The material Jack Church left When I came home and told my to be nothing especially noteworthy behind allows much more to be said parents Mother immediately called about Sergeant Church, a member about his war than his personnel the recruiting officer, Sid Gilroy, of the 38th Battalion, Canadian file reveals. A long-time member of telling him he well knew I was under Expeditionary Force (CEF). Perhaps the postwar Toronto Branch of the age and she would not give her this is why Jack Church was, and is, so 38th Battalion Association, Church consent. The next morning he tore special. After all, in statistical terms, wrote his memoirs, Soldier of the Line, up my attestation papers.4 the number of Canadian recipients of recounting his wartime experiences the Victoria Cross was insignificant. for his grandchildren. His story is of Upon reflection, Church seemed In addition, the typical Canadian interest to us all. somewhat relieved at his mother’s soldier did not die during the First Jack Church missed the British decision given the incredibly large World War. Instead, the majority declaration of war in August 1914. number of casualties which the “Iron suffered – slightly or severely – with At that time he was working with 2nd” suffered in France.5 physical and mental wounds they a survey party in the Algonquin Nevertheless, getting into the would carry with them for the rest District of Ontario and so did not military remained his primary goal. of their lives. In Jack Church’s case hear about the start of the war for To him, this meant only the infantry these burdens would be borne until an entire week. On his way home as he was certain he did not want his passing in the late 1980s. he passed through Ottawa, heard to shovel coal aboard a warship or Jack Church was 18 years old the news, and attempted to join the be “hampered with a horse” as a when he joined the CEF. He was born Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light member of the cavalry. Just before in Smiths Falls, Ontario on 8 April Infantry, then being raised in the Christmas 1914 he was offered the 1896. He had no previous militia nation’s capital. His attempt to join prospect of an officer’s commission experience, was a Presbyterian, and was, as he put it, “rudely repulsed.”2 in 1915 if he finished his school year. listed his mother (Mrs. Elizabeth In September 1914 Church However, Church could not wait. On Church) as his next-of-kin. Church’s returned to Smiths Falls Collegiate 14 January 1915 he and three friends physical examination showed him to where, in addition to his studies, he met at the local recruiting office be five feet ten inches in height, with served with the school’s cadet corps, where the 43rd Regiment, Duke of a 36.5-inch chest, brown hair, brown taking his “duties very seriously.” Cornwall’s Own Rifles, from Ottawa eyes, and a “ruddy” complexion. On But the call to serve before the war was enlisting soldiers for service with 24 February 1915, the 38th Battalion’s was over – it would be by Christmas, the 38th Battalion. Published© Canadian by Scholars Military Commons History @, Laurier,Volume 2010 19, Number 1, Winter 2010, pp.57-65. 57 1 Reynolds - A Soldier of the Line.indd 57 4/15/2010 1:47:47 PM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 7 On the spur of the moment against orders so I refused I decided to join my friends with the result [that] we spent and when I told Capt. Grey the evening on the sofa while [the recruiting officer] I she clipped [them] off with a was recommended for a pair of scissors that were not commission he said the war too sharp.9 would be over before I could get to France. That did it. The 38th continued Mother refused to sign my its training in Barriefield release but Dad did and I was through June and July 1915. in the army.6 In late June the battalion sent 250 soldiers to France In late February the as reinforcements for the recruits enlisted in Smiths decimated 2nd Battalion. Falls for the 38th Battalion Church had mixed feelings w e r e s e n t t o O t t a w a about not being selected to to join “C” Company at go, as he felt that Lieutenant- its headquarters in the Colonel Edwards was former Ottawa Ladies’ Highlanders of Ottawa Museum of The Cameron Regimental sending “his best trained College on Albert Street. troops.” At the same time Accommodated in a nearby he realized how dangerous warehouse, the new recruits the situation in France was were issued uniforms and at the moment.10 “long cotton underwear At the end of July the which we all swore was 38th Battalion boarded a woven of barbed wire.” train for Ottawa where Recruit Church was formally it received its colours attested as a member of the in a ceremony held on 38th and, one week later, Parliament Hill on 1 August was promoted to the rank 1915. Sergeant Church of Sergeant with No.11 Platoon, “C” participated in the ceremony as a Company, because of his experience Sergeant Jack Church with his friend, member of the colour party, along Gert Dunham, in 1915 in his high school’s cadet corps.7 with two subalterns and two warrant Basic military training was the officers. After the ceremony the highest priority after enlistment. out battalion-level drill, conducted battalion marched down the street to Under the watchful eye of the 38th’s manoeuvres, and practiced their the train station to head to Montreal first regimental sergeant-major, musketry skills at the rifle range. and then, it was believed, to England Warrant Officer Class I William Henry On his first weekend leave Sergeant for training with other Canadian Marsden, the battalion concentrated Church spent part of his pay (he units preparing for service in France on squad, company, and rifle drill received $1.50 a day) on a train trip and Flanders. Final goodbyes to in the small confines of the parade to Orillia, Ontario, to visit a friend, family and friends were said at the ground at the college. There was also Gert Dunham. An awkward moment station, and Church remembered the occasional route march through arose during this visit as a result of his own “mother crying quietly on the snowy streets of Ottawa and, for an army regulation (according to the station platform thinking she Sergeant Church, additional duties Church) that forbid a soldier from would not see her baby again. A lot such as conducting the drill of “C” shaving his upper lip so as not to of mothers and wives who were there Company’s non-combatants (its effect his eyesight didn’t.”11 cooks, batmen, clerks, etc.).8 In Montreal the 38th boarded the By late May the 38th Battalion and in turn effect rifle firing. As a SS Caledonian and began its voyage had recruited to its full strength and result my upper lip was covered down the St. Lawrence River. After moved to Barriefield Camp, near with a dark fuzz as I had matured the ship had passed Quebec City a Kingston, Ontario. The soldiers, late. Gert took one look at it and ceremony was held onboard involving housed in bell tents in the wet and said she would not go out with me Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards and unseasonably cold weather, carried unless I shaved it off. That would be the battalion’s Colour party. The https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss1/758 2 Reynolds - A Soldier of the Line.indd 58 4/15/2010 1:47:48 PM : A “Soldier of the Line” Sergeant John Anderson Church, 38th Battalion, CEF commanding officer made and was sent to various a speech, gave each of the locations throughout the party’s subalterns a bottle British colony.