The Lucknow Sentinel, 1985-11-06, Page 9Lucimow Sentinel!, Wednesday, November 6, 1985—Page 9
w artime Memories
Recollection of a brother's death
Florence [MacDlarmid] Golden
In France, the 4th Canadian Mounted
Rifles had become part of the Third •
Division, and took part in both the first
battle 'of Ypres in May 1916, and the
more devastating battle on June 2,
1916..
Such destructive gunfire had never
been experienced, heretofore, accord,
ing to a book on the 4th 'Canadian
Mounted Rifles.. For the. 4th C.M.R.,
June 2 was a day of obliteration'. Only
three officers out of twenty-two and only
seventy-six men our of six hundred and
eighty carpe back.
Some of my . early and most vivid
recollections pertain to war, the First
World War. Though I have lived
through subsequent wars, it is; as I look,
back; :the First World War that has
etched the clearest, ,most poignant
memories.
• By midsummer 1915 my brother Alex
was in the, services overseas. My sister,
Marion, was in England, serving as a
nurse and my other brother, Sam, was
in the Canadian Air Force. My parents
knew what war meant.
Alex was, as one Scottish lady expres-
sed "in ivery way a bonnie boy". He
certainly seemed so to me. I knew him
much better than my, older brother, who
had gone to western Canada .when I was
little. Alex and I had great times
together. • He would carry me . on his
shoulders through the drifts, and he
madea harness for my collie dog, Max,.
who .thereafter pulled me around on my
sled during our snowy winters. In maple
syrup time I "helped" Al gather sap,
and we would 'sit by the roaring fire,
watching the .great pans of sap, seeing
that they didn't boil over. Once in the
sugar bush, Al carved a little boat' for
me to sail on , a spring freshet. He
pricked a finger 'with his pen knife in
order to write in blood, the boat's name,
"Bruce".
Because of hislove for horses, Alex
enlisted in the 4th Canadian, Mounted
.Rifles ' and the training camp . was
situated in .London, Ontario. ,Men and
horses were physically .fit and carefully
chosen. Arduous, training followed and
each recruit was responsible for the care
and grooming of his assigned horse.
Disappointment awaited, however, be-
cause the Regiment was called upon to
supply horses for the Second Canadian
Division, which was. leaving -for over-
seas. In May, 1915, Alex's Regiment
• was asked to volunteer for overseas
service as a dismounted unit. Regret- •
fully they accepted this assignment and
they abandoned their horses.
Marion •had enlisted for service only
in Britain, so there was not. 'much
concern for her safety, as with Alex.
Impressed on my memory was his "last
leave", punctuated by entertaining and
picnics, and his eventual day .of leaving
for overseas.
' Alex wrote often, first from England
and then from France. Sometimes,
though, there were long lapses when
mail was apprently lost, with resulting
worries for those at home.
My folks subscribed to the Toronto
Globe. It printed page after page of
casualty lists ander "Killed in Action",
"Wounde4", ,,"Prisoner of War" and
"Missing". Sometimes parents learned
of a casualty through newspaper lists
before the official word came to them.
Going through • those lists was my
parents' after -supper chore. They
would divide the paper, and I would
watch their intent faces in the lamp-
/ light, as they carefully perused column
after column. If I remained quiet back of
the stove with my dog, 1 was sometimes
forgotten and stayed up much beyond
my bedtime.
- In 1916 my father contracted to have a
new house built. Two men were working
on the foundation. It was late June and
we hadn't heard from Alex in nearly a
month. I was the only child at home.
Sister Donalda was in Harper Hospital
Nurses' 'Training School and Margaret,
next to me, was in High School. It was
my job to watch for the mailman daily.
Casualty lists' were very . long. Dad
had rented the .farms and was often.
away during the day. He had told me,
"If any message ever comes to me, you
keep it. Don't bother Mother." When
he said, "You keep it," it would never
have occurred to me to do other than
that. Shall. I say that kids did as they
were told, way back then?
. The day "the message" came, my
mother was in the vegetable garden and
1 was indoors when the phone rang. It
was a wall type phone and I climbed up
on the sewing machineto answer. The
telegraph operator, Elizabeth Hender-
son, . was calling: She asked for my
father and when told he wasn't home,
asked:. "Is this the little girl?" 'I
answered, "Yes" and then, important-
ly, I said: "My father said for me to take
any message' So it was I who heard:
"I have grave and sad news for you",
and then the official message, some-
thing like: "His Majesty's Government
regrets to inform you that Corporal '
Alexander D. MacDiarmid is reported
killed in action, June 2, 1916."
We had our heavy meal at noontime,
and my father drove up at that time.
Punctuality was most important: with
him, so the table was set, the meat and
vegetables were already in the warming
oven and the kettle was singing as Dad,
followed by. the two workmen, came to)
the house. ••
I waited . till my father .finished
washing in the summer kitchen, then I
told him "The message". • He went
directly to my Mother, saying only,
"Alex's gone, Mother". She responded
with a stifled: "No! No! and together
they turned, and, arm in arm, climbed
the stairs to Alex's room. I followed,
unnoticed, to the foot of the stairs and .
sat down on the lowest step with my
forehead against a higherone and
began to .cry. There Max found me,
nuzzling my cheek with his moist cool
nose and whining all the while. I buried"
my face . in his thick ruff and cried
harder:
I• don't know how long I stayed there.
Sounds of cutlery on plates indicated
the two workmen had helped themselv-
es to dinner. The phone rang again, and
I got up to answer. A schoolmate was
phoning, asking how I'd been spending
the first vacation days. (Elementary
school students were already on vaca-
tion.)
I told about the message,' and, as.
is the way in rural communities, the
news was soon spread around. Soon
people were driving up, offering sym-
.pathy and help. Folks said I'd been
brave. I wasn't - my father had said to
keep any message till he came and, too,
it just hadn't seemed real till I,told it to
him. '
Further official notices followed the
original one regarding Alex. He was
reported "Missing" and also "Prisoner
of War". Months after the June 2
battle, a 4th C.M.R. prisoner in
Germany wrote that he had seen Alex
killed in a hand-to-hand encounter,
after he had been wounded in the arm
with shrapnel.' The final not�i'ce from the
government, .;closing 'the matter, was
not received until after the War ended
and it stated tersely, in part, "For the
purpose of our records, he must be
presumed dead.
Alex's name is one among those 'of
58,000 brave Canadians on the neve
Gate at Ypres.
Alex MacDiarmid
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