I Never Knew my Grandfather

City Conversation #119: Remembering one of those who gave us peace and freedom

My grandfather’s pay book and service medal

I never met my grandfather, Bertle Raymond Lusk. He died when my mother was less than two years old. She knew him as a man whose pockets sometimes contained penny candy when he came home from work. At the age of less than two, it was a tall reach for her and not much of a memory. He died barely two years before the onset of the Great Depression, on May 20^th, 1927. At the time of his death, he was a biscuit salesman in the Ottawa River valley. Mum told me all the shops in all the towns he serviced closed for the day of his funeral.

On the occasion of Mum’s 80^th birthday, I decided it was time to find out the story of how her father barely reached 30 years of age before his heart gave out as a result of internal injuries sustained during the First World War. Ironically, the date of his passing, May 20^th, was the day of my marriage 51 years later.

It must have been terrifying for Grandpa Bertle to join the army in May of 1918. He was actually drafted pursuant to the 1917 Military Service Act, as were thousands of farmers’ sons like him. Our friend Virginia’s father, also a farmer in Quebec, was drafted within 10 days of Grandpa Bertle. Up until then, farmers and their families had been focused on feeding the soldiers. However, by 1917 the war in France was going so badly that the Allies calculated their entire fighting force would be killed if the war persisted to 1920, which was how long they estimated it would take to defeat the German army.

World War 1 recruitment poster

In the late days of March 1918 preceding Grandpa Bertle's draft, the war situation was simply this: "German offensives pulverized the British line."^[1] Clifford Sifton warned from London, "Every available fighting man should be got over here at the earliest possible moment."^[2] Conscription rates were so low that it was suggested there would be no Canadian men left alive to fight by July 1st, 1918. This was the environment in which Grandpa Bertle and thousands of others were drafted. He was barely 21 years old when he joined up on May 6^th, 1918^[3]. He must have been terrified - I certainly would have been.

Grandpa Bertle was drafted into the 2nd Depot Battalion of the Eastern Ontario Regiment^[4], whose commander, Lieutenant-Colonel W.A.E. Baywater, recalled that the draft was so unpopular that "on the day of departure the camp developed into a sort of madhouse."^[5] 

Such was the desperate need for soldiers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), as our overseas army was called, that Grandpa Bertle arrived in England barely 3 months after enlisting, on August 15, 1918, eleven days after leaving from Halifax on the SS Huntsend^[1].  In one of the war’s many ironies, the Huntsend started life as the German ship Lutzow, which was captured by the British in 1914, rechristened and served through the war until 1923, when she was sold back to the Germans and scrapped in 1933 before having a chance to be used in the next war.

By the time Grandpa Bertle shipped from Halifax he had been transferred to a fighting group, the 6th Canadian Reserve Battalion^[2], commanded by General Sir Arthur Currie^[3], who had led the Canadian forces brilliantly since Vimy Ridge. Currie was more famous abroad than at home and more popular with his troops than the politicians back in Canada. He was respected by his troops as a commander “…who stayed close to the front lines – chanced shot and shell to see conditions for himself and make his own reconnaissance.”^[4] 

Even though Currie led the Canadian forces, he reported to the British command. Among those Brits who respected Currie was General Sir Julian Byng, which is ironically the name of the high school my children Andrew and Sarah attended.

After his service was over, Grandpa Bertle left from England to return to Canada less than a year later, on June 23, 1919, aboard the SS Belgic, a sister ship to the Titanic. He was demobilized July 3^rd, 1919.^[1]

SS Belgic

I obtained copies of Grandpa Bertle's surviving war records from Canada's National Archives in Ottawa^[1], which began making such records readily available only a short while ago. As is the case with most of her soldiers of that era, Canada recorded his induction, his discharge and little else other than the fact that in between he had been paid $20 per month for risking his life for his country. He arrived in England less than 3 months before the war's end - what possibly could he have done for his country in that short time?

As it turns out, he and his fellow Canadians helped end the Great War perhaps two years earlier than expected. The week before he arrived in England, Canadian forces had led the breakthrough at Amiens that Germany's chief General Ludendorf called "the black day for Germany." This was the start of what has become known as "Canada's Hundred Days", the last three months of the war when Canadian forces repeatedly broke through German defenses, advanced 130 kilometers, captured over 31,000 prisoners, but at the cost of 46,000 casualties, one fifth of its entire losses during the four years of the war^[1]. As a result of these brave actions, the war concluded in 1918, not 1920.

The records we got did not reveal where Grandpa Bertle served in those last three months of the war, but given the dates it is likely he fought in one or more of the following battles:

    * The 2nd Battle of Arras, Including the Battle of the Scarpe (August 26–30, 1918) and the Battle of Drocourt-Quéant (September 2–3, 1918):  These battles resulted in an Allied advance of no less than eight kilometers, while at Drocourt-Quéant, Allied troops expelled the Germans from one of their vital defence systems, advancing another six kilometres and taking up new positions in front of the next obstacle, the Canal-du-Nord.

    * Canal-du-Nord and Cambrai, September 27 - October 11, 1918:  "When the attack was launched, the Brigade was already tired after holding the line for several days...harassed by enemy fire, gas [emphasis mine], and aeroplane bombing. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the spirit of all ranks ensured success....But for this spirit, the success which ultimately attended our efforts would have been impossible."^[2]

“The battle towards Cambrai dealt a mortal blow to a weakened, but resistant, enemy in the course of the last 100 days of the Great War. The operation began on September 27, 1918, with a hair-raising rush across a dangerously narrow canal passage. It continued with harrowing counterattacks coming from enemy troops concealed in woods, firing from bridgeheads, and lurking around the corners of myriad small village roads. It ended in triumph on October 11, when the Canadians, exhausted after days of unremitting fighting, finally drove the Germans out of their most important remaining distribution centre, Cambrai. Historians see this triumph as the highly professional execution of a daring and inventive strategy. For many of the soldiers, however, success was the result of a great esprit de corps, of great spirit."^[1]

On the last days of the war, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was still pursuing the retreating German army. On Armistice Day Canadians stopped at Mons, ironically close to the first attack point of the German army in 1914.

Somewhere along the way, Grandpa Bertle was gassed. This confused me at first, because like many people I thought gas attacks were restricted to the early days of the war. I discovered that "By 1918 the use of use of poison gases had become widespread, particularly on the Western Front...gas victims often led highly debilitating lives thereafter with many unable to seek employment once they were discharged from the army."^[1]

Mum tells me that her mother told her Grandpa Bertle never liked to talk about the war, except for one thing. He remained a lifelong supporter of the Salvation Army because, he explained, they used to regularly arrive at the battlefront with hot coffee and doughnuts for the fighting troops. They risked their own lives to provide some warm sustenance and no doubt a reminder of home to Canada’s fighting soldiers.

For his 122 days of service, the records show that Grandpa Bertle was paid a total of $280.00. In return, he paid with his lungs and heart and probably 50 years of his life. He married my grandmother three years after being demobilized in 1919, but only enjoyed 5 years of marriage and family before his damaged lungs gave out. However, as the quotes above suggest, he participated in the Great War at that moment when Canada's forces took the lead and ended the fighting in 100 days instead of 500 or 700. The bravery of those farmers’ sons came at a high personal price, but undoubtedly allowed thousands of other sons and daughters to lead long and fruitful lives. I hope he was proud of that achievement. I am.

Transposing this to Scrivener messed up the footnote numbering, but they are all in the correct order. Apologies.

Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit.

^[1] Duffy, Michael, Weapons of War: Poison Gas, 2006, website First World War.com. url http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/gas.htm 

^[1] Library and Archives Canada, website Canada and the First World War, Where We Fought, url http://www.collectionscanada.ca/firstworldwar/051806/0518060701_e.html 

^[1] Kennedy, Joyce M., Distant Thunder, Canada’s Citizen Soldiers on the Western Front,  2000, Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, Kansas, p.326

^[2] Major J.A.G. White, M.-G. A/Brigade-Major, October 1918, Headquarters, 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade. RG 9, series III-D-3, vol. 4891, folio 1709.

^[1] http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/02010602_e.html 

^[1] Library and Archives Canada, war records, Canadian Expeditionary Force Discharge Certificate.

^[1] Library and Archives Canada, war records,Casualty Form – Active service.

^[2] Library and Archives Canada, war records, Proceedings on Discharge (Demobilization)

^[3] There is no remaining record of which officers Grandpa Bertle served under. General Currie commanded the entire CEF.

^[4] Worthington, Larry, Amid the Guns Below, the Story of the Canadian Corps 1914-1919, 1965, Mclelland and Stewart Ltd., Toronto, p. 92,

^[1] Morton, Desmond, When Your Number’s Up – The Canadian Soldier in the First World War, 1993, Random House of Canada, Toronto, p. 67

^[2] ibid.

^[3] Library and Archives Canada, war records, Particulars of Recruit Drafted under Military Service Act, 1917.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Morton, p. 69