Pte William Brown

51st (Edmonton Overseas) Battalion &

46th (South Saskatchewan) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force

WILLIAM BROWN was the third son of David and Jane Brown, and was named after his paternal grandfather, William Brown of Oswestry. He followed the family tradition of working in the pub trade, and earned his living as a bartender. In 1904 (when Bill was nineteen), he got engaged to Emily Edwards of Wrexham but, after a dalliance with a different girlfriend brought the wrath of Emily's father down upon him, Uncle Bill hurriedly emigrated: he went to Liverpool, and from there took a ship to Canada.

William settled first in Toronto, but soon moved west to Edmonton, Alberta, popularly known as "the Gateway to the Yukon". The Yukon Goldrush had begun in far northern Canada in 1899 and, as the nearest big city to the Yukon goldfields, Edmonton was the natural stopping-off point for hopeful prospectors. As a result, the rapidly-growing city had a reputation for lawlessness, and Bill's first job was reportedly riding shotgun on a stagecoach, to deter would-be bandits.

Bill eventually took a more settled job as a machinist, probably with the Gorman, Clancey & Grindley Company of Edmonton. He must have made a reasonably good living with the company as, when his father died in 1910, he was able to support his widowed mother in Wrexham to the tune of $25 per month.

Left - About to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Bill Brown (fourth from left, seated and wearing flat cap) with friends in Edmonton. Winter, 1914.

When World War I broke out, William Brown made an unanticipated early return to Europe. He enlisted in the 51st (Edmonton Overseas) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on Jan 15, 1915, at which time he was described as 5' 4" tall and 140lbs in weight, with a dark complexion, hazel eyes and black hair. Bill enlisted for the duration of the War, and became No.436371 Private Brown. His pay was $1.10 per day, and he assigned half his total income - $16 per month - to be paid directly to his mother, Jane.

Uncle Bill had joined up in Edmonton, and for over a year he remained in Canada, in training at various camps throughout the province of Alberta. He seems to have been a keen photographer, because from this point on Bill's life in the military is well-documented with pictures he took of the many new friends he made in the Army. (This does not apply to the period when he was actually serving in France, as the British Government banned personal cameras at the Front, to ensure that uncensored images of the War were not seen by the general public). His surviving photos show that life was not particularly difficult for those serving in Canada: on the contrary, Bill's life at this time seems to have been extremely sociable and varied, with a fair amount of travel.

The Canadian 51st Infantry Battalion in Training, 1915.

Left - Uncle Bill (at back, left) visiting an Indian Reservation, in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.

Right - Still enjoying Army life! Uncle Bill (at the bottom of the heap) with some 51st Battalion comrades,

peering out of their tent. Camp Sarcee, Alberta.

All this would change however in early 1916, when the 51st Battalion (Bn) received orders for service in Europe. Pte Brown sailed with his Battalion from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 18 April 1916 aboard the SS Missanabie. He arrived in Liverpool ten days later, and was posted to Bramshott Camp (pictured below), where a new Canadian Division - the 4th - was forming.

Uncle Bill remained in Bramshott throughout the summer of 1916 but, with so many Allied units in need of new personnel after the disastrous losses of the Somme campaign, it must have been very apparent to him that his departure for the Front was imminent. One of the voluntary civilian helpers at Bramshott Camp, Mrs Daisy Barnard, recalled many years later that the atmosphere at the camp was sombre, because everyone knew that the soldiers would be going overseas in a matter of months, and that the chances of survival were not good. Her most poignant memory was of the night the men of the 4th Division left for France: she was asked to sing one of their favourite melodies, "The Song That Reached My Heart", and the emotion of the moment was so great that many of the men were in tears.

Private Brown was formally transferred on 16 September 1916 to one of the 4th Division's constituent Battalions, the 46th (South Saskatchewan) Infantry Bn. On 5 October he proceeded overseas for service with the 46th Bn on the Western Front. After a short period of battle training behind the lines in northern France, Bill finally joined his new unit in the trenches on 4 November 1916.

When Uncle Bill arrived in France, the Battle of the Somme had been underway since 1 July. The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was fortunate in that it played no part in the first weeks of the Battle, but from mid-September to mid-November, the Canadians were in the thick of the fighting. The first major action in which the Canadians were involved was the attack on the village of Courcelette, which was captured on September 16, after heavy and sustained fighting. When Uncle Bill arrived on 4 November, he found himself thrown into the late stage of the Somme Offensive known as the Battle of Thiepval Ridge. The Canadians' objective at Thiepval was to capture Regina Trench, a formidable line of German defences beyond Courcelette. The heavy fortifications and the wet, muddy November weather made conditions extremely difficult for attacking troops. Regina Trench was finally captured with heavy Canadian losses on November 11, 1916; and the Canadians had pushed on through to Desire Trench (the German support line) by the time the Somme Offensive was called off at the end of the month. During the six weeks that it had participated in the Battle of the Somme, the CEF had sustained 29,029 casualties for no significant gain. This was Uncle Bill's introduction to the War in France.

Planning was underway for the next year's spring offensive even before the Battle of the Somme came to an end in November 1916. That same month, at a planning conference at French GHQ, it was decided that 1917 would be the year of decisive breakthroughs for the Allies. There were to be great offensives all around the perimeter held by the Central Powers: the French, the British, the Russians and the Italians, were all to launch major offensives.

On the Western Front, the British were to attack out of Arras while the Canadians secured their flank by capturing Vimy Ridge; this operation was intended to draw German reserves away from the areas, further south, where the French would attack. Then Field Marshal Haig would transfer his forces north to Ypres for the main British blow of the year: this offensive would liberate the whole Occupied Belgian coast, by breaking through the enemy lines at the small Flanders village of Passchendaele.

The Canadians' goal in the offensive of Spring 1917 - Vimy Ridge - had been held by the Germans since October 1914. They had used the intervening period to construct elaborate fortifications, adding to the Ridge's natural defences. (The Ridge dominated the surrounding Douai Plain, and was a natural vantage point for launching artillery strikes on the Allied lines below). By the end of 1916, the German defenders had constructed three main defensive lines, consisting of a maze of trenches, concrete machine-gun strong points, and deep dug-outs, all linked by tunnels and underground chambers that could each shelter entire battalions from Allied shells. In view of this, it is not surprising that previous unsuccessful attempts to recapture the Ridge had cost almost 200,000 lives.

In the late autumn of 1916, the Canadians moved north from the Somme to relieve British troops opposite the western slopes of Vimy Ridge. Here, they began a scrupulously-detailed training programme which the commanders of the Canadian Corps believed would ensure success where previous assaults had failed. This was to be a "set-piece" battle, behind a perfectly timed rolling barrage: all of which demanded thorough rehearsal of the troops and the massing of enormous quantities of guns, ammunition and stores. Gus Sivertz of the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles later described being taken behind the lines to the village of Rimbert, to train for the attack. "Here, we started a schedule of the most intensive training, mainly over taped trenches in an area that simulated the slopes of Vimy on a small scale. Every few days we were visited by the Big Brass who watched as we practised attacking at a slow walking pace...while officers rode ahead carrying little flags that moved at a speed that they hoped the barrage would move. When Sir Julian Byng, the Canadian Corps Commander came up, there wasn't the slightest doubt about what was in the offing".

Because of the vast preparations needed, the Germans too were well aware of what was being planned - the only real secret was the exact date of the attack. A German officer who was captured by a Canadian raiding party told one of his interrogators, George Hancock of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry: "We know you're going to attack Vimy Ridge. We know all about your plans. You might get to the top of Vimy Ridge, but I'll tell you this, you'll be able to take all Canadians back to Canada in a row boat that get there".

Because two Hills - Hill 145 and Hill 135 - dominated the crest of the Ridge, it was decided to divide the Infantry attack into two phases. The main attack would consist of the Southern Assault, to take and hold Hills 145 and 135, together with the ground they commanded. If this Southern Assault was successful, then a separate Northern Assault would be launched against "The Pimple", an isolated knoll at the far north of the Ridge, which had been strengthened by concrete pill-boxes bristling with machineguns. Uncle Bill's 46th Battalion was situated at the far north of the Canadian line, in the Souchez Sector, opposite Givenchy-en-Gohelle. They were to be held in reserve throughout the southern part of the offensive and, if and when Hills 135 and 145 were taken, they would storm the Pimple, along with the 44th and 50th Battalions.

The Infantry attack was preceded by a powerful artillery bombardment, designed to destroy the heavy gun and other fortified positions on the Ridge. The bombardment began in mid-March 1917, and was carried out by nearly 1,000 artillery pieces: which breaks down to one heavy gun to every twenty yards of front, one field gun for every ten yards. Throughout the three weeks of the bombardment, Michael Volkheimer was serving with Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No.3 near Thelus in the central part of the Ridge, and he recalled: "After several days of uninterrupted barrage from artillery of all calibres, the enemy finally levelled our defensive positions, the 1st Line, 2nd Line, 3rd Line, and all the connecting trenches as well. We sought shelter in the dugouts which were deep below the ground, but soon the entrances were blown in and many German soldiers buried alive".

The artillery briefly fell quiet on the morning of 9 April, as the Canadian Infantry moved forward to their starting positions in No-Man's-Land, but "at five thirty am precisely the whole atmosphere was rent by screaming shells passing overhead, every gun seemingly having been fired as if by clockwork. The German frontline was erupting along its entire length and seemed to be enveloped in sheet lightning" (Sgt David Layton, 15th Royal Warwickshires). This was the beginning of the rolling barrage, aimed to wipe out defensive positions immediately ahead of the Canadian advance. Because the Canadians were heavily laden, and crossing a No-Man's Land of sticky mud and impassable craters, the barrage moved ahead of the infantry at a deliberately slow pace that the foot soldiers could keep up with - three minutes for each one hundred yards. Gus Sivertz later recalled that once the barrage began, "I looked ahead and saw the German front line crashing into pieces...We didn't dare lift our heads, knowing that the barrage was to come flat over us and then lift in three minutes...It was perhaps the most perfect barrage of the war, as it was so perfectly synchronised. Then, suddenly, it jumped a hundred yards and we were away"...

In fact, the artillery assault of the previous weeks, and the synchronised bombardment of 9th April, did their jobs most effectively, allowing the first part of the Southern Assault to proceed like clockwork. "We felt so safe with that rolling barrage in front," said H Campbell of the 14th Battalion. "You could see the thing beating. It was just like a lawnmower, you know, when you're cutting grass". By the end of the first day of the attack on Vimy Ridge, all of the southern objectives had been taken, with the exception of Hill 145, which fell to elements of the 4th Canadian Division early the next morning.

This left just one fortified German position, "The Pimple", still in place on the heights at the far northern tip of the Ridge, and Uncle Bill's 46th Bn was brought up from reserve to take part in the attack on this final stronghold. Alongside the 44th and 50th Battalions, the 46th set out at 5.30am on 12th April in the dark, with a gale of snow, and in knee-deep mud and slush. The Canadians soon lost contact with the barrage ahead of them, because of the blizzard, but the direction of the storm actually helped the advance, as it blew directly into the faces of the German defenders. "With the gale and the snow behind us, there seemed to be not much trouble," said T H Hewitt (one of Bill Brown's colleagues in the South Saskatchewan Bn). "It went right into their eyes, you see, and we were fortunate to get in on this storm. It kind of covered our movements." By 9:00am, the advancing Canadians had taken all their objectives, and the whole of Vimy Ridge was in Allied hands for the first time since the autumn of 1914.

The success at Vimy Ridge did not lead to the hoped-for decisive breakthrough on the Western Front, but it was the greatest Allied victory in the War thus far, and was achieved with comparitively low casualties on the Allied side: about 3,600 dead and 7,000 wounded. (When the War was over, and the Canadian government was seeking a site for its national memorial to those who died in the Great War, it selected Vimy Ridge, where the Canadian Corps had enjoyed its greatest triumph. Today the land around Vimy, including the Ridge itself, has been given by France to Canada in perpetuity, in recognition of Canada's contribution to the First World War. The Vimy Memorial which now stands there is Canada's national memorial not only to those who died at Vimy, but to all 60,000 Canadians who lost their lives).

On 1 May 1917, William Brown's mother was informed by telegram that: "No.436371 Private Brown admitted to No 13 Fld Amb Hosp Apr 12th 1917 GSW Rt Thigh" (ie No.436371 Private Brown admitted to No 13 Field Ambulance Hospital, April 12th 1917. Gun Shot Wound, Right Thigh). Uncle Bill had been among the 100 casualties suffered by the 46th Bn at Vimy Ridge: shot in the leg on the final day of the battle, as the Canadian 10th Brigade stormed The Pimple. Fortunately, although his wound was serious enough to necessitate his evacuation from the Front to No 13 Hospital in Le Havre, he would be fully recovered within a few weeks. On 8 May he was able to rejoin his unit, and by 30 May he was back in the trenches. The wound to his right thigh left no permanent disability.

Soon after returning to his unit, Uncle Bill was awarded one Good Conduct stripe, in recognition of having completed two years' continuous service in the CEF. He also received ten days' leave for this accomplishment, which he took in Paris between 25 July and 8 August 1917. On 31 July, while Pte Brown was in Paris, the British Supreme Commander, General Haig, launched the disastrous main British offensive of 1917: the attempted breakthrough at Passchendaele (formally known as the Third Battles of Ypres). Instead of the swift breakthrough that Haig had envisaged, the Passchendaele campaign descended into a hugely costly war of attrition. British forces struggled in impossible conditions for almost four months against strongly-fortified German defences, making only limited advances (for more on the Battle of Passchendaele, see the biography of Peter Hughes).

Early in October 1917, the entire Canadian Corps was ordered to the Ypres Sector, to participate in the final stages of the battle. From 26 to 31 October, the Canadian 3rd and 4th Divisions advanced across the heavily-cratered, muddy battlefield to the outskirts of Passchendaele - Uncle Bill's 46th Bn suffering a 70% casualty-rate in the process. On 31 October, the Canadian 1st and 2nd Divisions took over the offensive. They carried out the final advance on the village itself - now just "a brick-coloured stain on the landscape" - which they finally took after eleven days of continual air attacks and a massive German artillery bombardment.

The capture of Passchendaele was a hollow victory, which caused huge casualties on both sides without ever threatening to bring about the intended breakthrough. By the most conservative estimates, Haig's forces gained four and a half miles of ground during the four month offensive, at a cost of 225,000 Allied casualties and 333,000 German. Although the Canadian Corps took part in the Battle of Passchendaele for only the final seventeen days, they suffered 15,654 battle casualties there, and won nine Victoria Crosses. In the immediate aftermath of Third Ypres, Lloyd George commented wryly on 12 November: "We have won great victories. When I look at the appalling casualty lists I sometimes wish it had not been necessary to win so many."

The Canadian Corps spent the winter of 1917 in the trenches of the southern sector of the Ypres Salient, the area of trenches with which they were most associated throughout the War. In the spring of 1918, the German High Command mounted a final grand offensive to break the Allied front, directed first at St Quentin, and secondly at Messines and Armentieres. Like the rest of the Allied line, the Canadians at Ypres were overwhelmed and hurriedly retreated from parts of the Salient that the Allies had held at tremendous cost since 1914. Although in retreat, the Allied front did not collapse and the expected German breakthrough did not appear. By early August 1918, the Germans had thrown all their reserves of manpower and supplies into the assault, without achieving the hoped-for breakthrough. With no breakthrough and no reinforcements, the Spring Offensive finally lost momentum, and British forces managed to establish a new front line just east of Amiens, France.

To consolidate the new British position, Field-Marshal Haig planned a limited offensive on the outskirts of Amiens. The attack would take place on 8 August, and would be spearheaded by the Canadian Corps: its purpose was simply to secure Amiens' railway yards from the possibility of surprise attack. Nobody expected that this small-scale offensive would turn out to be the turning point of the War.

When the Canadians, flanked by Australian and French soldiers, and led by 450 tanks, began their assault on 8 August, they discovered just how exhausted German forces were as a result of their long Spring Offensive. During the three days of the Battle of Amiens, the Canadians advanced 8 miles and the German forces facing them surrendered in their thousands. German Commander General Erich Ludendorff described August 8 1918 as the "black day of the German Army", and the decisive shift of momentum to the Allies on this day persuaded the German High Command of the virtues of a negotiated peace, which they urged the politicians in Berlin to explore.

On August 10th, the final day of the Battle of Amiens (which was described as generally quiet after the momentous breakthrough on the first day), Uncle Bill suffered the wound that would leave him disabled for the rest of his life. As he passed a German machine gun position, he was hit in the back of the left calf by a single bullet, which shattered the bone in his lower calf and exited through the front of his leg, leaving a large exit wound through which both ends of his broken leg protruded. He did not receive medical treatment until the next day, when he reached 9th Canadian Field Ambulance and underwent the first of several operations to try to set his shattered tibia.

Wartime postcard of Rue de Beauvais, Amiens. Uncle Bill stuck this postcard in his photo album, and labelled it: "Where I was handed my souvenir. August 10th 1918".

It was immediately apparent that this time there was no possibility of Bill returning to active duty any time soon, and he was quickly transferred to No 48 Casualty Clearing Station, from where he was shipped back to a military hospital (No 47 General Hospital) in Le Treport. It was while Bill was being treated at Le Treport, on 17 August, that his mother received the news: "No.436371 Private Brown. Seriously ill. 47 Gen Hosp. GSW L Leg".

On 26 August, Uncle Bill was evacuated to hospital in the UK. He was admitted to No 5 Southern General Hospital in Portsmouth, where it was noted that his wound had not closed or healed significantly since the day he suffered it, and was now complicated by infection. Over the next five months, Bill was a patient at a series of convalescent hospitals.

Left - Clayton Court Auxiliary Hospital, East Liss, Hampshire.

Right - William Brown was a patient at Clayton Court from 4 Oct 1918 to 24 Jan 1919.

He is the patient pictured in the right-hand bed in this photograph, although his image is very faint.

On 24 January 1919, Uncle Bill was transferred to the Woodcote Military Convalescent Hospital in Epsom, Surrey. But although his wound closed and was healed of infection during his stay at Epsom, Bill's broken tibia showed no signs of reuniting. Hospital authorities at Epsom therefore decided that he was an unsuitable case for a convalescent hospital, and on 4 February he was transferred to Granville Canadian Special Hospital in Buxton, for specialist diagnosis and surgery.

Left - Ptes Bill Brown and Bill Grady at Granville Hospital, Buxton. The two Bills became friends while convalescing at Woodcote Hospital in Epsom, and were both transferred to the Canadian Specialist Hospital in Buxton in February 1919. Uncle Bill's face is swollen and misshapen, because the Army has just treated him to his first dental examination - 31 fillings!

After brief stays at Kinmel Park Military Hospital in Rhyl, and No 5 Canadian General Hospital in Kirkdale, Uncle Bill was transported via Ripon to Whitley, from where he sailed for Canada on 21 May 1919 aboard the SS Araguaya.

William Brown arrived back in Canada on 31 May 1919, after an absence of more than three years. He travelled across the country to the West Coast, and was admitted to Shaughnessy Military Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 5 June 1919. Surgeons at Shaughnessy concluded that Bill's broken leg would never heal, as too much of the bone had been destroyed when he was wounded. They started him on a long-term course of massage and electric therapy, to try to restore movement to his knee and ankle, but warned that he would never recover enough strength in his leg to walk again unaided.

William Brown at Shaughnessy Hospital, Vancouver, 1919-1920.

Left - Bill meets Baron Byng of Vimy Ridge during the latter's 1919 visit to Vancouver.

General Sir Julian (later Baron) Byng was the Commander of Canadian Forces in Europe in 1917-18.

Centre - Ptes Rankin, Bruce, Debeau, Adams & Lambert.

Right - Ptes Piper (left) and McKay. Uncle Bill and George Piper both settled in Vancouver, and the two became close friends.

They travelled widely together throughout North America during the 1920's.

Left - Uncle Bill (at back) visiting Ptes Bill Grice and Ken Adams.

Right – Jim Swan, died in hospital, 1920.

Having determined that Uncle Bill's injuries would not improve further, Shaughnessy Hospital transferred him to Esquimalt Military Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, where a final decision would be made on his future in the CEF. Bill went before a Medical Board on October 29^th 1919, which agreed that his disability was severe and permanent. On November 1, he was discharged as Medically Unfit from the 46^th Saskatchewan Bn (known by this time as "The Suicide Battalion" because of its 91.5% casualty rate). In recognition of his wartime service, Uncle Bill received the British War Medal, the Allied Victory Medal and the Army Class A War Badge.

Left - Ambulance staff at Esquimalt Hospital, Victoria, on the day that William Brown received his medical discharge from the CEF, 1 November 1919.

Bill Brown decided not to return to his pre-War home in Edmonton, and settled instead at 45, 57th Ave East, South Vancouver. His disability did not prevent him from living a social and active life during the 1920's. On his disability pension and the Army pay that had built up over the course of the War, he travelled and socialised widely, often in the company of his brother, Harry, or his old friends from Shaughnessy, especially George Piper. Together they travelled throughout North America with their wheelchairs and crutches: to Alaska, Boston, New York, Seattle, California, and all over scenic British Columbia.

In 1928, Uncle Bill signed up for a British Legion trip back to Europe, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Armistice. He visited London, and his family in Wales, but most of the trip took the form of a pilgrimage back to the old battlefields where he had fought. As always Bill took his camera with him, to record the event for his scrapbook.

William Brown's Tenth Anniversary Visit to the Western Front, 1928

Left - Setting off aboard the Canadian Pacific Steamship "Mont Royal".

Bill Brown is standing, hatless, in the centre of the second row.

Centre - Uncle Bill (centre of picture, with hat) revisiting The Pimple on Vimy Ridge.

Right - Bill Brown (left) inspecting a British tank at Ypres.

Left and Centre - Posing with old shells and artillery pieces on the Somme.

This is where Bill Brown had seen his first action of the War, twelve years earlier.

Right - Looking down on a memorial service at the Menin Gate, from the wall that abuts the Gate.

The brickwork at the left of the photo is the outer wall of the Menin Gate, which commemorates

54,000 of the Allied troops who died defending the Ypres Salient but have no known grave.

Back home for good - Bill Brown on Hope Street, Wrexham, about 1955. Still wearing his War Service Badge on his lapel!

It was during this visit to Europe that Uncle Bill decided to leave Canada and return to Britain for good. (His only relative in Canada, younger brother Harry, had died in December 1927). Bill settled in Wrexham again, and renewed his friendship with his former fiancee, Emily Edwards. Emily and Bill met in secret until the death of Emily's father, in the early 1940's. At that time, they moved into a house together in Bradley Road, Wrexham. The two remained together for the rest of their long lives, but never married.

After Emily's death in the early 1960's, Bill's later years were lonely. He recalled with great affection the new life and many friends that he had once made for himself in the Canadian West, and felt that it had been a mistake ever to come home. William Brown died on 9 March 1968, at the age of 82. He is buried with his sister Nell and brother-in-law Charlie Whitley in Ruabon Road Cemetery, Wrexham.

Footnote:

This map identifies the major locations in France and Flanders where William Brown served, from 1916 to 1918.

Key:

1. Le Havre
2. Amiens
3. Thiepval
4. Courcelette
5. Vimy Ridge
6. Ypres
7. Passchendaele
8. Le Treport