“The
tour just ended has been characterised by considerable Enemy artillery activity”
-
War Diary 12 Canadian Infantry Brigade 19 Jun 17
What had begun
as a search to find information on one soldier unfolded to reveal a story
forever connecting three individuals.
As a sample set,
the three were, by most measurements, a representation of the average Canadian
soldier on the Western Front. None of
the three had been born in Canada; which was certainly not unusual. Kirby Bourson Hunt was from Bona Vista
Newfoundland, then a Dominion separate from Canada; Thomas Culbert was Belfast
born and George Holland came from Worsley, England. They aged between twenty and twenty-seven
years old and ranged in height from 5’3” to 5’11”- both in age and stature they
were outstandingly average. They were
ordinary men, all three private soldiers who neither had conspicuous merit nor
detraction applied to their service. As
best as can be told, the three men, Holland, Culbert and Hunt had never met or
were known to one another, they had all served in different battalions and had
been in France for different lengths of time.
Thomas Culbert
was posted to the 38th Battalion on 6 December, 1916 and George
Holland reported to the 78th Battalion two days before
Christmas. These two men came to 4th
Canadian Division units to reinforce losses taken in the waning phase of the
Somme campaign. There was a great need
to make up numbers from casualties taken, as the long training and
organisational effort for the spring offensives-for Vimy Ridge- was about to
begin. Urgency to get men proficient in
their trade is evident in Culbert’s posting to a Lewis Gun Course not two weeks
after joining his unit. Hunt, the last
of these three to come to the front was taken on strength with the 47th
Battalion in May of 1917, in his own turn a reinforcement for the casualties
taken in the battle for which Holland and Culbert had been brought over for.
However, only
Holland was present with his unit at Vimy, Culbert had been wounded in
February; and it is at this point where I began.
 |
| Thomas Culbert |
Thomas Culbert
is a direct relative of a fellow I went to school with. This friend had posted newspaper clippings
regarding Culbert over Remembrance Week.
From the Toronto Star, it
began “Pte. Thomas Culbert, who in February last was severely wounded in the
right thigh is to-day reported to have died of his injuries.”[1] He had died on the 24th of June,
and was buried in France. This struck me
as out of the ordinary. Worded in this
way, the clipping made it appear as though his death in June was directly
resulting from his wounding in February.
It seemed a terribly lengthy time to linger from a leg wound, and that
Culbert was buried in France raised more questions. Mainly, why hadn’t he been evacuated to
England as was most usually the case for convalescence? Circumstances as they seemed were not impossible, just incredibly
unlikely. It was not much more than a
hunch which motivated me, and once I opened Culbert’s service records, my hunch
was confirmed.
He was indeed
wounded in February. His file states “GSW
(Gun Shot Wound) Rt. Thigh, slight”[2] on
his admission to hospital on 26 February.
The 38th Battalion War Diary provided the context: “At 5.30
pm a raid on German trenches was made by five officers and 85 other ranks….Results
38 Bn.: 1. Thirty-three dead Huns were counted.
2. Six dug-outs were bombed. 3.
Estimated that the enemy sustained at least forty other casualties besides the
above dead. 4. Enemy’s wire practically nil. Trenches in bad condition….Our
casualties- 4 killed, 27 wounded.”[3]
Culbert
recovered from this wound, returning to his unit on the 13th of
April, just missing the opening phase of Vimy Ridge. Discovering this only solved part of the
mystery; in that he didn’t linger for four months. His death, however, was listed as “died of
wounds” which meant there was a period of time in which he suffered injuries
before passing. Consulting the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission records and comparing those with reports
from 12 Canadian Infantry Brigade (to which the 38th Battalion belonged)
made the situation clearer. Colonel
Nicholson’s official history notes that this period, from the end of the first
phase of the Battle of Messines was one in which Haig, planning for a resumed
offensive had instructed his subordinate commands to “ ‘hold the enemy to his
ground, and prevent his moving troops elsewhere’.”[4]
 |
| George Holland |
The lines were
being stabilised, and strengthened in preparation for the next forward
move. Artillery fire was intense on both
sides. On the 18th of June, German artillery was “considerably above
normal….Shortly before mdt. In response to flares sent up…approx. 175 shells
were fired.”[5]
The majority of these fell amongst the positions held by the 38th
Battalion. Pte. George Holland, his 78th Battalion out of the line,
was that evening part of a working party sent forward which got caught in this
heavy fire. “Following casualties amongst party furnished by ‘D’ Coy; Killed 2,
874700 Pte. Holland, 625235 Pte. Miller, buried same time….4 wounded (slightly)
all by HTMB (Heavy Trench Mortar Bomb).”[6] 12 Brigade’s diary records these casualties
of the 78th, and two men wounded from the 38th. All of the wounded would have been brought
through the Regimental Aid Post, just behind the trench line, and thence to the
Advance Dressing Station, which was just on the eastern periphery of Givenchy. From the ADS men would either be treated and
discharged, or transported to a Main Dressing Station or other hospital
facilities further rearward. In extreme
cases, those men not expected to survive were made comfortable where they were
rather than subject them to unnecessary movement. Thomas Culbert, married father of two, never
made it beyond the ADS, although death came a slow, terrible six days later.
 |
| Kirby B Hunt |
On the 20th
of June, 12 Brigade was replaced in line by 10 Canadian Infantry Brigade, whose
battalions now took up the job of fixing the enemy in place. It was a few days later, overnight between
25/26 June that the 47th Battalion conducted a minor operation
against lightly held German trenches and a sweep of the village of La
Coulotte. “Patrols were pushed through
the village of LA COULOTTE as far south to the LENS-ARRAS ROAD, and found the
Southern part of the village still strongly occupied.”[7]
The patrol from the 47th retired to friendly lines, but not before
suffering casualties of two dead and fourteen wounded. One of those killed was
Kirby Hunt. He had been at the front
just over five weeks. His body was
brought to the ADS, as were the bodies of Holland and Miller from their
temporary grave along the support line.
Holland, Culbert
and Hunt were interred in a group plot at a place called Sumach Cemetery.[8] Group burials were not uncommon, and great effort
was taken to ensure these burials were identifiable. Only later- mostly through
a tremendous post-war program- would the men be exhumed and placed in single
graves within established grounds and marked with proper headstones.
Except, in this
case, Sumach Cemetery was destroyed in later fighting to such an extent that
when La Chaudière Cemetery was being constructed after the war, those initially
buried at Sumach could not be individually distinguished. These men are commemorated at La Chaudière by
a special memorial. The three; Holland,
Culbert and Hunt, men who didn’t know each other, ordinary average men, will
now pass eternity together, with so many of their comrades, marked by a stone
which offers the promise “Their Glory Shall Not Be Blotted Out.”
[1] Toronto Star, 05 July 1917
[2] MFW 54 “Casualty Form- Active Service” re. 775036, Pte.
Culbert, Thomas
[3] War Diary Entry, 38th Battalion, 22 February
1917
[4] Nicholson, GW, Col. “Official History of the Canadian
Army in the First World War” Queen’s Printer, Ottawa 1962 pg. 282
[5] 12 Canadian Infantry Brigade War Diary, June 1917
Appendix 1 “Intelligence Summary No. 128”
[6] War Diary Entry, 78th Battalion, 18 June
1917
[7] War Diary Entry, 47th Battalion, 25 June
1917
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