By Joe Corrigan
On November 8th, 2017 Lang Pioneer Village
Museum partnered with Lansdowne Mall in Peterborough along with students
from the Norwood District High School and the East Northumberland Secondary
School to stage a Remembrance Week living history tribute to Canada’s military
history. The event saw students and re-enactors dressed in reproduction uniforms
from the War of 1812, the Fenian Raids, the Boar War period 57th Battalion Peterborough Rangers Militia unit, World War 1, World War 2 and the
peacekeeping era. The participants each had a set of business cards to give out
to the shoppers who came by the display area. On one side of the card was the
picture and name of a Canadian soldier who served during the First World War
(1914-1918). On the reverse side was the image of a poppy along with the words
“Remember those who leave and never return and those who return and are never
the same.”
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| Fenian Students at the Remembrance Week Tribute November 8, 2017- Photo by Snap'd Peterborough |
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| Students at the Remembrance Week Tribute November 8, 2017- Photo by Snap'd Peterborough |
Remembrance Week this year coincided with the 100th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Passchendaele, the story of which was
recounted in my previous blog. This battle symbolized, as much as any, the horror
and needless sacrifice of life for which the First World War has become synonymous.
Even though the combatants had been going at each other for over three years at
this point, no one had yet figured out how to get the upper hand and break the
stalemate that manifested itself in the 400 miles of trenches from the English
Channel to Switzerland. As noted in Part 14 of this series, Lieutenant General
Arthur Currie resisted the demands of his British superiors to commit the
Canadian Corps to a battle that had gone on longer than it should have and for
which they were assigned the challenging task of fighting in a muddy wasteland
for the sole purpose of taking a ridge that was of dubious strategic value.
Currie, who by now was one of the most effective military leaders the allies
possessed, predicted his 100,000-strong corps would suffer 16% casualties
taking Passchendaele. In the end his prediction came to pass.
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| Tyne Cot Cemetery |
It is one thing to talk about casualties in the thousands
but that’s hard for many of us to visualize. If you were to travel to Tyne Cot
cemetery in Belgium, with its 11,900 British and Commonwealth graves, that is
when the scale of the carnage would hit home. Tyne Cot or Tyne Cottage was a barn that stood near the
level crossing on the road from Passchendaele to Broodseinde. Around it were a
number of blockhouses which the Canadians had to eliminate in order to reach
their final objective, the remains of the Village of Passchendaele. After the
Armistice (November 11, 1918), the cemetery was enlarged with the graves from
the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck. King George V visited Tyne
Cot cemetery in 1922 during his tour of the cemeteries of the First World War.
He chose a blockhouse as the site on which the Cross of Sacrifice was placed.
As few of Canada’s First War dead were buried on this side of the Atlantic, our
losses are reflected in local cenotaphs scattered across this large country. In
this piece we’ll reflect on the experiences of two individuals whose lives were
lost as a result of taking part in the war; one who left and never came back
and one who came back but was never the same.
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| Canadian Corps Passchendaele Monument |
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| Monument at Tyne Cot Cemetery |
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| King George V at Tyne Cot |
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| Talbot Papineau |
Talbot Mercer Papineau was born in Montebello, Quebec on March 23, 1883. He was the great-grandson of Patriote leader Louis-Joseph Papineau. Son of a Quebecois father and an American mother, Papineau came from an affluent family and was thoroughly bilingual in French and English but, unlike most people in Quebec, he was raised in his mother’s Protestant faith. He attended McGill University and was one of the first Canadians to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship. He studied law at Oxford University and played for the Oxford Canadians hockey team. He returned to Montreal in 1908 at which time he started a law practice.
In August 1914, he
enlisted with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and was
commissioned as a lieutenant. He fought with distinction during the war. In
1916, he came to national, and international, prominence through an exchange of
letters published in various newspapers where he argued with his cousin, the
nationalist leader Henri Bourassa, over support for the war and the British
Empire. Papineau's letter to Bourassa would eventually be published in The
Times of London. Many comparisons have been made between Papineau and future
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau due to their similar backgrounds
and beliefs about federalism and Quebec’s place in Canada. Papineau was awarded
the Military Cross for bravery and he eventually rose to the rank of major.
Prior to the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Papineau took a position as a staff officer
and served behind the lines. Thinking that his political ambitions would be
hindered by not being part of a “big push”, and also feeling he was letting his comrades
down, Papineau returned to the PPCLI in the spring of 1917.
Talbot Papineau was killed
on the 30th of October, 1917 during the second phase of the
Canadians’ attack on Passchendaele Ridge. Just before he left the trench he
turned to his friend Major Hugh Niven and said, “You know,
Hughie, this is suicide.” Papineau was hit by a shell and killed just as he
left the trench. His body was never
identified. Major Talbot Mercer Papineau MC is commemorated at Menin Gate
Memorial in the city of Ypres, Belgium. Who knows how history might have been
different if he had survived the war and pursued his political ambitions.
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| Charles O'Connor |
Charles Francis O’Connor
was a Catholic of Irish descent who was born in Whitby, Ontario on May 9, 1894.
He was the son of John and Julia O’Connor. His father passed away around 1902 having
been kicked by a horse at the age of 50. Charles lived with his mother at their
home at 206 Palace Street in Whitby and was a “moulder” by trade. He was
conscripted into the army and was enrolled on May 1, 1918 in Toronto. After
training at Camp Borden he was sent overseas arriving in England on the 21st of June 1918. On October 21st, 1918 he joined the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders) CEF in France and served with that
Battalion until late January 1919. Although he was only exposed to front line
combat for about three weeks, the war left him with a cough from exposure to
poison gas. He was discharged at Toronto on July 11, 1919 and returned to
civilian life in Whitby. He married Maud Macauley on August 21, 1921 and they
had three children together. Joseph Bernard born May 26, 1922, Mary Elizabeth
born November 3, 1924 and Theresa born August 19, 1926.
Charles and Maud bought a
brand new Ford automobile when they were first married. They liked to go on
picnics and they would go to ball games in the evening and watch them from the
car. Work became difficult to find in the late 1920’s and Charles had unsteady employment
with General Motors in Oshawa for a time. The family moved to Buffalo, New York
in 1930 after Charles got a job at the Ford plant there. No sooner had he
started work the plant closed down and the family moved back to Whitby
where Charles still owned a home. The two older children, Joseph & Mary
remained in Buffalo as they were in school at the time. One day when he was
working with a construction crew on a country road Charles was hospitalized with
sun stroke. While in hospital they discovered that he had a lung infection, the
result of his service in the war. Charles lived the rest of his life in
hospitals and nursing homes. He was placed in a facility in Strathroy, Ontario
by the Public Trustee which meant that his wife and children were unable to
visit him and he was cut off from his family for many years. He died in 1978
and is buried in the Catholic cemetery on a hill on the north east corner of
Brock Street and Rossland Road in Whitby.
Despite being alive for
the last two decades of my grandfather’s life, I never had the chance to know
him as I did my other grandfather. I only saw him once. It was in the nursing
home in Strathroy. He was unable to communicate and, despite my limited time with
him, I have a vivid memory of the encounter. Charles O’Connor lost his life to
the First World War as much as Talbot Papineau did. The trauma he experienced
in Europe, combined with the physical injury he sustained to his lungs and the
stress of trying to provide for his young family, cost him his life over a period of 40 years and impacted the life of his family as well. Unfortunately many
Canadian veterans today are facing the same issues that Charles O’Connor faced
dealing with his PTSD. And so today, as much as was the case in 1914 to 1918,
we must “Remember those who leave and
never return and those who return but are never the same.”
Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007.
