The ‘brooding soldier’ of Fordwich
David Yates, For the Signal Star
On Nov. 11, 1920, after an impressive two-hour ceremony in the freezing cold, the Wingham Advance reported that “a large assembly” had gathered on Patrick Street be…
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On Nov. 11, 1920, after an impressive two-hour ceremony in the freezing cold, the Wingham Advance reported that “a large assembly” had gathered on Patrick Street beside the Fordwich Presbyterian Church to unveil what Lieutenant-Colonel R. T. Pritchard, former commander of the 153rd (Wellington) battalion, called one of the most “beautiful tributes in memory of the fallen” in all of the Dominion.

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When Pritchard drew the Union Jack from the monument, the Fordwich figure was the “first bronze statue of a soldier molded and cast in Canada.”

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The Advance described the life-sized bronze figure as a “soldier in full trench equipment depicting a man just coming out of the line. He has received a letter from home and stands in meditation.”

Art historian A. L. McLeod in Remembered in Bronze and Stone (2016) writes that the soldier “with one armed bent at the elbow, chin resting on the hand, the right hand supported by his rifle” is the work of self-taught sculptor Nicolas Pirotton (1881-1943).

The soldier stands on the remnants of a shattered artillery piece symbolizing the triumph over militarism. Usually rendered in stone, only in Gananoque, Ont. and Fordwich, is the figure cast in bronze.

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Beneath the soldier’s feet, carved on the pedestal made of grey Canadian granite, are the names of 19 men who made the Supreme Sacrifice during The Great War. On the sides are the names of some of the battles that claimed their lives.

At the considerable cost of $5,800, the 16-foot monument unveiled a century ago on land donated by the village remains a powerful testament to the hideous losses suffered by small communities during The Great War.

Of the 19 soldiers, all were volunteers. Most were in their 20s. The two oldest men were 32 and 36 and were the only ones married. The five youngest were just 19.

They were all Protestants (10 were Presbyterian, five were Anglican and four were Methodist).

With the exception of Lance Corporals Austin Rowe and Alex Graham, they all held the rank of private at the time of their death.

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Their occupations were typical of a rural community. Not surprisingly, 11 listed their occupation as ‘farmer’ or ‘farm labourer.’ Among the other eight men was a labourer, printer, painter, cable splicer, fireman, tinsmith and two ‘clerks’.

Eight of them had initially enlisted in the 161st battalion before being transferred to frontline units.

The story of the names on the Fordwich monument personify the terrible sacrifices that the township suffered in the Great War. William Whitington (misspelled Whittington on the monument), aged 27, was the first Howick man known to have been killed. He worked as a labourer when he enlisted in the 18th (Western Ontario) battalion in November 1914. He was killed when a mine exploded under his trench near the St Eloi Crater on March 26, 1916.

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In July 1916, the Fordwich parents of Wilfrid Montgomery (19) received word that their son was missing in action. Whatever hope they held out for his survival was dashed the next day when a telegram arrived with the dread news that he had been killed on June 13.

Wilbert Sutton, 36, was the oldest man from Howick killed. With seven years service in the pre-war Royal Canadian Regiment, one wonders why he did not hold a higher rank. On Sept. 15, 1916, during the Somme battles, Sutton was killed holding onto gains his battalion had made in a successful assault on a German trench the day before.

On July 2, 1916, John Laird (19) was at Shorncliffe Camp in the UK when he was “accidentally shot” and killed while in training. Nineteen-year-old Private Robert Cecil Watters was the son of the editor of the Fordwich Record, when he contracted pneumonia and died on Nov. 15, 1916. He had only arrived in England with the 161st battalion two weeks before.

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On April 9, 1917, John Musgrove (19) fell storming Vimy Ridge with the Royal Montreal Regiment. He was one of 286 casualties sustained by the battalion that day. Ogal McLeod (19) and Frank Renwick (20) had both joined the Huron battalion. They were known as the ‘jolly’ boys of the Wroxeter company before being transferred to the 58th battalion. The 58th battalion had valiantly held Vimy Ridge against repeated German counterattacks. After having survived days of heavy fighting on the ridge, both men shared the same fate as they killed by shellfire on April 18th as their battalion was being relieved.

On May 6, 1917, 24-year-old Norman Sharpin’s death in an aborted trench raid did not even rate a mention in his battalion’s war diary.

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Earl Johns (24) had already been wounded by shrapnel in the left hip, arm and hand in July 1916. He was declared fit for duty in January and took part in the fighting at Vimy. Perhaps with a sense of impending doom, Johns wrote his last will in April leaving everything to his sister Margaret in Wroxeter. He was killed on Aug. 15 in the fighting for Hill 70.

Like the rest of Canada, the fall of 1918 was the deadliest season for the Howick men as nearly half, or nine men, died. With the exception of Austin Rowe (23) of the Fort Garry Horse who was killed in one of the last mounted cavalry operations of the Great War and Archie McCullough who died on Sept. 8, an early victim of the Spanish Influenza, the other seven lost their lives within a space of 32 days.

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Known to history as the Hundred Days when the Canadians cracked the Hindenburg line, the fall of 1918 was the most terrible season in Canadian history.

Alex ‘Sandy’ Graham (22) was one of 160 casualties his battalion suffered in capturing the Sensee River Valley. The next day, William Hood (21) fell in the attack on the Remy trenches. Although the position was taken, battalion losses exceeded 50 per cent, including Hood.

On Sept. 2, Douglas Bates (23) and Willam Underwood (21) were killed breaking through the Drocourt-Queant Canal system of fortifications. They were just two of the 13 fatalities recorded in the local papers that week.

In the fighting around the Canal du Nord, John Ringler (29) fell on Sept. 27. The Wingham Advance noted that, “John was a fine young man, not fond of adventure, but joined the overseas force as a matter of duty.”

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Fred Brittain (26) and Roy Cattanach (28) were the last Howick men to fall in battle on Sept. 29. They could not have known that their sacrifices, and thousands others like them across Canada, heralded that war’s end in just a few weeks.

After the Second World War, another 13 names were added to the Fordwich Soldier’s pedestal of Howick men killed in that war. Astoundingly, it was quickly evident that the Fordwich soldier monument did not include all of those from Howick who died in the Great War. In August 1920, another cenotaph was erected in the Wroxeter cemetery bearing another 14 names.

At the 1920 unveiling, Huron North MPP, John Joynt declared the monument “a worthy record in days to come of the spirit and devotion in days to come of the spirit and devotion of the men” of his day. Their valour and sacrifice undiminished a century later.

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