Hantsport 12 Dead in World War I

Colonel John Orr (Retired) stated at the March meeting of the Hantsport & Area Historical Society that the war which began in 1914 - the Great War, World War I, the war to end all wars - continues today in Israel and Palestine. More men died from disease than from military action. 

Orr's talk focused on 12 men from Hantsport who served in World War and whose names are found on the Hants County War Memorial, Windsor, N.S. Frederick Thomas Stoddard's name is missing from the Hantsport Memorial Stone.  

The WHHS and Orr hope to publish the results of their research in the booklet, "In Grateful Remembrance”. A symposium will be held June 10 and 11, 2016.

These individuals who all volunteered were: 

John Cowley Brown

Burpee Clair Churchill

George Willard Davis

Charles Albert Dickson

Francis Everett Dodge

LeRoy Litchfield Lawrence

Charles Lesley Macumber

Allan Marsters

Roland Coalfleet Reid

John William Rolph

Harry Black Schurman

The public has access to attestation records and service records through the internet now. Search Library Archives Canada - WWI, soldiers of WWI, to data base. John used these and other sources to fill in details about the men listed as born in Hantsport. He outlined at the meeting where the soldiers were born and when, their occupations, marital status, previous military service, medals they won, their citations, where they died, when they died, and how they died.

Several local residents who attended the meeting had information about family members who had served during the war.

Orr quoted from the English soldier Wilfred Owen's poem, Dulce et decorum est

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

(Owen served and died in that war. The Latin words - the old lie - translated: It is sweet and fitting to die for one's own country. )

Pam Atwell of the West Hants Historical Society appealed for information about the more than 900 men from Hants County who served as soldiers in WWI . Two hundred were killed in action. The society is not looking for donations but for information to be loaned. 

Colonel (Ret’d) John L. Orr  CD

After joining the RCN in 1963 and graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1967, Colonel Orr was selected for aircrew training and began flying at Shearwater in 1969.  He subsequently completed five operational tours on the SEA KING helicopter culminating in command of 423 Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron from 1985-87. 

He attended the Canadian Forces eommand and Staff College and has held a variety of staff positions in Canada ane overseas. He is currently a Research Fellow with the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University.

WEST HANTS HISTORICAL SOCIEY
WANTS YOU
TO LOAN US YOUR COLLECTED
WORLD WAR 1
STORIES & MEMORABILIA