Category: Robert & Deborah & the Great War

Lieutenant Colonel Alex Wilson the Commanding Officer of the 33rd Overseas Battalion declares Robert Dixon fit for service. It has been over seven months since Robert signed up. Lucky for him that he lived near by and we assume able to sleep at home while training. Now that he is declared fit for service that training will probably intensify. The Battalion, now formed, would be heading overseas early in the new year.

The men of the 33rd Battalion were drawn from around South Western Ontario. They trained at the London Ontario Mobilization Centre in Carling Heights at the Wolseley Barracks. The Wolseley Barracks were built in 1886 to house the Company D of the Infantry School of the Royal Canadian Regiment. It was the first purpose built such infantry training school built by the Dominion of Canada , and as a result it now a national historic site. It is also home of the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum – so you can go visit where Robert Dixon trained . It is highly likely that Robert Dixon is in the photo below.

The 33rd Canadian Infantry Battalion ,which would eventually number 1,000 men, received training here on rifle shooting, bayonetting, field tactics and marching. The Battalion continued its training to the end of the year. They were given sometime off for Christmas and New Years before making their way overseas. Many of the men in the photo above would not return.

Isabella Ross Beaton gives birth to her daughter Annie Jeanette Lorraine Beaton on December 6th, 1915 in London Ontario. Isabella’s sister Deborah Ross is there at her sisters side to welcome her niece into the world. Her son William now just a few months old will have a cousin to grow up with! The baby will go by the name Lorraine. The first two names Annie and Jeannette are from her father’s Grandmother Annie and Mother Jeannette in Kincardine, Ontario. We assume each of them would have travelled down from Kincardine to London to see the new baby girl. The birth certificate below is interesting because it is here that we discover that Lorraine’s parents were indeed married in Hamilton Bermuda.

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Not present is Lorraine’s father Gordon Murray Beaton. After arriving in England in mid September he underwent a short period of training in Shornecliffe. He was then sent to France in mid November 1915. At the time of his daughter’s birth Sergeant Beaton is on the Western Front of the Great War. It would be a long time before he would ever meet his daughter Lorraine. Isabella would be raising her daughter alone. Well not totally alone. She had her big sister Deborah there. They would raise William and Lorraine together while their fathers were away. Thank goodness the two sisters had each other to lean on.

The Dixon’s and Isabella Beaton do have a number of things to celebrate. Their first with 5 month old William Dixon who seems very healthy and is growing fast. And then there is the newly born baby Lorraine who is lovely and all smiles. On the other hand Isabella’s husband is not there. Unaware to Isabella he is on the Western Front in Ypres right now. And Robert will be leaving on a troop train in the new year. And at this point one assumes the initial excitement over the war must be starting to wane. It has been going on for well over a year. The cold reality of its horror is starting to sink in. In April and May 1915 the Canadian Expeditionary Forces fought in the Second Battle of Ypres. The 1st Canadian Division had suffered over 6,000 casualties and 2,000 deaths and faced chlorine gas attacks. Yes the Dixon and Beaton families bravely celebrate. The two sisters put on brave faces for Robert. They hide their worries as best they can. Robert has trained hard.. He is as physically fit as he has ever been. Still he is tired of all the training and is anxious to get to the war. He deserves a joyous holiday. Happy memories to carry with him across the ocean.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

While Isabella is somberly celebrating Christmas and New Years with her newly born daughter and the Dixon family in London Ontario her husband Gordon is stationed long the French Belgian border . For a number of days Gordon and the men of the Royal Canadian Regiment are in working groups in a supporting role. Now , however , they are getting first hand experience in the mud-logged trenches of Ypres, Belgium. It is a cool rainy afternoon. Gordon is in D Company in Trench C.3. At 3:50 pm they are shelled. Gordon is thrown violently across Trench C.3 and knocked unconscious. Five other men are severely wounded that afternoon. One is suffering from shell shock. Five men are killed. They are quickly buried the next day in Dranoutre, Belgium. The War Diary for that day is shown below. Sergeant Gordon Murray Beaton is not listed among the wounded. Why? He wasn’t physically wounded enough. He had suffered shell shock though. Either he doesn’t realize it , or he isn’t ready to admit it yet. As a result Isabella does not get a cable informing her of her husbands injury. Gordon Murray Beaton is never the same man after January 12, 1916. It isn’t until February that Gordon confesses he has shell shock and seeks medical assistance. He will spend the rest of 1916 in hospitals in LeHavre, France and Ramsgate, Kent, England. He tries earnestly to recover from his shell shock. But as we know now, and as we call it now , PTSD isn’t something one ever totally recovers from. And certainly not from the events Gordon Murray Beaton witnessed that afternoon of January 12, 1916.

It is March 1916. The 33rd Canadian Infantry Battalion is finished its training in London, Ontario. It is time for the Battalion to head overseas. The men board the troop trains at the train station in London. Imagine Deborah being there to see Robert off with their son William in her arms. Imagine hugs and kisses and tears. Also imagine Robert being excited after all the waiting and all the training to finally be going to join the excitement of the Great War. Imagine the train pulling away and Robert seeing his wife and son through the window, they are waving as the train pulls away and they are left behind among the crowd on the station platform.

From London Ontario the troop train carried the 33rd Battalion east from Ontario, on to Quebec, though New Brunswick to Halifax Nova Scotia. Here the SS Lapland was waiting in the Halifax harbour to transport the 1,000 men on to England. The men embarked the SS Lapland on St. Patricks Day, March 17, 1916. Being on the look out for German U Boats in the waters around the British Isles they finally landed in England 9 days later on March 26th, 1916. Ironically, for Robert, he and the troops are landing in the very same place he departed for Canada almost exactly five years earlier in 1911 – the docks in Liverpool – not far from Preston Lancashire. The shop assistant has returned home as a Canadian Soldier. One has to wonder if his father William knew his son was arriving on that day. Were he and other family members there to welcome Robert back home? If they were it would have been a short visit. Soon the men were on the move again, by train again. This time to Shornecliffe Camp in south east England.

The Shornecliffe Camp on the the South East Coast of England – just across the English Channel from Northern France. It is now where the chunnel to France begins. It is here that this continegent of some 40,000 Canadian soldiers will undergo more training before heading to the front lines in France.

But before the men can resume training with the other Battalions they are first placed into quarantine for a month in nearby Dibgate. This was a precaution taken to prevent the spreading of diseases that were often incurred on the trip overseas. The men spent their quarantine in tents – four to a tent in Dibgate. The quarantine also acted as some down time for the men before they entered more intense training. They were well fed and looked after. Apparently baseball was a popular pastime for the men. But given many were, like Robert , British born one has to wonder whether some of the baseball was closer to cricket in style. After quarantine the men were rewarded with some time off. It probably wasn’t enough time for Robert to go visit his family in Preston – though anything is possible. It is more likely he would have gone to London, England to enjoy himself and possibly meet friends and family there.

Now that the men are done with their quarantine , a couple of weeks leave, and are well rested and well fed their training starts in earnest. As shown in Robert’s personnel records Robert trains at the camp at West Sandling May 15th appointed Staff Sergeant

July transferred to the 36 Battalion on July 6, 1916

Shornecliffe is divided into two camps – East and West Sandling. Behind the Camps – as shown above was Telford Hill. From what I can tell from Robert’s personnel records he was most likely stationed in one of these tents in West Sandling. There would be about 8 men to a tent. Robert would now undergo four months of intense training before being ready to move across the English Channel to France. France was not far away – apparently from Telford Hill the men could see France, and at night they could faintly here the sounds of war. Robert benefits to some extent from the learnings on the battlefields experienced to date and the realization that the men needed better training for what they were about to face. As a result the training ran the gamut. Rifle shooting practice, bayonetting, Signal practice, mortar practice, barb wire routing and cutting practice. The men were about to experience trench warfare. Telford Hill would be the perfect place to practice both digging trenches and practicing fighting in the trenches they had dug. Robert must have been handiing it all well, those in charge must have seen in him some leadership qualities for soon after the training begins in May he is made a Staff Sergeant.

And the training continues. And training involves a lot of Marching. In one post card I read that the men would March as far as Canterbury. That is six hours north from the coast. And that isn’t marching without any baggage. That is marching in full kit and rifles. And Robert, though he doesn’t want to admit it is in pain. HIs right leg is especially bothering him, and he isn’t sure why. Some men of the 33rd Battalion have already been sent to France. Those remaining like Robert are transferred to 36th Battalion on July 6th, 1916.

The 36th Battalion has just arrived from Hamilton, Ontario so if makes sense to transfer the remaining men of the London, Ontario 33rd Battalion into the the 36th. Robert is in serious pain. He is also probably upset to see some of his friends head off to the front lines without him. In hindsight we can safely say – Thank God – the Battle of the Somme has just begun – and thank god – Robert is not there.

Having varicose veins must be painful. Painful at any time in your life. For Robert, having them while training for the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, was extremely painful. And more than that it was embarrassing. His his understanding of varicose veins was that they were something really old people had, not young men like him. Was he predisposed to them, did they run in the family? Or were the caused by the intense training he had been undergoing. As shown in the Medical Case Sheet below, Sargent Dixon is complaining of the varicose veins in his right leg and how they ache when he is on long marches. If I am reading the next line correctly, I believe he has turned down being drafted to the front because of this. He is frustrated and embarrassed to see his fellow troops heading off to the front lines without him.

finally sought medical help in personnel records items 7, 8, 15, 23 also GSW, 25 description vv – impacting him on march Moore Barracks Cdn Hospital , 27 urinalysis for vv, 30 operation on right leg Sept 21 to October 12th , then moved to Canadian Convalescent Home Heathfield not discharged until November 22( where is the convalescent home) – in Heathfield – near Cross in Hand , east Sussess England

An operation is going to be necessary. Sargent Dixon finds himself in Moore Barracks Canadian Hospital in Shorncliffe. As you can read below he was placed under general anaesthetic on September 25th. Then the surgeon moves the internal saphenous vein which leads from his right middle thigh down to his ankle, he also performed the same procedure on some of the larger branches of the main vein. This sounds serious. The cuts made to move the veins are then sutured with horsehair. Robert has sutures all down his right leg. These are removed a week later on October 2nd and Robert is then moved to the Canadian Convalescent Home in Heathfield to recover from this operation. At the Convalescent Home Robert may have witnessed some of the horror he would soon face as the home would have housed those wounded on the Western Front.

Sargent Dixon takes a month to recover from this operation. He is discharged on November 21st, 1916. He is new and improved and hopefully ready for whatever comes next.

On my previous post I made the statement that Robert Dixon’s Varicose Vein operation probably saved his life. Not because the operation itself was life saving, but because of where he probably would have been stationed if not for the operation. The Battle of the Somme. It had started on July 1st, 1916. was a military disaster. On that day alone Britain suffered a staggering massacre of close to 60,000 casualties including 19,000 deaths. On that same day the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of 800 men were all but wiped out. ( the reason Canada Day is known as Memorial Day in Newfoundland) The Battle of the Somme continued all summer and into the fall when the Canadian Divisions were called upon. In September, while Sergeant Dixon is in the hospital being operated on, the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion to which he would soon be assigned were on the frontlines in in Courcelette. The casualties for the 1st Canadian Infantry alone for that September are shown in the War Diary entry below. 77 men killed, 332 wounded, and 40 missing. The Battle of the Somme goes down in history as a military disaster. The British Empire/Commonwealth suffered 420,000 casualties, i French 195,00, the Germans 600,000. Included in the Commonwealth numbers are 24,000 Canadian casualties of which 8,000 were fatalities. All this over about 8 kilometers of land – and when it was all said and done – nothing had really been accomplished by other side. A good time to be in the hospital for Sergeant Dixon. Although while he was in hospital it is highly likely that we would have witnessed the results of this Battle as the casualties continually arrived.

Now that Robert has recovered he recommences training with the 36th Battalion for the month of December. Robert spends December getting fit and proving himself now ready to make the next move. It is Christmas but Robert doesn’t appear to have been given any leave to enjoy the holidays. He enrolled in the army in February 1915. He was there for the birth of his son in July 1915. He underwent his medical in October 1915. He was in training in London Ontario until March 1916, when he made the voyage here to England. Since then he has been in quarantine for a month then training until August 1915, a serious varicose vein operation in late September, recovery in October and November, back to training in December. There is no evidence in his personnel files of a cable being sent to Deborah to tell her of the varicose vein operation.. We assume however that some kind of correspondence was maintained with her. At the minimum a postcard to tell her what he was experiencing. Deborah sending letters with photos and descriptions of son William who is now one year and 5 months old. It has been 22 months since Robert enlisted and he hasn’t experienced the Great War yet, and though he is probably frustrated with this the rest of us are thankful. Merry Christmas ! But that is about to change.