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.
