Remembering his service - Walter Steele

My grandfather, Walter J Steele served his country for the entirety of Canada’s participation in World War One. Born in the small town of Woodstock, Ontario, he volunteered in response to a recruiting drive, and enlisted in the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces at Valcartier, Quebec on Sep 20, 1914. He was a few months shy of his 20th birthday, although his attestation papers say he was almost 21. As we have his record of birth in 1894, it’s unknown whether he may have thought it sounded better to be a bit older, or if this was a simple administrative error.

His occupation prior to joining is listed as Painter. Since our Grandma was the artist in the family, he must’ve been a house painter or something like. He is described as 5’ 3, with dark hair and complexion, and a chest measurement of 33 inches. His only distinguishing mark was a scar on his right hand.

Wally was assigned to “A” Battery of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (RCHA), which was one of the regular artillery units of the Canadian field force. Horse artillery units were specialized, with light, highly mobile guns intended to support Cavalry units. “A” Battery also had trucks to move men and supplies, and it is likely he drove both. Now called the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, the RCHA battalions served with and supported Canadian, British and Indian Cavalry Corps.

“A” & “B” battalion shared 12 13-pounder guns. Wally’s rank for the entirety of the war was Driver, which is equivalent to Private, and was for the men who drove the teams of horses which pulled the guns. After WWI it was phased out, and all of this lowest rank were designated as Gunners. Even though the guns were considered highly mobile, Wally is remembered talking about the terrible time they had trying to manoeuver horses, heavy wagons and artillery through the mud of France.

As one of the 44,000 Canadian gunners who enlisted to fight for King & Country, Wally was lucky not to be part of the two field batteries that served in North Russia and Siberia! Luckier still (especially for Walter’s 7 children, 21 grandchildren, and uncounted great, and great-great grandchildren), he was not amongst the 10,631 of the RCHA who were injured, wounded or died after participating in some of the most difficult fighting. Only the Infantry suffered higher casualties amongst Canadian troops.

The RCHA sailed to England on Oct 3, 1914 for training. Their base was at the British Army’s West Down North camp on the Salisbury Plain, in the south of England (see map at bottom of post). The CEF sent 8,000 more men than the 25,000 expected by the Brits - which meant a shortage of waterproof tents. Some wooden roofed huts were eventually built by December, but most of the RCHA was assigned to tents for the fall & winter of 1914. Of course, that winter was one of the wettest on record at the time. Since the ground is chalk, which doesn’t allow for much drainage, there was frequent flooding. The conditions sound quite miserable, and while efforts to resolve the issues were made, some vets said these were the worst conditions they had to endure!

Drivers were paid $1 per day, with a .10 “premium” for being on the battle front. If sick in hospital, a soldier received half pay, and if he was in the clink, he forfeited it all. It would seem Wally wasn’t immune to having fun- perhaps too much, as evidenced by his pay, service and medical records. They’d been in England just under a month when he was found to be Drunk on Parade, for which he was fined $3 and served 168 hrs (1 week!) of detention. Given the weather and living conditions, who could blame him! And he may even have found the accommodations were better in the pokey. The Canadians arrived in France in July 1915, & Wally was granted his first 1 week leave in Jan 1916. He apparently painted the town red, as his leave was followed in short order by a couple of hospital stays to be treated for Venereal Disease - using arsenic! Oh those French mademoiselles!

The RCHA was in the Somme for some of the heaviest fighting in the summer and fall of 1916.
There was the inevitable waiting to advance, bivouacking by day and marching by night. They came under heavy shelling & gas attacks but by all accounts gave as good as they got. On Oct 6 the RCHA was called on to assist the 14th Artillery corps as roads were unpassable. With Canadian ingenuity (early MacGyvering?), they rigged up packs & rope to move ammo as the situation was serious. A few weeks later, after withdrawing under heaving shelling, they “bivouacked in wagon lines which are about 1 foot deep of mud”. Finally on Nov 16th they were moved off the front lines and into good billets for the winter, but 116 horses short. Shortly after, in December, Walter forfeited 5 days pay for drunkenness. I needed a drink after just reading these daily diaries and imagining all the harrowing things he went through, so it isn’t surprising that he got caught overdoing it, and I’m sure he wasn’t alone. The daily trials and bravery of the lower ranks is often under documented and under appreciated. Like so many veterans, he didn’t often talk about his experiences, but he no doubt carried the memories of what he saw and endured for the entirety of his life. These men are the unsung heroes of war; on whose backs the war was won. Without their persistence and sacrifice, we may have seen a very different outcome.

The war continued on and the Canadians remained in northern France. They moved around quite a bit, but geographically, didn’t really go very far. An excerpt from their battle orders while at Lens, France from Aug 15-25, 1917: “If an SOS barrage required, code word to be Toronto”. I had no idea the rate of fire was so specific, but it makes sense as it would be impossible to convey orders during the shelling.

In Jan & Feb 1918 he was sent down from the lines to a field hospital, sick with diarrhoea and discharged after 6 days. Since this could be fatal in a time with no antibiotics, he was again lucky.

The RCHA was at Amiens in August 1918 and remained in the area for several skirmishes following the main battle. On Aug 9th, “A” and “B” Batteries reported firing 850 artillery rounds in 3.5 hours. They did not have any automatic guns. (Do that math!)

Military history is not particularly my thing, so until now my knowledge of WWI was pretty much defined by the names of battles from a grade 10 textbook: Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele, Amiens. And gas attacks, influenza, and Canada coming into its own as a nation. But what I’ve come to realize in reading the daily comings and goings of the RCHA, is that much of the fighting happened outside of the large battles. The Batteries provided heavy artillery cover for Infantry units to move. They did reconnaissance of enemy positions, they joined with other units to provide destructive shelling to break the enemy’s hold on a position. They came under attack, and had to retreat. Men and horses died of gunfire, wounds, disease and accidents. The sheer logistics of it all hurts my head. Organizing food and billets for all the men on the move as well as ensuring forage and water for the horses. There were even trucks that specifically moved horse blankets from last night’s billet to tonight’s bivouac. The roads were a mess and the mud was awful. The devil is in the details indeed!

Since they didn’t return home immediately, I was curious what they did following the declaration of peace on November 11, 1918. “A” Battery marched from France into Flanders (now Belgium), where some officers were given “English” leave, while groups of regular men were given 24 hrs leave in Brussels. In December they moved to winter billets near the German border, where they were (presumably) strategically located should the peace negotiations falter. January to April 1919 seems mostly to consist of “dull & cold” weather, inspections, a successful RCHA soccer team, and the winding down of operations.

Spring saw a separation from the Cavalry Corps, with whom the Brigade had served for most of the war. The RCHA brigade was honoured by bands and Cavalry Corps who gathered to see them off and wish them well. Horses were being prepared to be shipped out, and guns, wagons and harness “turned in”. The soldiers were now listed as “Dismounted” and traveled by train to the Canadian embarkation camp at Havre, then marched to the boat for Southampton, arriving at Camp Bramshott on April 16th.

Wally got leave to Brighton from Reveille on May 16th until Midnight on May 18th. I hope he had a blast, and arrived back at camp at 11:59pm.

From there, the Canadians embarked ship at Liverpool on May 21, 1919, arriving in Halifax on May 28.

Just 3 days later he was discharged/demobilized at Kingston ON on May 31, 1919, and was awarded the War Service Badge, Class A.

May we never forget the service of the rank & file, who quietly returned to "regular" life, never letting on that they were every day heroes, if only by virtue of getting through each and every day.

While the ultimate sacrifices made for us by our veterans are truly staggering, it would be remiss not to take a moment to appreciate the 8 million horses, mules and donkeys lost in the war.

Epilogue: Walter returned to his family who were now residing in Toronto. He moved to Woodstock to work at a dairy and married Olive Thompson, having a son and daughter. Olive passed away, and Walter married again, moving to London, Ont. where he had five more children with Margaret. He died in his 78th year.

Map of southern England. Pin shows approximate location of West Down North, with London in top right, and Southampton in middle bottom.