The Great War in Europe during the years 1914 to 1918 over a million young men were killed on the battlefields of that continent. One of the most notorious battlefields of that war was around the ancient town of Ypres. Over the course of the Great War, 250,000 soldiers were killed within a few square kilometers of Ypres. The bodies of forty thousand of those killed were never recovered. To this day, remains from those battles still surface every spring.
The battles that took place near Ypres were personified by the seas of mud that became the battlefield. As far as the eye could see an ocean of craters and mud stretched to the horizon. The wounded and dead would be lost, sinking below the ooze if not recovered by their comrades in arms.
The battle of Ypres also became known at the Battle of Passchendaele. Passchendaele was a ridge of hills beyond Ypres that was held by German forces. One of the members of the 18th Battalion Canadian Infantry that was involved with the assault on Passchendaele was Thomas Marshall Brocklebank.
Thomas Marshall was born in Sandwich in 1892, son of Moses and Mary A. Brocklebank.
At the age of 22 Thomas was initiated into the Masonic Order on April 3rd 1914 in Ontario Lodge No. 521, his occupation is listed as a plumber in the Lodge Register.
Shortly after his initiation into Ontario Lodge Thomas Brocklebank enlisted in the Western Ontario Regiment of the 18th Branch of the Canadian Infantry and was sent overseas.
On November 7th 1917 Brother Brocklebank was wounded while serving in the trenches, during an assault on the Passchendaele Ridge.
Stretcher-bearers would have been summoned to take Private Brocklebank to the nearest forward bandage station. This was no easy task, sometimes taking several hours to transverse the several hundred yards to the bandage station. Stretcher-bearers would trek through mud, bomb craters and enemy fire to deliver the wounded, the only comfort they could offer was a shot of rum. At the forward bandage station Brother Brocklebank would have received the most basic of medical attention. Wounds were dressed and morphine was administered in preparation for his evacuation to a casualty clearing station several kilometers behind the trenches. The following is an interview given by Private F. Hodgson of the 11th Canadian Field Ambulance of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, about his experience as a stretcher bearer at the Battle of Passchendaele. It reads as follows:
" The battalion bearers brought the wounded in from the line, which was about a thousand yards away or less. They had the worst job. The doctor dealt with those he could and then we took them down the line. There were three squads of us. Three squads of eight-because it took six of us at a time to get one stretcher out through the mud. That day we drew lots to see who should go first. My squad drew the last carry. This was night-time by now, because it was that late before they could get the seriously wounded out, although the walking wounded had been coming in all day. It was a terrible job carrying in the dark-almost impossible. The first call came at about two o'clock in the morning. We wished them good luck, and off they went. They were a long time away. They hadn't come back when No. 2 Squad were called out. After a long, long time they returned. Next, no, 3 Squad went out. We were glad that it was daylight by then. Away we went with our wounded man, struggling down the track. After a few hundred yards we were caught in a barrage. We put the stretcher-case in a depression in the ground. He was very frightened, the wounded boy. He said to me, " Am I going to die, mate?" I said, " Don't be stupid, fella. You're going to be all right. As soon as Heinie stops this shelling we'll have you out of here, and they'll fix you up OK. You'll be back across the ocean before you know it. " The shelling eased off and we picked him up and set off again. On the way back we passed the remains of our No. 1 Squad. There were nothing but limbs all over the place. We lost ten of our stretcher-bearers that day. Hell was never like this. "
At the clearing stations doctors and nurses would work to help save the lives of the wounded soldiers. Although the clearing stations were several kilometers back from the trenches this did not guarantee removal from the battle. The following is an eyewitness account by Staff Nurse C. Macfie of No. 11 Casualty Clearing Station, it reads as follows:
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" The men were very good. In a way it must have been worse for them just lying there. The beds all had folding legs, and there were sandbags pilled a foot or so up the sides of the ward tents. On a moonlit night the CO, Colonel Humphries, would come round and say, " All down on the floor tonight, we're expecting Jerry over ", so we had to turn the legs in and lower the beds to get them down below the level of the sandbags, to save the soldiers getting shrapnel. I was terrified when the bombs were dropping. We were all terrified-patients and nurses-we were all shaking. I remember one night when I was on duty and these bombs were dropping all about, I said to the doctor, " Oh, I wish I didn't shake so! " and he just looked at me and said, " Oh, be quiet. We all shake." After a brief stay at the Casualty Clearing station Private Brocklebank was transferred to a Military Hospital in Liverpool England. On January |
19th 1918 he succumbed to his wounds and passed on to eternity. He is buried in the Liverpool Kirkdale Military Cemetery in plot VI. C.E. 105.
In 1921 Thomas's mother was awarded the Memorial Cross, his father was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal in 1923.
