L/c White & I go to Coliseum Redoubt at back of 1st Division line to make survey. Also visit Empire Redoubt & O.P. on Quarry line. Come home via Pont Pylones, Chepstow and Ray trenches. Much activity on front.
Thursday 23 November 1916
Mr Henry, Intell. Officer of 49th, visits me & we have an old time chat. thinks of joining RFC. We correct crater plan.
*RFC – Royal Flying Corps the military organization in charge of aircraft which would become the Royal Air Force in 1918. The RFC was in charge of aerial reconnaissance, artillery support and later aerial combat and strategic bombing. The Canadian Branch of the RFC was established in 1917 to train aircrew in Canada; this would later become the RCAF.
Wednesday 22 November 1916
Lt Col GA Borden is “reported” wounded by shrapnel, all a bluff to get a gold stripe, for he does not report to dressing station – Brave man!
Tuesday 21 November 1916
I go over trenches of 9th Brigade & afterwards thro’ [Boyau Rietz?], Lundy Island Redoubt & Chateau works.
Enemy shelling badly. Has also a machine gun playing on HDQRs near [cross?]Roads at Aux Rietz.
Monday 20 November 1916
Very busy making a large 2. 500 map for General MacDonnel.
Sunday 19 November 1916
A very busy day for myself & Fritz. General MacDonnel gets a letter from Duke of Connaught but can not decipher it so I lend him my magnifying glass and assist him.
Capt Wallis goes on a sneaked pass to England. He has words with Major Adamson PPCLI to that effect. Capt Papineau & Col Lamel, of 3rd Div, visit Brigade H.Q. The former goes up the line with “Confusion Wallis.”
Saturday 18 November 1916
Capt Wallis goes to trenches to verify disputed junction. Arrives back & – I am right. He has to indirectly apologize. The ass!!
Fritz pounding the road. Col Borden, bro’ of Premier, goes into trenches. Usual cannonading. During last night it snowed but later in day in rained.
Friday 17 November 1916
Working on a large map for General Macdonnel. Have heated argument with Capt Wallis re location of trenches. He is wrong & is not gentlemanly enough to admit it. Refuse to obey him as we are alone in my dugout.
Thursday 16 November 1916
Four passes to England are granted the brigade & 3 officers commandeer them, thus leaving only one private or N.C.O. to go. A dirty piece of work. Capt Willis wants L/c White & I to take over a newly erected hut for draughting purposes. It has no windows in the frames, no door & is very damp from recent rain. I reason with him & – with great surprise- succeed in putting it off for a day or two.
Poor 7th Brigade is going to pieces on a/c of a few illiterate, irresponsible, unreasonable, narrow-sighted staff officers. Two brothers & the General is their uncle. Sorry for our General. Aeroplane combats & much activity. I go to 9th Brigade. There they have 3 Sergts to do Intelligence work (with pay) we have an unpaid Corpl. & unpaid L/ Cpl. & turn out more work. – Rotten system.
Wednesday 15 November 1916
British capture Beaumont-Hamel and St Pierre-Divion & many prisoners. Total for two days 5,157.
Have to make a map for Lt Col GA Borden, brother of Premier Borden of Canada. Lieut Gen. Sir Sam Hughes tenders his resignation and- it is accepted- No loss to us!!!
Sir Robert Borden – The 8th Prime Minister of Canada. He passed the War Measures Act turning his government into a Wartime administration in 1914. Borden promised half a million soldiers for the war but was not able to meet this demand with volunteers as people quickly realized that the war would not end quickly. Committed to sending the promised numbers of troops, he initiated the Military Service Act to conscript men into the army. This divided the country along ethnic lines, as French-Canadians did not support conscription, while English-Canadians did. Riots broke out in Quebec. Though only 125,000 men were ever conscripted and only 25,000 even made it to the front, Borden and the Conservatives lost a lot of support due to the crisis, particularly in Quebec.
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