_KING’S COLLEGE AND KING’S COLLEGE SCHOOL IN THE WAR._
The University of King’s College at Windsor, N.S., has always been small
in numbers, but always big in the spirit it has displayed and in the
type of men it has fostered.
It was founded in 1789—the oldest University in the British Dominions
beyond the Seas—by United Empire Loyalists, by men who readily gave up
all they possessed in a material sense rather than forsake their
allegiance to an ideal. It is not surprising then that at all times
there have been King’s men ready to answer the King’s call and that the
names of men such as Inglis and Welsford are held in special reverence
by their _Alma Mater_.
The spirit of loyal service and sacrifice that has actuated King’s men
was at once evident in her sons when the Great Call came in 1914, and
King’s has every reason to be proud of her record of loyalty and
devotion in the Great War. More than four hundred of her sons were at
the King’s side during that fierce struggle for freedom.
In 1914 there were at least twelve King’s men, including seven Generals,
holding commissions in the Imperial Army and the Canadian Permanent
Forces.
Fourteen volunteers sailed with the First Contingent of the Canadian
Expeditionary Force, four of whom were killed in action. The first
King’s man to make the Great Sacrifice was Capt. G. L. B. Concanon, who
was killed in the Dardanelles Campaign while serving with the 2nd
Battalion of Australian Infantry.
In the Second Contingent were some thirty-five students and graduates of
the College and a number of “Old Boys” of the School.
Amongst the notable enlistments from College during the War were the
nine who volunteered for service in the Cycle Corps of the 2nd
Contingent, and some twenty, mostly students, who enlisted together in
the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade. This latter
represented an enlistment of about 50 per cent. of the student body then
in residence at King’s College and included one of her Professors.
During the period of the War the largest number of male students in
attendance at King’s College was forty-eight, and this number was
reduced to a few physically unfit men in 1917, and yet sixty-seven
students actually enlisted from the College, and ten of them made the
supreme sacrifice. In all twenty-three King’s men fell in action on the
Field of Honor.
So reduced was the student body that when the Military Service Act came
into effect there was not one physically fit student left to come under
the provisions of that Act.
Early in 1915 a contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps was
organized at King’s College under Professor Sturley as Officer
Commanding, and did very useful work not only amongst the students at
College, but also amongst the young men of Windsor, the seat of King’s
College. Its active life, however was short, for within about twelve
months of its organization practically the whole of the personnel of the
Corps had enlisted for Overseas Service.
Amongst the honors gained by King’s men during the War were:
O. B. Jones D.S.O.
J. P. Silver D.S.O., C.B.E.
C. Hill D.S.O.
C. R. E. Willets D.S.O.
H. A. Kaulback O.B.E.
A. E. Andrew M.C.
G. D. Campbell M.C.
R. H. Morris M.C.
C. V. Strong M.C.
C. Campbell M.C.
W. G. Ernst M.C. and Bar.
G. B. Murray M.C.
R. H. Tait M.C.
D. L. Teed M.C.
P. L. Parlee D.C.M.
W. E. Warburton D.C.M.
G. L. Jones D.C.M.
C. Blanchard M.M.
T. W. Maynard M.M.
H. R. Poole Legion of Honor.
R. H. Stewart Order of St. George of Russia.
G. F. Mason Croix de Guerre.
Of the many who distinguished themselves by gallant service, whether
officially recognized or not, the record of a few of the younger
generation must suffice as typical of all.
Two of the first students to enlist were Edward Jeffery and George
Mason. They enlisted together in the ranks of the First Contingent, 17th
Battalion, and went over to France together with the 14th Battalion, 1st
Canadian Division. For sixteen months they fought side by side—all
through the terrible winter of 1914–1915 in the Ypres Salient—and came
through that fiery ordeal unscathed. They returned to England together
for their commissions, training together at Crowborough. Mason returned
to France almost immediately after the course, but Jeffery was taken ill
and was operated on for appendicitis; and it was not till April, 1918,
that he was again sent to France. In June, 1918, he joined his new
Battalion, 16th Canadian Scottish, and found himself posted to a Company
commanded by Mason, now a Captain. So they were together again in
France. On the night of the 26th September Jeffery received his first
wound, but it proved fatal, and the next day he was laid to rest at
Ligny St. Frochel, near St. Pol. Only four days later, on October 1st,
his great chum followed, and so these two, who for four long years had
borne the burden and strife of the Great War with what seemed charmed
lives, were reunited once more in that land where there is no more
parting and no more strife.
Arthur Leigh Collett, B.A., had left King’s for Oxford as a Rhodes
Scholar, but at once forsook his work at Oxford and enlisted in the
Imperial Army. He served in France as a Lieutenant with the 8th
Gloucesters, and in the autumn of 1915, in the Battle of Messines Ridge
he was reported missing and later believed killed. Others from his
Battalion reported missing at the same time were later reported as
prisoners of war in Germany. There is little doubt that Collett fought
gallantly facing the odds and choosing to meet death rather than to
cease for a moment, while life lasted, from striving for the ideals of
justice and righteousness.
A. B. C. Hilbert was one of the most popular students and one of the
best athletes at King’s. Enlisting with the Cycle Corps he transferred
to the Royal Naval Air Service on reaching England. In July, 1917, he
wrote: “I am at present resting after a twenty-two weeks’ illness due to
a little ducking I got in the North Sea. I am flying again in August.”
In October came the news that he had fallen a second time in the North
Sea, and now there he rests with many other gallant sons of Britain.
Of the others who enlisted with him in the Cycle Corps, Turnbull and
McCormick rest in soldiers’ graves in Flanders; Crawford died in
hospital ere he saw the foe; Foster and Parlee are back with us at
King’s, and though Parlee has lost a leg, his breast is adorned with
that proud emblem of bravery, the Distinguished Conduct Medal; Brittain
has recovered from his serious wounds and is serving the King of Peace;
Harley, Hallett and the rest are giving the same good account of
themselves that they always gave as loyal sons of King’s.
George Stewart Burchell was one of that little band who enlisted
together with the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade, and
joined the 85th Battalion in France. He was one of the most promising of
the younger sons of King’s, a clever, manly, gentlemanly young fellow.
He fought for the cause of liberty and right and now rests in a
soldier’s grave in France.
In the records of the King’s College Advance Movement is the entry,
“George Stewart Burchell, killed at the Front, his pay at his request,
$100.” May King’s never cease to honor the memory of this loyal and
gallant son.
W. B. Ernst enlisted as a private in the 193rd Battalion, rose to the
rank of Captain in the 85th Battalion, and was awarded the Military
Cross and Bar. Ernst has not rested on his laurels, and since his return
here has shown that in the field of scholarship, too, he will take no
second place, and has captured the Rhodes Scholarship from the Province
of Nova Scotia. King’s will ever have reason to be proud of the records
of Ernst, so affectionately known as “Bill.”
Of others whom King’s will always delight to honor may be mentioned
Capt. D. L. Teed, M.C., and Gunner L. Wilkinson, who fell gallantly
serving their guns, Lieut. W. E. Warburton, D.CM., rewarded for his
bravery in the Dardanelles, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E. Willets, D.S.O., the
gallant and popular Commanding Officer of the R.C.R. in France, and now
commanding the famous “Princess Pats,” Cecil Blanchard, M.M., who was
too young to enlist except as a bugler, but not too young to show that
he came of loyal fighting stock; and the Campbell brothers, six of whom
saw active service, and two of whom, Colin and Kenneth, lie “out there,”
somewhere in France.
Though these records are brief and unworthy may they suffice to show
that the true spirit of King’s still lives in her sons, and that they,
as of old, have upheld nobly her best traditions and realized in some
measure her ideals of service,
_“DEO, LEGI, REGI, GREGI.”_