A Peterborough soldier's forgetten box of First World War memories revealed, including the poem he left behind
Peterborough soldier Lawrence Johnson, who survived the Battle of Passchendaele, didn’t talk much about the war, but he did leave behind a treasure trove of items in what he called his ‘ditty box’
Pte. Lawrence Johnson, of Peterborough’s 93rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditinary Force, was one of the fortunate Canadian soldiers to survive the Battle of Passchendaele, albeit with a left shoulder shattered by a German bullet.
Not so lucky were 15,654 members of the Canadian Corps who made the ultimate sacrifice, 100 years ago in the muddy fields around the Belgian village.
Johnson didn’t talk much about the war, according to his daughter Marie Harvey, but he did leave behind a treasure trove of items — including a heartfelt handwritten poem — in a wooden box he called his “ditty box.”
That sturdy wooden box with reinforced metal corners, a little bigger than a toaster, sat forgotten in Harvey’s Windsor, Ont. basement for years, only recently rediscovered by Marie and her husband Vern after sitting inside a cedar chest made by Johnson himself.
“I brought the box up and I said Marie, we should go through it, and the pictures and everything and then I started to open it, and I thought ‘Oh my, look at this stuff!’,” said Vern.
Inside were a number of photos, a diary, a pay book, medals and various correspondence with friends and family members during Johnson’s three years in the First World War.
One photo shows five men relaxing outside of a tent pitched on a muddy landscape layered with wooden planks, a bottle of what appears to be beer sitting nearby.
Another shows Johnson playing his beloved banjo, which his daughter still has.
“It was just amazing to just look at all these photographs when my dad was in the war,” said Marie.
“He talked to me one time about the trenches and how they were full of mud and it was raining with mud up to their waist. It was just awful.
“He didn’t really say a lot about it.”
Unfortunately there is no writing on the back of most of the pictures to describe where they were taken or who was in them.
“You just wish you knew who some of these people were,” said Marie.
Johnson was born in Granby, Nottingham, England on May 6, 1894 and came to Canada as a teenager.
He was living with some of his five brothers in Peterborough — he also had five sisters who all became nurses — when he signed up for the army on March 16, 1916 at the age of 22.
“When her dad enlisted he was 22 years old and that’s not much older than our youngest grandson, 19, and you cannot think about him going off to war and being in the hospital,” said Vern.
His attestation paper lists Johnson standing at six feet 1 ¼ inches tall with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. He had a 38 ½-inch waist and was a member of the Church of England.
He had been working as a labourer in Peterborough and lists his next-of-kin as his father H.W. Johnson living at Ivy Cottage, Granby, Nottingham, England.
He landed in France as a member of the 93rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on Sept. 8, 1916 and would remain at the front for 13 months.
Johnson was paid $1 per day and an extra 10 cents field allowance if he was at the front, roughly the equivalent of $23 a day in 2017 dollars when adjusted for inflation.
By December 1916 he had fallen ill with influenza, which was hitting many soldiers at the front hard.
Johnson was deemed a “stretcher case” and sent to Mont St. Eloi to recuperate, returning to active duty in February 1917, missing one trip to the front lines.
Little of note happened to Johnson during the spring and summer months of 1917, but by mid-October, the 100,000-strong Canadian Corps were deployed to the area of Passchendaele, which had been under siege since July.
“Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, objected to the battle, fearing it could not be won without a terrible expenditure in lives, but (British Commander Sir Douglas) Haig was desperate for a symbolic victory and insisted on the effort, believing that even a limited victory would help to salvage the campaign,” says the Canadian War Museum’s account of the battle.
“Having no choice but to attack, Currie prepared carefully for the fight, understanding that deliberate preparation, especially for his artillery and engineers, was the key to advancing over this shattered landscape.”
“The Canadians arrived in Flanders in mid- October to relieve Australian and New Zealand troops and were shocked by the terrible battlefield conditions,” reads the Canadian War Museum’s account.
“Currie ordered the construction of new roads, the building or improvement of gun pits, and the repair and extension of tramlines (light railways). Horses and mules transported hundreds of thousands of shells to the front to prepare for the artillery barrage that would prepare for the infantry’s attack. The Germans atop Passchendaele ridge fired continuously on these efforts, killing or wounding hundreds.
“His preparations ready, Currie launched a deliberate or ‘set-piece’ attack on 26 October, the first of four phases in a battle he estimated might cost 16,000 Canadians killed or wounded. By mid-November, having captured the ridge, his estimate proved eerily accurate, with 15,654 Canadian fallen.”
Johnson was shot through the left shoulder by a German sniper on Oct. 30. 1917 and underwent surgery in Rouen, France on Nov. 5.
On Nov. 10 Johnson was transferred to Birmingham Hospital in England to recuperate, and on Nov. 27 he was transferred to Epsom Hospital.
Johnson ended up returning to France on March 23, 1918 and by October had once again come down with the flu.
On Nov. 8 – three days before the end of the war — Johnson was X-rayed for bronchial pneumonia and by April 1919 was to begin training with the mounted unit as part of the post-war army of occupation.
Johnson’s brother Harry wrote to him:
“Well old sport, I’m glad to hear the job suits you. Yes riding on horse has got infantry skinned as you say, and you like being mounted. Well old sport, keep smiling, peace is coming.”
Unfortunately, Johnson’s training in the mounted unit was cut short when he was seriously bitten in the chest by a horse.
He ended up being discharged from the army in Halifax on July 25, 1919, and eventually made his way to Windsor where he married Marion Shepherd and became an employee of the Ford Motor Co. of Canada.
He had four children, Marie, Doris and Penny, and son Robin. Marie recalled her father always enjoying watching war movies on the television.
Johnson died in 1970 at the age of 76.
His name is engraved on a memorial to wounded soldiers in Ottawa and the Harveys travelled there for its unveiling a few years ago.
While Johnson didn’t speak a lot of his war experience, he left behind a poem in his diary, written in his own hand, entitled The Song of the Trenches.
NOTE: See video and more photographs in the online gallery at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com.