Brothers who fought at Vimy Ridge
These twins did everything together ... except die.
Ross Mackenzie Stewart and Alfred Cook Stewart were born in Toronto on June 9, 1897, shortly before their parents, George and Isabella Stewart, moved to Berlin, Ont.
George spent the next 30 years as a salesperson for the Williams, Green and Rome Shirt Company (later Cluett, Peabody/Arrow). By 1905 the family was living at 134 Queen South opposite WG&R. Ten years later, the Stewarts upscaled to 127 Queen North (today’s Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery site).
Following three older siblings (Parry, George Jr. and Laura), the twins attended Courtland public school and, from 1912 to 1914, Berlin high school.
They explored nearby Victoria Park enjoying band concerts, picnics, boating and sports, honing their hockey skills on the park’s ice surface. Six days a week the pair delivered the Berlin Daily Telegraph.
Within three months of the war’s outbreak, George Jr. enlisted for overseas duty at the Galt Armoury. Quickly assigned to the 18th Battalion in France in April 1915, he spent too much time in the trenches; a serious case of trench foot hospitalized him for eight months before he returned to battle.
The 18½-year-old twins idolized big brother’s patriotism. On December 12, 1915, they were among the first to attest with Berlin’s newly-formed 118th Battalion. Anxious for action, Ross left the 118th in summer 1916, attesting again, this time with Montreal’s legendary 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada.
Strangely, his name disappeared: Ross Mackenzie Stewart signed himself James Stewart! Alfred followed, joining RHC in November. When the regiment arrived in England in January 1917, its well-trained soldiers were transferred quickly to existing Highland units in France. A card from the twins in the trenches dated March 6, 1917, arrived two weeks later at 127 Queen North. By that time, George Jr. was also back at the front while fourth brother Parry was training with the Canadian Cycle Corps.
On March 29, 1917, a feel-good Daily Telegraph headline read “Stewart Family’s Fine Record.”
Eleven days later, Easter Monday, April 9, the momentous Battle of Vimy Ridge began. All three brothers in France were in the 42nd Canadian Battalion — the twins together in the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade under Brigadier-General Archibald Cameron “Fighting Mac” Macdonell.
Early on Easter Monday, Ross/ James Stewart was wounded. A week later the family had word from London that he was recovering in hospital. Then the April 30 headline: “Gave His Life For The Empire.” The photo showing “Private Ross Mackenzie Stewart, No. 228.828” was the same which had graced the happier March article. Alf and George Jr. both survived the battle.
The name Ross Mackenzie Stewart appears on no battlefield gravestone or memorial. However, “228.828 Private J. Stewart” is engraved on a Commonwealth War Graves marker in Ecoivres Military Cemetery eight kilometres west of Vimy. The location suggests he was in a hospital or clearing station before dying. All contemporary records list his death as April 9 or 10.
Why Ross Mackenzie Stewart became James Stewart will likely never be known, but this Berlin twin who created his own “double life” had them both ended at Vimy Ridge by a German bullet shortly after Easter 1917.
Alf, George Jr. and Parry survived the war, establishing Stewart Coal Company on Kitchener’s Victoria Street South. That firm lasted until the mid-1950s although, after selling it to Harry Lobsinger, all Stewarts left Kitchener in 1933.
Ross was two months shy of age 20. No one alive today remembers him and his name graces no local grave, memorial or commemorative panel. Kitchener Collegiate Institute has a large plaque listing its 116 dead from the Second World War.
Ross Mackenzie Stewart and the other 18 alumni who gave their lives in the First World War have no recognition at the school and are only honoured in KCI’s anniversary booklets. A commemorative plaque redressing that omission would be a fitting student project.
Ross appears, with all other local soldiers of the 1914-1919 war, in the Kitchener Public Library’s “Soldier Card Project.” That, and today’s Flash from the Past, will tenuously keep alive the shadowy fragments of this brave Berliner’s short life.