A call to action
P.E.I. infantry reinforcements receive training, set sail for Halifax
As May 1917 turned to June, The Guardian – either because of official secrecy or editorial oversight – was caught unawares by a significant military development.
With no public notice or warning, the infantry reinforcements recruited across P.E.I. over the preceding months for the 105th Battalion were called up.
Some 50 men entrained in Charlottetown on the morning of May 31. At Summerside, the Charlottetown contingent was joined by an almost equal number of men recruited and trained in the western capital, and the whole group then set sail for Halifax. The name, next of kin and hometown of each recruit was listed in The Guardian issue of June 2, along with an announcement of the unit’s safe arrival in Halifax, “on the First Stage of Their Journey Overseas.”
By the summer of 1917 it was, of course, rather anachronistic to refer to the 105th Battalion as a cohesive military entity. Even The Guardian, one of the earliest and most enthusiastic boosters of the 105th as an “all Island” infantry force, could not conceal that the battalion had been incrementally dismantled in England, its members deployed piecemeal as reinforcement drafts for other Canadian units.
A bizarre occasion to rub salt in this wound to Island pride arose in mid-June, when it was suggested – perhaps sardonically – that the 105th Comfort Circle, formed to supply socks, cigarettes and other small “comfort” gifts to the men of the battalion while overseas, should be renamed the 104th Comfort Circle, referencing the New Brunswick unit to which many 105th men had been reassigned.
The Guardian of June 14 strenuously rebutted this suggestion, but, in so doing, felt compelled to recount the unhappy breakup of the 105th Battalion in some detail:
“The object of this [Comfort] Circle … is to provide comforts for the boys of the original 105th Battalion as well as the two drafts just sent from the province as reinforcements. The 105th P.E.I. Battalion was broken up, and it is the Circle’s aim to preserve the name, and provide some comforts for these same boys who are now in the 13th, 14th, 25th, 26th, 104th and 13th (Reserve) Battalions, besides of a few of the men who have been transferred to other units. Nearly 400 of the 105th boys transferred to the first three mentioned regiments have been fighting in the trenches for six months.”
The indignant column concluded by quoting a letter from a former 105th officer: “The number and name of the old battalion is still dear to many of us here, as it is to all those at home, and I am sure that all regret that it could not go to France as a unit to represent our Island Province.”
A welcome salve to the Island’s military pride was at hand, however, as word came that Lieut. James Parker Hooper of Charlottetown had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order, a high honour for valour in British and Empire forces, second in prestige only to the fabled Victoria Cross. Hooper’s award brought the number of Islanders known to have received the DSO to four, an achievement honoured by The Guardian with a front-page photo gallery in its June 21 issue.
Celebrating Island gallantry was evidently one of the factors driving The Guardian to become gradually less sparing in its use of photographic images. Although photos still only appeared, on average, about once or twice weekly, The Guardian of June 14 had also carried frontpage images of several P.E.I. soldiers, including Sgt. Vernon McLeod of Charlottetown, who had recently received the Military Medal for gallantry. Only a day before, The Guardian had offered front-page coverage of the huge ceremonial welcome accorded yet another Island Military Medal winner, Lt. Victor Morris of Summerside, now returning home to recover from his wounds.
One of the dignitaries on hand proclaimed that, “the war had proved beyond a doubt that the days of chivalry were not past.”