A close nick as war wound down
Four days before the end of WW1, a German sniper almost ended Lt. Malcolm Ernst Amos’s life
Four days before the end of the First World War, Lieutenant Malcolm Ernst Amos of the 25th Nova Scotia Battalion was likely crawling in the Belgian town of Elouges when a German sniper’s bullet caught him from above and behind.
It ripped through his back, piercing his liver and a lung, before exiting between his 5th and 6th rib. From there, it tore through the sturdy standard issue stainless steel Canadian Expeditionary Force shaving mirror in his right breast pocket.
Remarkably, Amos survived and upon his return home to Lower Derby, N.B., he had a son, which is the reason Nicole Amos, his great-granddaughter, is alive — and in the process of spreading out a wealth of precious documents and artifacts across a desk in her Mississauga office.
Including the now tarnished mirror, which she carefully plucks from a custommade box.
“I’ve never come across or seen one with a bullet hole in it that has such a story behind it,” said Nicole, 22.
The story of her great grandfather served as her final project in her First World War history class at Western University, where she recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history.
It took about six months to research and write the paper, which built upon some early research done by her late historian grandfather Fred Amos, Malcolm’s son. Before his death in 2010, Fred left a list of unanswered questions about his father’s life and time in the war.
“I spent hours going through the medical records alone,” said Nicole. “I was able to track his entire movements through the war. He escaped Passchendaele by a hair because he was sent to officer training camp. He was very fortunate in that aspect.”
Ciphering through 80-plus pages of electronic copies of handwritten documents she received from the National Archives, Nicole was able to fill in all of the blanks left by her grandfather, and then some.
Malcolm, who earned $1 a day as a private (yes, Nicole has his paybook), moved up the ranks after enlisting and stayed in the army after the war. He also was in charge of training and commanding young soldiers.
He arrived home in May, 1919, aboard the RMS Olympic, a sister ship of the Titanic that was also known as “Old Reliable.” He found love and married in a union that “was of much local interest,” according to a faded newspaper clipping. Malcolm, of Scottish descent, was a Mason and quite well known in town. His first wife, Edith, died while giving birth to Fred, but he found love again and married a nurse named Jean.
Malcolm moved up to the rank of captain, and come each Victoria Day, he would appear in the local parade upon a white horse. It was always a white horse, said Nicole.
Although he survived the sniper’s bullet, fragments from it remained in his lung and
“It’s something quite neat and it definitely will be passed down through my family. I love telling the story behind the mirror.”
NICOLE AMOS DESCENDENT OF MALCOLM AMOS
in 1936, Malcolm died from an asthma attack. He was 46. Fred was just 7 and, later, spent many years piecing together the life of a father he barely knew. There are many artifacts from Malcolm’s time in the war that circulate amongst family. There are buttons from a long ago disintegrated uniform, service pins and bars, medals, letters home and an album of photographs. But it is the shaving mirror that is most cherished. It would come out of the box each Remembrance Day and Nicole would take it to class and share what she knew of her great-grandfather. Each year, thanks to her grandfather’s sleuthing and now her own, Malcolm Ernst Amos’s history became more complete.
He was not a war hero, Nicole noted in her history paper. He was simply typical of a Canadian soldier of that era. That he survived a sniper’s bullet — and came home at all — was special. Had he not, there would be no Nicole, and the story of the shaving mirror and the bullet hole would be decidedly different.
“He raised a family, he left a legacy.” said Nicole. “And I think just looking at the mirror, it’s something quite neat and it definitely will be passed down through my family. I love telling the story behind the mirror.”
Nicole is not done her research. She hopes to physically retrace her great-grandfather’s steps through Europe.