The Gold Stripe. A tribute to the British Columbia Men who have been killed, crippled and wounded in the Great War [Volume1,1918]

23 August 1914

Battle of Mons

THE GOLD STRIPE

Each of these men have done that. When the call
came and he passed through the little recruiting
station, into the great “Over There,” he wrote off
his ambitions; stepped out of the line of civil promo-
tion; gave up his family; turned his back on his busi-
ness or profession, and stood, eyes front, facing the
Hast. He had discounted death, and there was no
Teinsurance. What has come back to us is salvage.
Only those who have passed through the ordeal know
what it means to “decide” to “go.” fhe supreme
sacrifice may as truly be made at the recruiting
station as in the trenches or on the battleship.

It is not easy to express the appreciation we feel
in the presence of these men. They have been at
the front of the world, and have seen history in the
making. They formed a part of Kitchener’s “Con-
temptible army” which, despite German sneers, halt-
ed and held the devastating progress of the great
Prussion war machine until new lines of defense
could be manned. They were at Ypres and Vimy
Ridge and Mons and Verdun, everywnere, up and
down the Empire’s far-flung battle line, wherever
there was need for strong hands and brave hearts
and determined spirts. Th. y were with Haig on the
dark day when that S.O.S. call, which only the direst
need could have wrung from that sturdy old Scots-
man, went out “Our backs are against the wall.” They
fought with the French in front of Paris, and shared
with the Poilus his unalterable determination as,
over and over he repeated that psychological for-
mula, at once a prayer and a curse, “They shall not
pass. They shall not pass.” They were with Currie
on that fateful night when they stood, a thin line in
front of the great German drive on Paris and heard
from the splendid soldier, that memorable order
which seemed more like a benediction than an order
of battle. In which he told them in simple words
that from their destruction, which was imminent they
would pass into heaven and that their mothers would
be proud of them.

Point Grey is proud of her men who have formed
a part of this gallant army.

THE GOLD STRIPE

THE GOLD STRIPE

light which is England. He had written
poetry before 1914,—poems full of. a passion-
ate sense of beauty, of protest against destroy-
ing time, but they were ‘‘caviare to the gen-
eral.’’ At the outbreak of war he joined ‘‘the
first one hundred thousand;’’ he fought at
Antwerp and in the retreat of Mons, and early
in 1915 went to the Dardanelles. He died on
a French hospital ship, and was buried at
Skyros, in the Aegean; his Grecian grave it-
self has been the subject of some notable
sonnets.

Brooke had this decided advantage over
other patriotic poets: when he celebrated the
faultless beauty of sacrificing himself for Eng-
land, it was his own immediate emotions he
expressed. He exults to welcome, as the high-
est imaginable privilege, the chance of dying
for his country. It is as if his life had leapt
into a new element and finer, and nearer to
spirit:

10–13 March 1915

Battle of Neuve Chapelle

LIEUT.-COL. WARDEN

After they had tried us out, came the battle
of Neuve Chapelle, where we had the first
real taste of heavy action. Captain Tupper,
of the Highlanders, was one of those engaged;
and it was there that we got into real heavy
fighting. The Boer war was nothing com-
pared with this war. I had been in South

THE GOLD STRIPE

20 November – 7 December 1917

Battle of Cambrai (1917)

THE GOLD STRIPE

A tribute to the British Columbia Men
who have been killed, crippled and
wounded in the Great War

Ypres | Fresnoy
St. Eloi 4 [cane :
Jhigetet “'Paaschendacle |
Givenchy eee &
Somme = Drocourt
Courcelette i f Cambrai
Regina A 2 Douai ue
Trench — Vallenciennes.
Vimy eons

The Net Profits of this Publication will go to the ees
AMPUTATION CLUB OF B.C..VANCOUVER (s.
Gy

THE GOLD STRIPE

“Crossing of Canal du Nord and Bourlon Wood
(September 27, 29).

“Encirclement and capture of Cambrai (October
1 and 9).

“Capture of Douai (October 20).

A TRIBUTE

He used to sit in the very office where this
is written, going out from hence on his assign-
ments, a cheerful, willing reporter, a bright,
merry youth, well liked wherever he went.

A fragment of an identification dise is all
The World office holds of him today—‘W.
Tighe, 911,800, B. C., Can.’’—the rest is gone,
torn away by the bit of shrapnel that killed
him outright as he climbed the east slope of
the Canal du Nord in the dawn of that day
late in September when the Canadians drove
into Bourlon Wood and on to Cambrai.

But amid all the toil and misery of the
trenches there had been at least some minutes
of glorious life for William Tighe. A lad of
slight stature, he had, but a few weeks before,
rushed a Hun machine gun post single-handed
and killed the gunners and the officer in
charge, holding his capture until his comrades
reached him, able to go forward now that the
machine gun nests had been cleared out, he
was herding fifty German prisoners to thé
rear, overawing them with the Hun officer’s
revolver which he knew neither ‘how io fire
or load. The Military Medal was his fitting
reward.

THE GOLD STRIPE

Joined the Rocky Mountain Rangers, 172nd
Battalion in April, 1916; when only seventeen
years of age, He voluiiteered for France at
the beginning of 1918, being transferred to
the 7th Battalion.

He was wourded in the head in the battle
of Cambrai, Sept. 30th; died Oct. 4th in No. 4
hospital, and buried in the military cemetary

* at Etaples.