Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 11 “Father R. MacGillivray, of Antigonish, N.S., Chaplain of the 5th Brigade, while ministering to the wounded where they fell on the field of battle south of Vrely, was forced to take shelter in a shell-hole, where he found the remnants of a company of which all officers were casualties. An enemy field battery a few hundred yards away was firing over open sights. Grasping the situation, Father MacGillivray called out, ‘Boys, we may as well die fighting.’ He leaped from the shell-hole and rushed the battery, followed by his brave boys. The boys say he terrified the Huns as with a wild war-whoop and brandishing his cane, he landed in their midst. The rest of the story is short, as all hands went up with the cry of; ‘Kamerad.’ The prisoners were numbered off and the guns were marked, ‘Captured by the 26th Battalion.’ Some wag remarked it should have been, ‘Captured by Canadian Chaplain Service.’ ” Service: Major Rev. Miles N. Tompkins, M.C. Major Rev. Miles N. Tompkins, M.C., enlisted on October 18, 1915, and was assigned as chaplain to the 40th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He left Canada on November 5, 1915, and arrived in England November 14, 1915, where he spent three months at Bramshott Camp. On February 20, 1916, he crossed to France, where he saw continuous service for nearly two years, being attached to the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade and to No. 1 Canadian General Hospital. Early in 1918, he returned to England, but reached the Front again in March 1918, serving for six months with the 3rd Brigade, Canadian Garrison Artillery. During this period, he was wounded. He arrived back in England in October 1918, and was stationed at Cooden Camp, Sussex. He sailed for home June 29, 1919 and arrived July 4, 1919. Diary Account: Major Rev. Miles N. Tompkins, M.C. The next chaplain I met in June 1916, was Father Miles Tompkins. He had been appropriately christened, for he was a true Miles Christi, a soldier and a friend of soldiers. In the fighting in the Ypres Salient, in June 1916, as chaplain to the Ninth Brigade, he distinguished himself by his daring in seeking wounded under fire, to minister to their corporal and spiritual needs. I well remember in July 1916, how he brought me from Zillebeke Bund where we visited Col. Vin. O’Donahoe, then 2nd in command of the 60th Battalion, to Ypres where we met the chaplain of the Newfoundland Regiment and Father Devas, D.S.O, chaplain of the Irish of the 29th Division. Fear was unknown to Father Tompkins, and he paid as little attention to shellfire as to rain. He went through the Somme Battles of 1916, and Vimy Ridge of 1917, despite a dangerous ailment which eventually forced him to rest in the autumn of 1917. After a short respite he was appointed a hospital chaplain in Etaples, where he was awarded the Military Cross. Major- General Sir Archibald Macdonell, (afterwards G.O.C. of the First Division, and former O.C. of the 7th Brigade), happened to be at the mess when Father Tompkins’ M.C. was announced. When the modest priest stated that he did not know what he got it for, the General averred that he had seen Father Tompkins earn the Military Cross a dozen times. In 1918 Father Tompkins, now with the Heavy Artillery, was in the fighting of the “Hundred Days” till he was wounded on September 30, 1918. In a few months he was well again, and as the war was over, was now willing to serve in England. Father McGillivray and Father Tompkins each put in two years’ actual service at the front during hostilities with the Canadian Corps. continued....
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