Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 61 continued ... The cold, muddy, wet polder (land reclaimed by building dykes) fighting, to drive the German’s out of the Scheldt estuary, began on 11 October for the NSR. Private John Miller (Noel Shore) was killed in action that day. Corporal John MacNeil (St Margaret Village) was killed on 12 October. On 13 October the NSR captured the hamlet of Scherpbier - Private Gerald Nowe (Greenfield) was killed in action. Private Sam MacPherson (William’s Point) was seriously wounded on 15 October and evacuated to the 23rd Field Ambulance, and then onto the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station near Antwerp. Sam died the next day. On 24 October the men of the NSR fought a bloody and muddy fight to capture the five dykes leading to Scherpbier. Privates Albert Bates (Passchendaele), John George (Dartmouth) and William Markie (Westville) were all killed in action during that fight. The battle continued into the night and Private Alexander MacKenzie (Denmark Colchester Co.) was killed on 25 October. The NSR captured the tiny hamlet of Henricusdijk on 27 October. Seven men died in that action; three were from Nova Scotia. Private Simon Pate (River Bourgeois) was killed in action while Private John Frazee (Truro) and LanceCorporal Stanley White (North Noel Road) died of their wounds. The NSR was completing its attack on the town of Sluis when Private Gordon Nickerson (Yarmouth) was killed in action on 31 October. Corporal Charles MacLean (Thorburn) was seriously wounded (multiple shrapnel wounds to his back and spine) outside of Sluis on 29 October. He was evacuated back to the coast and shipped to the RCAMC ‘Basingstoke Neurological and Plastic Surgery Hospital’ in England. It took three weeks to stabilize Charles enough to allow for doctors to operate on his back and spine. A surgery was conducted on 20 November. Corporal MacLean died of his wounds on 23 November. Cpl. MacNeil 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station Private Bates Private Pate continued ...
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