Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 159 continued ... continued ... Thomas returned to Canada, via England, with the 44th Battalion. They disembarked in Saint John, NB where Thomas was discharged from the army on June 6, 1919. After the war, Thomas returned to his home town of Sydney Mines where he resumed working in the coal mines. He met and married Alice Dares and they raised four children, Thomas, Annie, Edith and Frank. They lived on Fraser Avenue. Thomas Graham passed away on June 6, 1952 at the relatively young age of 53. He was laid to rest in a family plot his son Thomas had purchased in Queensville Cemetery, York Regional Municipality, Ontario. Andrew Leo Hall WW I Andrew Leo Hall was born in Stellarton, NS, the son of Frank and Clara Hall. Andrew was living in Westville, NS, when he enlisted in the 193rd Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders) on February 24, 1916. His attestation papers have him listed as a clerk, and his birth date as November 12, 1898, which would make him 18 years old. In actual fact he was only 16 years old at the time. It appears he falsified his birth date in order to enlist early. 1901 and 1911 Canadian Census records both show his birth year as 1900. Upon enlistment, his rank was private and his service number was 901253. A little over a year earlier, Andrew’s father, Frank, had enlisted in the 17th Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders) and was already overseas. Frank later served in the Canadian Military Police. Andrew trained with the 193rd Battalion in the local area for a couple of months until the battalion relocated to Aldershot, NS, later in the spring. There they joined the other three battalions of the newly formed Nova Scotia Highland Brigade, and training continued. In October, 1916, Andrew sailed with his battalion, and the rest of the brigade, to England on the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic. Upon arrival, the brigade entrained for Witley Camp, a large Canadian army camp in Surrey. Shortly after arriving in England, the Nova Scotia Highland Brigade was dissolved and two of its battalions, including the 193rd Battalion, were disbanded. The intention was to use its cadre of men as reinforcements for units already at the front. As a result, on December 29, 1916, Andrew was transferred to the 185th Battalion (Cape Breton Highlanders) who were also at Witley Camp. A little over a year later, when the 185th Battalion was also disbanded, Andrew was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion located in Bramshott, England. He joined that unit on February 23, 1918. On July 11, 1918, Andrew proceeded overseas to France for service with the 85th Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders) where he joined them in the field the following month. In late August and early September, 1918, the 85th Battalion was involved in a major Canadian attack to penetrate a section of the German Hindenburg defensive line east of Arras in France. The first stage of the attack was called the Scarpe Operation, named after the nearby Scarpe River. It was during this operation, on September 2, 1918, that Andrew was wounded in both arms and hands. A few days later, due to the severity of his wounds, surgeons were forced to amputate both of his arms, the right arm below the elbow, and the left arm above the elbow. In this attack, the 85th Battalion lost 260 men, killed, wounded or missing in action, almost a third of their strength. In an article he wrote in 1999, with information from The Law Society of Saskatchewan and from Mary (Hall) Totten, a niece of Andrew Hall, local historian Hugh Muir of Stellarton picks up Andrew’s story:
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