My great-grandfather, Ernest Fiset, died when I was sixteen years old, too young to ask him many questions. But over the past few years, I've been able to piece together some of his story.
Grandpa Fiset didn’t share much about his experiences serving overseas in WWI. In fact, since his time was spent completely in England and he never saw a battle, some might think he had few stories to tell.
Though he never spoke of it, there must have been a quiet family pride in his service. Though I lived far away and he has been gone for several decades now, one memory stays with me: always, centred perfectly on the wall above their tiny living room couch, hung a large, framed oval portrait of him in uniform. He gazed out, looking younger than his 22 years, innocent.
And though Ernest never crossed the Channel, if things were slightly different, within days or weeks he almost certainly would have been sent to the Front. This then, is Part I of the story of what was and what might have been, and why I’m grateful for how things turned out in the end…
PRIVATE ERNEST FISET STEPPED OFF THE HMT Cassandra onto England’s shores on August 15, 1918, regaining his land legs after more than two weeks at sea.[1] He had safely arrived one step closer to war in the trenches.
By the time Ernest touched British soil, World War I had been waging for four years, lasting far longer, and taking more lives than anyone could have anticipated. Initial optimism had turned to grave concern: the Dominion of Canada was committed to supporting her motherland Britain, but by 1917 it was clear that the number of new Canadian recruits would not replace the heavy losses sustained in the muddy battlefields of Ypres and the Somme.
As a result, the federal government passed the Military Service Act of 1917 requiring all men between the ages of 18-45 to add their names to a national conscription registry. His older brother, Hector, had married in 1916 making him ineligible, but single, 22-year-old Ernest became a prime candidate for immediate conscription.
Once Ernest registered, mobilization quickly followed. There would be no spring planting this year and no harvest; instead, he would have to leave his quarter-section homestead and go to war. On March 1, 1918, he reported to Moose Jaw for a medical exam, where he was deemed fit for service: 5’5”, 145 pounds, grey eyes, dark hair, 20/20 vision, normal hearing. Three months later, on June 4th, he officially enlisted at Regina with the 1st Depot Battalion, Saskatchewan Regiment, and in short order received a mandatory series of typhoid vaccinations, had his wisdom teeth removed, and obtained his service uniform.[2]
There were more than 200 other French-speaking prairie soldiers with Ernest at Regina, so he likely made friends quickly.[3] As a tribute to their large number, on June 24, St-Jean-de-Baptiste Day, they were granted permission to attend the grand concert organized by local French-Canadians. With the war still in full swing, however, the soldiers’ imminent departure overshadowed the celebrations. At the ceremony, priest Père Paradis solemnly declared in French, “Les Canadiens français have always been loyal and they are ready to prove it one more time by sacrificing their life if necessary.”[4]
Soon the battalion travelled east on the train for Montreal. There, they embarked aboard the troopship H.M.T. Cassandra, and on July 28 set sail for England; within a few months Ernest had gone from homestead farmer to infantry soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces army.[5] [6]
The voyage was a dangerous one due to the threat of German U-boats. And, with 1,455 officers and other ranks on board, it was crowded.[7] The men spent the long, light summer days either on deck or in the dining room for meals. At night, the soldiers slept in 3rd class steerage below decks, curled into hammocks strung from hooks in the wall. A lifebelt was to be worn at all times; as another Canadian soldier had written home: “They’re not taking any chances.”[8] Such fears were justified – over the course of the war, the Germans had sunk over 6,000 ships.[9]
As the ship left the Gulf of St. Lawrence and hit the open ocean, the sea swells made Ernest and the other soldiers – most of who were landlocked Prairie farmers – queasy. He later shared with his grandson that he had never been so sick before in his life as those nineteen days at sea![10] It’s possible, too, that he and some of his comrades were suffering from what would be later called the ‘Spanish Flu;’ their regiment was later blamed for spreading the deadly disease once they got to camp in England. When not ill, the men would have looked out to the vast sea, watching the nearby destroyer accompanying them and the occasional battleship or submarine in the distance.[11]
Although the convoy system had increased safety in travelling across the Atlantic, encountering German submarines or mines was still a considerable risk, particularly as the ship approached the “danger zone” off Ireland. The troops aboard the Cassandra must have breathed a sigh of relief when they docked safely at Liverpool alongside the two other Canadian troop ships that had arrived the same day.[12] Though their arrival was not reported in local newspapers – the media had to follow strict censorship rules – I imagine they were welcomed with the same enthusiasm as when earlier Canadian troopships had arrived, with local boats blowing on their whistles and ferry passengers cheering them in.[13]
Upon arrival in England, Ernest and his battalion were to be transferred to the 15th Canadian Reserve Battalion (Saskatchewan Regiment) at Camp Bramshott, a Canadian army training base in the picturesque countryside of Hampshire about 46 miles southwest of London.[14]
On 22 August the official war diary for the 15th Reserve Battalion impersonally recorded Ernest and his fellow soldiers’ arrival: “1430 other ranks taken on strength from the A.C. Canada with effect.”[15] It was a “fine and bright” day, and after a two-mile march from the Bramshott train station, the newly arrived Canadians were sent to stay in the large canvas tents at the Frensham Pond Segregation Camp. The quarantine period had recently been raised from ten to twenty-eight days and each Wednesday the medical officer inspected the troops, a response to several spinal meningitis cases and a new influenza strain making the rounds among the new recruits.[16] The unit began their training while in segregation; once officially cleared of infection, they moved to the main North camp where training continued in earnest.[17]
The 15th Reserve Battalion were training their men to reinforce other prairie infantry battalions fighting at the front: the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, and the 5th, 28th, and 46th (or so-called ‘Suicide Battalion,’ due to its 91.5% casualty rate).
More than 44,000 Canadian soldiers would be killed or wounded within the three months between August and November of 1918, and Ernest and his fellow soldiers were meant to fill the gaps. Due to these heavy casualties, training had been shortened from 14 to 10 weeks. After completing their training, he and his fellow soldiers could, at any time, be called on to pack their kits, sail the English Channel and join the fighting during what would be the final offensive of the war.
To be continued...
Sources:
[1] Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) Personnel Files; Reference: RG 150; Accession 1992-93/166, Box 3100-38, Item Number: 391252. Ernest Fiset, Regimental Number: 276832.
[2] Library and Archives Canada, Ernest Fiset CEF Personnel File: “Medical History Sheet”
[3] Le Patriote de l’Oest, July 10, 1918, “Nos soldats à Régina”, pages 6 and 8. This article lists 204 French Canadian prairie soldiers, but there were likely more. For example, Ernest’s photo friend, Napoleon De Montigny is not listed but would have been there at the same time.
[4] Le Patriote de l’Oest, 26 June 1918, page 8, “La Saint-Jean-Baptiste chez nos soldats: Les soldats de langue française de Régina célèbrant la fête nationale.”
[5] Library and Archives Canada, Ernest Fiset CEF Personnel File.
[6] WikiTree, ‘S.S. Cassandra.’ Retrieved from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:S.S._Cassandra.
[7] Renée Davis, “Flu on the Front: The Effects of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 on the 15th Reserve and 46th Infantry Battalions, Canadian Expeditionary Force” (Master’s Thesis, University of Ottawa, 2020), 65. Retrieved from https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/31252fbb-454c-4dc3-8ec8-c7041b1d64f2/content
[8] Canadian Great War Project: Private John Cushnie Collection. www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/transcripts/cushnieMain.asp
[9] Mark D. Karau, (2023, May 3), ‘Submarines and Submarine Warfare’ in Encyclopedia of the First World War. Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/submarines-and-submarine-warfare-1-1/
[10] R.C., conversation with Karen Inkster Vance, August 3, 2019 at Barriere, BC.
[11] Details taken from Canadian Great War Project: Private John Cushnie Collection. Letters: Saturday, April 28, 1917 – On Board the S.S. Olympic; Friday, May 11, 1917 – First impressions of England and a description of the trip over.
[12] Ernest was on the HMT Cassandra and Romeo Coté sailed on the HMS Nellore, both leaving Montreal on the same day; Joseph Bruneau sailed on the HMS Bellerephon from Halifax. According to their CEF Personnel files, all three ships landed at Liverpool on the same day.
[13] Harry Morris Letter, May 7th, 1916. https://www.canadianletters.ca/content/document-1971
[14] Overseas Military Forces of Canada. Report of the Ministry Overseas of Canada. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1918), 61. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/themes/defence/caf/militaryhistory/dhh/official/book-1918-overseas-en.pdf
[15] War Diaries – 15th Reserve Battalion, RG 9 III D, Vol. 4951, 22/08/1918, item 235.
[16] Renée Davis, “Flu on the Front," 80.
[17] Overseas Military Forces of Canada. Report of the Ministry Overseas of Canada, 11.
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