MACFIE, PTE D. ROY - Regimental # 6835
Donald Roy Macfie, was born January 2, 1891 at Sunny Slope, the son of Frank ‘F.N.’ and Mary (Millin) Macfie of Sunny Slope.
He enlisted in August 1914 and by Sept. 22nd, 1914 was at Valcartier. Quebec. (His effective enlistment shows as September 15, 1914.)
As John A. Macfie (Roy’s son) recounted, as part of the first Canadian contingent, Roy saw action at the 2nd battle of Ypres[1]. Roy missed only two of the battles, Amiens and Arras which occurred while he was on a training course in England.
Roy was in the 1st Canadian Inf. Batt. Transport[2] and received the Military Medal and bar. He was wounded at Passchendaele and was twice awarded the Military Medal.
Roy received a shrapnel wound to his left arm on Nov. 6, 1917 and was hospitalized at Etaples.
Roy Macfie
In January 15, 1918 like so many others Roy suffered through influenza. (In this regard, the University of Oxford in an article entitled World Ward 1 Centenary, Continuations and Beginnings, The Etaples Flu Pandemic notes that: “Although the USA once claimed the dubious honour of being the seat of the ‘Spanish ‘Flu’ pandemic, with an outbreak in March 1918 at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas, new research supports the theory that the disease originated at the British army bases of Etaples and Aldershot.”)
Roy Macfie’s story is told in John A. Macfie’s book ‘Letters Home’ (pages xiv and xv).
Roy was discharged April 23, 1919. (We will visit Roy again later in this book. In WWII, Roy joined the Veterans Guard of Canada and served in a variety of locations in Canada, including at Monteith as a guard at a prisoner-of-war camp.)
Roy re-enlisted during WWII to the Veterans Guard of Canada which, in part had the responsibility of guarding prisoner of war camps.
Donald 'Roy' Macfie on guard duty at a POW camp at Monteith
[1] The Second Battle of Ypres was fought during the First World War from 22 April to 25 May 1915. It was the first major battle fought by Canadian troops in the Great War. The battle took place on the Ypres salient on the Western Front, in Belgium, outside the city of Ypres (now known by its Flemish name, Leper). The untested Canadians distinguished themselves as a determined fighting force, resisting the horror of the first large-scale poison gas attack in modern history. Canadian troops held a strategically critical section of the frontline until reinforcements could be brought in. More than 6,500 Canadians were killed, wounded or captured in the Second Battle of Ypres. from the Canadian Encyclopedia
[2] Officially an infantry division would be classified at full animal strength at 5,241 horses and mules, 60.7 percent or 3,182 of these animals were part of the infantry division's artillery branch. Besides mounted and cavalry units, the CEF used horses, mules, donkeys and cattle to transport gun pieces on the battle front as motorised vehicles would not be able to handle rough terrain.At the start of the war over 7,000 horses were brought over to England and Europe from Canada and by the end of the war over 8 million horses had been lost in the course of fighting in Europe.(Wickipedia). The military used horses mainly for logistical support; they were better than mechanized vehicles at traveling through deep mud and over rough terrain. Horses were used for reconnaissance and for carrying messengers as well as for pulling artillery, ambulances, and supply wagons. The presence of horses often increased morale among the soldiers at the front, but the animals contributed to disease and poor sanitation in camps, caused by their manure and carcasses. The value of horses and the increasing difficulty of replacing them were such that by 1917, some troops were told that the loss of a horse was of greater tactical concern than the loss of a human soldier. (Wikipedia)
