Chapter XLII: King’s College and King’s College School in the War

The University of King’s College at Windsor, N.S., has always been small in numbers, but always big in the spirit it has displayed and in the type of men it has fostered.

It was founded in 1789—the oldest University in the British Dominions beyond the Seas—by United Empire Loyalists, by men who readily gave up all they possessed in a material sense rather than forsake their allegiance to an ideal. It is not surprising then that at all times there have been King’s men ready to answer the King’s call and that the names of men such as Inglis and Welsford are held in special reverence by their _Alma Mater_.

The spirit of loyal service and sacrifice that has actuated King’s men was at once evident in her sons when the Great Call came in 1914, and King’s has every reason to be proud of her record of loyalty and devotion in the Great War. More than four hundred of her sons were at the King’s side during that fierce struggle for freedom.

In 1914 there were at least twelve King’s men, including seven Generals, holding commissions in the Imperial Army and the Canadian Permanent Forces.

Fourteen volunteers sailed with the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, four of whom were killed in action. The first King’s man to make the Great Sacrifice was Capt. G. L. B. Concanon, who was killed in the Dardanelles Campaign while serving with the 2nd Battalion of Australian Infantry.

In the Second Contingent were some thirty-five students and graduates of the College and a number of “Old Boys” of the School.

Amongst the notable enlistments from College during the War were the nine who volunteered for service in the Cycle Corps of the 2nd Contingent, and some twenty, mostly students, who enlisted together in the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade. This latter represented an enlistment of about 50 per cent. of the student body then in residence at King’s College and included one of her Professors.

During the period of the War the largest number of male students in attendance at King’s College was forty-eight, and this number was reduced to a few physically unfit men in 1917, and yet sixty-seven students actually enlisted from the College, and ten of them made the supreme sacrifice. In all twenty-three King’s men fell in action on the Field of Honor.

So reduced was the student body that when the Military Service Act came into effect there was not one physically fit student left to come under the provisions of that Act.

Early in 1915 a contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps was organized at King’s College under Professor Sturley as Officer Commanding, and did very useful work not only amongst the students at College, but also amongst the young men of Windsor, the seat of King’s College. Its active life, however was short, for within about twelve months of its organization practically the whole of the personnel of the Corps had enlisted for Overseas Service.

Amongst the honors gained by King’s men during the War were:

O. B. Jones D.S.O.
J. P. Silver D.S.O., C.B.E.
C. Hill D.S.O.
C. R. E. Willets D.S.O.
H. A. Kaulback O.B.E.
A. E. Andrew M.C.
G. D. Campbell M.C.
R. H. Morris M.C.
C. V. Strong M.C.
C. Campbell M.C.
W. G. Ernst M.C. and Bar.
G. B. Murray M.C.
R. H. Tait M.C.
D. L. Teed M.C.
P. L. Parlee D.C.M.
W. E. Warburton D.C.M.
G. L. Jones D.C.M.
C. Blanchard M.M.
T. W. Maynard M.M.
H. R. Poole Legion of Honor.
R. H. Stewart Order of St. George of Russia.
G. F. Mason Croix de Guerre.

Of the many who distinguished themselves by gallant service, whether officially recognized or not, the record of a few of the younger generation must suffice as typical of all.

Two of the first students to enlist were Edward Jeffery and George Mason. They enlisted together in the ranks of the First Contingent, 17th Battalion, and went over to France together with the 14th Battalion, 1st Canadian Division. For sixteen months they fought side by side—all through the terrible winter of 1914–1915 in the Ypres Salient—and came through that fiery ordeal unscathed. They returned to England together for their commissions, training together at Crowborough. Mason returned to France almost immediately after the course, but Jeffery was taken ill and was operated on for appendicitis; and it was not till April, 1918, that he was again sent to France. In June, 1918, he joined his new Battalion, 16th Canadian Scottish, and found himself posted to a Company commanded by Mason, now a Captain. So they were together again in France. On the night of the 26th September Jeffery received his first wound, but it proved fatal, and the next day he was laid to rest at Ligny St. Frochel, near St. Pol. Only four days later, on October 1st, his great chum followed, and so these two, who for four long years had borne the burden and strife of the Great War with what seemed charmed lives, were reunited once more in that land where there is no more parting and no more strife.

Arthur Leigh Collett, B.A., had left King’s for Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, but at once forsook his work at Oxford and enlisted in the Imperial Army. He served in France as a Lieutenant with the 8th Gloucesters, and in the autumn of 1915, in the Battle of Messines Ridge he was reported missing and later believed killed. Others from his Battalion reported missing at the same time were later reported as prisoners of war in Germany. There is little doubt that Collett fought gallantly facing the odds and choosing to meet death rather than to cease for a moment, while life lasted, from striving for the ideals of justice and righteousness.

A. B. C. Hilbert was one of the most popular students and one of the best athletes at King’s. Enlisting with the Cycle Corps he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service on reaching England. In July, 1917, he wrote: “I am at present resting after a twenty-two weeks’ illness due to a little ducking I got in the North Sea. I am flying again in August.” In October came the news that he had fallen a second time in the North Sea, and now there he rests with many other gallant sons of Britain.

Of the others who enlisted with him in the Cycle Corps, Turnbull and McCormick rest in soldiers’ graves in Flanders; Crawford died in hospital ere he saw the foe; Foster and Parlee are back with us at King’s, and though Parlee has lost a leg, his breast is adorned with that proud emblem of bravery, the Distinguished Conduct Medal; Brittain has recovered from his serious wounds and is serving the King of Peace; Harley, Hallett and the rest are giving the same good account of themselves that they always gave as loyal sons of King’s.

George Stewart Burchell was one of that little band who enlisted together with the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade, and joined the 85th Battalion in France. He was one of the most promising of the younger sons of King’s, a clever, manly, gentlemanly young fellow. He fought for the cause of liberty and right and now rests in a soldier’s grave in France.

In the records of the King’s College Advance Movement is the entry, “George Stewart Burchell, killed at the Front, his pay at his request, $100.” May King’s never cease to honor the memory of this loyal and gallant son.

W. B. Ernst enlisted as a private in the 193rd Battalion, rose to the rank of Captain in the 85th Battalion, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar. Ernst has not rested on his laurels, and since his return here has shown that in the field of scholarship, too, he will take no second place, and has captured the Rhodes Scholarship from the Province of Nova Scotia. King’s will ever have reason to be proud of the records of Ernst, so affectionately known as “Bill.”

Of others whom King’s will always delight to honor may be mentioned Capt. D. L. Teed, M.C., and Gunner L. Wilkinson, who fell gallantly serving their guns, Lieut. W. E. Warburton, D.CM., rewarded for his bravery in the Dardanelles, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E. Willets, D.S.O., the gallant and popular Commanding Officer of the R.C.R. in France, and now commanding the famous “Princess Pats,” Cecil Blanchard, M.M., who was too young to enlist except as a bugler, but not too young to show that he came of loyal fighting stock; and the Campbell brothers, six of whom saw active service, and two of whom, Colin and Kenneth, lie “out there,” somewhere in France.

Though these records are brief and unworthy may they suffice to show that the true spirit of King’s still lives in her sons, and that they, as of old, have upheld nobly her best traditions and realized in some measure her ideals of service,

_“DEO, LEGI, REGI, GREGI.”_