It should be remembered that this was Nova Scotia’s first attempt at recruiting and organizing a full Battalion for service in the Great War, and the facilities for the proper fulfilment of such a task were far from perfect. In view of this then Nova Scotians should be, and, I think, are, unanimous in their praise of Lieut.-Colonel Lecain and all ranks of his Battalion for his organizing and so quickly training a Unit which, though many times decimated and only a skeleton of a Battalion left, quickly and smoothly absorbed its reinforcements and carried on with renewed energy and greater deeds toward the high ideal of service for home and humanity.
The writer has often had it suggested to him that it was a pity the deeds of the 25th Battalion were not better known by the people at home. The reply to such a suggestion, on behalf of the Battalion is this: The reputation of the 25th Battalion was safe in the hands of our comrades throughout the Canadian Corps, and our exploits in raiding were the marvel of two armies. These exploits and deeds with their inevitable accompaniment of blood and death were not fit subjects to press-agent into the already overwrought family circles, which were possibly in receipt of one of those missiles of despair and death—an “official telegram from Ottawa.” We gloried in the encomiums of the Brigade, Divisional, Corps and Army Commanders, and still more in the hearty praise of our comrades in the “Y” or the canteens or estaminets. But no one thought of sending an account home. And why? Well, there were a good many Bills, and Jocks, and Toms and so on, who “went west” in that scrap. And what’s the use of making it realistic to Mary and Nora and Bessie? “No, Pard, we would rather not.”
And there we will leave it and endeavor to adhere to a resolution to make this brief sketch statistically correct.
Before Christmas Day, 1914, the Battalion was at full strength and had the authorized ten per cent. reserve in training in the Armories at Halifax and later on the Common. In April the people of Nova Scotia presented the Battalion with two fine field kitchens and $2,500, the ceremony taking place at the Provincial Building, in front of the whole Battalion on parade and a vast concourse of people.
As evidence of the fine spirit which animated the whole Battalion the-following is copied from the official War Diary: “A University Reinforcement Company of the P.P.C.L.I. arrived in the city to embark for England, and the 25th Battalion was called on to supply seven men to bring it up to strength. The Battalion was formed up on the Common and an invitation extended for any who wished to go Overseas at once in this draft to take one pace forward. The whole Battalion, to a man, stepped forward making it necessary to search the records and select seven ex-imperial service men. Privates Aldridge, Baker, Conroy, Cumberland, Erickson, Kehoe and Leonard were selected.”
On sailing for England aboard H.M.T.S. Saxonia (Captain Charles, R.N.) on May 20, 1915, Haligonians and many from other points in the Province witnessed many a moving spectacle as bright countenances fought the dimming influence of heavy hearts as they wished the boys of the 25th Godspeed on their journey, and victory in the fight; leaving their safe return or immortalization in the hands of the Creator who deals justly and well in all things. With the 25th Battalion on board the Saxonia were those gallant sons of Quebec, the 22nd Battalion. No account of the doings of the 25th Battalion could do justice to its purpose without paying tribute to those noble French-Canadians who were continually associated with the 25th Battalion from embarkation at Halifax on May 20, 1915, to debarkation at the same port on May 16, 1919. Surely there is a lesson for our politicians and religious bigots in the close co-operation which marked the attitude of these two Battalions toward each other throughout the period of their association. Our brave comrades of the 22nd Battalion showed us that the French-Canadian was not only generous in sympathy but quick to collaborate with his fellow Canadians of British descent on the broad principle of national welfare. In battle, in sports, or in argument over the estaminet tables, proof of the whole-hearted camaraderie between the 22nd and 25th Battalions was daily evident and fostered by both Units.
The Saxonia docked at Devonport on May 29, 1915, and her valuable human cargo took trains for Westenhanger, in Kent County, where they detrained in the middle of the night and marched to East Sandling Camp, in the Shorncliffe area, to which the 2nd Canadian Division had been assigned for the period of their intensive training.
While this training was being carried out the Battalion took part in Divisional Reviews by H.M. the King, Earl Kitchener, Lieut-General Sir Sam Hughes and General Steele, as well as one in honor of the visit to the area by the Premier of Canada, Sir Robert Borden, and Brigade and Training Inspectors. The 25th Battalion was now a Unit of the 5th (Eastern Canada) Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division, which consisted of four Battalions and details (22nd, 24th, 25th and 26th) drawn from Quebec, Montreal, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The Brigade Commander was Lieut.-Colonel (now Major-General) Sir David Watson, and Major-General R. W. Turner, V.C., was Divisional Commander.
After three and a half months of eight hours’ training per day, with four hours of practice in night operations’ frequently, the 2nd Division was ordered to France. The 25th Battalion proceeded by boat from Folkestone to Boulogne on the night of September 15, 1915, and by train on the following day from Pont de Brieques, a few kilometres from Boulogne, to a small station near St. Omer. From here to the front line was the first real test of the Battalion’s morale and physical condition. Marching for five days with new (Kitchener’s) boots over French and Belgian cobblestone roads, the Battalion relieved the King’s Own Regiment on the night of the 22nd–23rd of September, 1915, the first Nova Scotia Battalion to face the Hun as a Unit. And not a man had dropped out in the gruelling grind of the last four days. The writer has been told, unofficially, that this was a record for the Division, and though it has never been confirmed, neither has it been denied.
The first few tours in the front lines were spent in the H and I trenches, Kemmel Sector of the Ypres Salient, where the Hun was very active in mining operations. During the Battalion’s second tour, which extended over six days, Fritz blew one large and three smaller mines on “B” Company, which killed twelve and wounded twenty, leaving a crater 65 feet by 35 feet and 25 feet deep. This resulted in no advantage to the enemy, inasmuch as the charge was situated so that it must have done considerable damage to his trenches, and the crater was promptly garrisoned by Nova Scotians.