CAPT. FRASER CRAIG.
CAPT. W. E. E. DOANE.
When the Battalion finally moved from the Somme area to be reinforced and recuperated there were less than one hundred of the original crusaders who marched so gaily from Flanders less than one month previously. Though they had received a hard drubbing they made the old nickname of “Herring-choker” one to be respected as long as memory lives and histories are written. Theirs was not the attitude of the torn and mangled dog with its tail between its legs. With reinforcements, which arrived while the remnants of the Battalion rested a few days at Bertrincourt, near Albert, they were transported to Hersin, and immediately went into the line at Bully-Grenay, on the Lens Front, where, with a pugnacity which is typical of the breed, they stirred up a quiet sector until it became the most frequently raided and most heavily shelled of their experience.
The first raid on this front, and one of the most successful, was the enterprise, on Christmas Eve, 1916, directed by Capt. W. A. Cameron and carried out by an officer and twenty men from each Company. The objective took in a point in the enemy lines known as the “Pope’s Nose,” owing to the peculiar twist in the trench which brought it to within fifteen yards of our line. Each party was successful in gaining entrance to the Hun trenches. In fact, two of the parties encountered no opposition, for Fritz had fled for cover. But the party from “D” Company, under Lieut. (now Capt.) W. A. Livingstone, found their objective strongly manned and the men were able to get in some splendid bayonet and Mills bomb work. They saved seven specimens of German Kultur to tell our Intelligence Staff what they knew about the situation on the other side of No Man’s Land.
Captain Cameron, Lieutenants Livingstone and Morris received Military Crosses in recognition of their energy and personal gallantry in the above affair.
Lieut.-Colonel Hilliam, D.S.O., was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and appointed to the command of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division, in January, 1917. The Battalion at having their C.O. selected for a higher command recognized that no promotion in the Allied Forces was more deserved; but regret at the Battalion’s loss was expressed by all ranks. The effects of his soldierly training and administration of the Battalion remained with them throughout the War.
In the attack on Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, the 25th Battalion was led by Major J. A. Delancey, M.C., until that brave officer was killed, after which Major (now Colonel) A. O. Blois, of Halifax (who had enlisted as a private in the 40th Battalion, been appointed to a commission in the 64th Battalion, transferred a subaltern to the 25th Battalion and had progressed at that date through the Adjutancy of the Battalion to the rank of Major), took command, and organized and consolidated the objectives which had all been secured by ten o’clock and were extended later in the day.
