LIEUT. J. HALLISEY.
CAPT. J. H. WALLACE.
Two of the Battalion pipers played the boys over the top that wintry morning, and although the German band and our own artillery drowned the skirling notes of the pibroch, our lads were fired with the spirit which prompted these two noble musicians to volunteer and insist on accompanying the Battalion through the muck and mire, the death and destruction which was let loose on that fateful day. They were awarded Military Medals for their splendid example of self-sacrificing disregard for personal safety.
Lieutenant Hallisey, of Truro, was killed while proceeding to the “jumping off” position. Several officers were wounded, and the casualties among the N.C.O.’s and men were very heavy. The death of R.S.M. “Dad” Henchcliffe, M.C., father of all the N.C.O.’s and men in the Battalion, was particularly regrettable; for he was a very efficient warrant officer and a friend to all.
LIEUT.-COL. “STAN” BAULD.
Lieut.-Colonel Bauld commanded the Battalion at the taking of Fresnoy and Arleux late in February. While these were only local affairs and confined to a narrow front, they were the cause of some very severe casualties. “D” and “C” Companies suffered very severely at Arleux. Captain Weare, M.C., was severely shell-shocked, Lieutenants Bell and Wallace, two very promising young officers, were killed, and scores of our men caught in the wire, in the darkness, were literally shot to pieces.
Shortly after this affair, two officers’ batmen from “C” Company went astray in the darkness with their officers’ rations and strayed into the enemy lines. Their whereabouts was a matter of conjecture until the publication of the roll of prisoners of war. In the thirty-eight months during which the 25th Battalion was in contact with the flower of the German War Lord’s Legions, only eight of our men were captured alive. The five machine-gunners have already been noted. They were detached from the Battalion at the time of their capture. The two mentioned above were the victims of a dark night and unfamiliar recently captured ground. The eighth man to be captured was taken on the Mericourt Sector early in 1918 during a raid by a party of three officers and ninety Huns on a thinly held portion of the sector. We also succeeded in capturing one of the raiding party who was unfortunate enough to get into our wire entanglements. A great deal of information was gleaned from the captive regarding the training and composition of the raiding party. The man who was captured by the enemy had only joined the Battalion a few days previously. So what information the German Intelligence Staff gleaned from him must have been purely family affairs.
Early in July, 1917, Lieut.-Colonel Bauld obtained leave of absence to visit his home, and the command of the Battalion devolved on Major Blois, D.S.O., who commanded the 25th, until he in turn was granted leave to Canada in May, 1918.