Pursuit to Mons 1918

[chris.wight]

I've been doing a fair amount of reading lately about the Canadian Corps, and the advance to Mons in 1918. While doing so, I came across the following paragraph in Martin Gilbert's "The First World War - A complete history" :

"The war was over. Marching into Mons, Lieutenant J.W. Muirhead saw the corpses of three British soldiers 'each wearing the medal ribbon of the 1914 Mons Star. They had been killed by machine gun fire that morning. As we got into Mons there were bodies of many of the enemy lying in the streets, also killed that day....Boys were kicking them in the gutter....The bells in the belfry were playing Tipperary'."

There is no footnote, nor any mention of name of Lt Muirhead's regiment by Gilbert.

From reading the war diary of the Canadian Corp's 7th Brigade, it mentions one squadron less one section of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, and one section R.H.A. had been attached to work with the brigade.

I'd like to see if I can find out who these men were, but I wanted to know if there were any other units from the First Army which they could have been from.

It's very sad to think these men had survived from the start of the war only to be killed at the end.

[Borden Battery]

I am assuming you are aware of the OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN ARMY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE 1914-1919 By COLONEL G.W.L. NICHOLSON, C.D. It has some detailed information. There is a Canadian website, or I can email the .pdf file of the complete works.

Regards

- Dwight Mercer, Regina, Canada

[chris.wight]

Thanks Dwight for your reply, and offer.

I came across the link to Nicholson's work a couple of weeks ago through another thread here. The only British unit Nicholson mentions on the 11th is the 5th Lancers. He does mention units of the 52nd Division taking over posts held by the 49th Battalion on Nov. 10th at Ghlin, two miles from Mons but no details of when they moved forward are given.

I would assume the men seen by Lieutenant Muirhead were from the 5th Lancers.

In the St. Symphorien Cemetery, I came across one Lancer, Private George Edwin Ellison, L/12643, whose date of death was the 11th - no idea though if that was from the action at Mons.