Willam Aitken M.M. 320867

William Ballantyne Aitken   M.M.    320867

Page 1 of William Aitken's Attestation Paper
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William Ballantyne Aitken was born to William Aitken and Margaret (Minnie) Ballantyne in Bubsey, Scotland on March 20^th 1896.  It appears that William Sr. died when his son was very young.  Minnie, with William and his younger sister Elizabeth, immigrated to Canada in 1905.  By 1911, the family was living in the village of Warsaw, Ontario on East Peterborough Street.  The census of that year indicated Minnie was a nurse.

At age 19, William enlisted in what was known as the “52nd Belmont Battery”, a Canadian Field Artillery battery raised in early February 1916 by the Belmont club of Peterborough.  He left the city with the first draft of 13 men on February 16^th to join the 52^nd battery in Kingston.  At the time he was living in the city at 216 Reid Street and working as a book-keeper.  He was a quite a large man for the time, standing 5 foot nine inches tall and weighing 200 pounds.  He had a fair complexion, with brown hair and eyes.  He had 1 year’s previous service with the Prince of Wales Dragoons.  His religion was Presbyterian.

The Battery trained for close to 7 months at Petawawa, before leaving for overseas aboard the S.S. Olympic in mid September, 1916.  After another 11 months training in England he proceeded to France in August of 1917.

Gunner Aitken went with the 52^nd Battery to the Bully Grenay of the front, located on the old Vimy Ridge Battleground that had been won by the Canadians in April of last spring. Though the grand assault had long ended, the front line was far from quiet as the Germans continued to press counterattacks to retake various parts of the line.  As a gunner, Aitken would have been spent the next few months registering and firing his gun on enemy positions, as well as taking regular fire from gas and explosive shells from enemy artillery.

Aitken's Information Card as seen in his Service file

October 16th, was a fairly typical day for the 52^nd Battery in the Bully Grenay sector. The official war diary for the 13^th Brigade notes that the afternoon brought heavy enemy shelling onto the batteries.  Writing from a London hospital to his mother in Warsaw, William Aitken writes of his experience that day and the time after:

 “London, Nov. 12, 1917.

My Dearest Mother,

Here I am, large as life and twice as natural, and no limbs missing. You will be surprised to see I am in England. I tried to stop an 8-inch shell, but it stopped about ten feet away and I did an aeroplane stunt, but landed right side up.  That was on 16^th October. I was a bit shaken up and went down the line the next night and then caved in proper. I had visions of being carried on a stretcher, a dressing station, a train ride, and then a real bed for a while, and a nurse. I wasn’t sure whether I was in the wee brick house on the corner or up to my knees in Flanders mud.

I saw some funny things. I felt better on the 25^th, and sent you a card. Since then I have been getting O.K., and my head is all clear now. I landed here last night-oh, this seems like real heaven. I can’t realise I am in dear old Blighty… Just a wee rest. You see, my right leg and hand are out of commission. My hand is coming O.K. only the fingers are numb, no feeling at all. Funny, isn’t it?  But I’m all Jake now. My chart says trench fever or something about some nerves as a result of trench concussion. I only hope Viv. [Vivian Jackson of Warsaw] is still in England so he can come and see me.  Well, dear, my wing is getting shaky, so I’ll stop for this time, and write more later.

Your wee son.  Bill”

Gunner Aitken spent over 2 months recovering in England from what the doctors called “trench fever”, but what was more likely shell shock.  He returned to his battery on June 11, 1918 and continued to fight through Canada’s bloodiest days of the War.  He survived to the Armistice and returned to England in March of 1919.  There while waiting for demobilization he returned to the hospital April 20-22 with quinsy, a complicated form of tonsillitis. 

He was later to receive a discharge and arrived in Canada, July 2 1919, and later returned and settled in Warsaw on a week later.  It was shortly after arriving home that Aitken was awarded the Military Medal for Bravery for his service in the war.  Though no specifics were given as to the conduct surrounding the medal, but the Peterborough Examiner related a story that might have related to it:

 “A German machine gun was working great havoc among the men. Gunner Aitken and four others were sent across No Man’s Land to silence it. They were very badly peppered, and three ran back. Young Aitkens and another stuck to it and completed the job.”

Sources:

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2007.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2004.

Ontario, Canada, Select Marriage, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), “Complete Service File: Aitken, William Ballantyne”. Accessed November 29, 2014.

Peterborough Evening Examiner.  “ Breezy Letters From Gunner W.B. Aitken.” July 18 1919 p.12.

Peterborough Evening Examiner. “Another Warsaw Soldier Home”. December 20 1917, p.11