Pte. Harry Saltern 3057601

1^st Eastern Ontario Depot Battalion/ Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry

Regimental Number 3057601

Harry Saltern was born on September 18^th, 1899 in Havelock, Ontario. He was the son of William and Emma Saltern. By 1901 the family had moved to Centre Dummer and started farming there.

Harry was living in Centre Dummer and working as a famer when he was drafted under the Military Service Act.  Saltern reported to Barriefield Camp, Kingston on March 29^th 1918.  He was 27 years old, stood 5 feet, 9 inches tall and had a ruddy complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.  Harry was a Baptist, single and had no previous military experience.

He reported to the No.1 Eastern Ontario Depot Battalion at Barriefield Camp, Kingston to begin his military training.  After a month of training, on April 7^th 1918, Harry sailed from Halifax to England.  He was stationed at the Canadian training camp at Seaford and immediately put into the 6^th Canadian Reserve Battalion to await posting to the front.

During his time in England, Saltern was struck down with the mumps and spent two weeks in isolation in the No.14 Canadian General Hospital in Sussex.  Having recovered, he was discharged back to the reserve camp on June 4^th before being assigned to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) on September 12^th.

The Patricia’s were the longest serving Canadian battalion in the Great War, having entered the fighting in 1914.  Harry joined them in the field on September 12, 1918, during the final Hundred Days of the War.  He was in France six weeks before being wounded during the Battle of Cambrai on September 29^th.   Saltern was brought to the Casualty Clearing Station with a shrapnel wounds in his arm, hand and abdomen.  As this was essentially the first line of medical care off the battlefield, the shrapnel was removed here, and his wound dressed.

After he was stabilized, Harry was moved further up the line to the No.2 Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport, France on October 1^st.  Here his wounds were given a more thorough inspection, and X-rays showed that a piece of shrapnel had pierced through his tricep, breaking the humerus bone in his left arm.  The same shrapnel had went through his hand and entered his abdomen wall.  Harry underwent an operation to fix his arm and stomach before being shuttled across the Channel to the No. 15 Canadian General Hospital at Taplow, England on October 18^th.  His wounds did not heal cleanly at first, and when they become infected, he needed another operation.  He recovered sufficiently enough to be moved to the Canadian Hospital in Kirkdale, two days after the war ended, on November 13^th 1918.

Harry continued to receive treatment for his arm and stomach in England until being invalided back to Canada on December 10^th.  Upon arriving in Canada, he was sent to Queen’s Military Hospital in Kingston, Ontario on December 22^nd where he continued to receive rehabilitation to his arm in the form of massage and electric treatments.  Although it was recorded in his medical records that his wounds had healed by January 6^th 1919, Saltern would forever bear the scars of his wounds, as well as a left arm that was noticeably weaker than his right and that could not fully extend or flexed.  Even though he was left handed, he was never given a pension for his disability.

Pte. Harry Saltern was discharged on March 27^th 1919.  He returned to Dummer and lived and worked on his brother’s farm.  Harry passed away on April 7^th, 1972 and is buried in Norwood, Ontario.

Sources

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:  Year: 1891; Census Place: Belmont, Peterborough East, Ontario; Roll: T-6363; Family No: 30.

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Year: 1901; Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 10; Family No: 107.

Library and Archives Canada: Year: 1911; Census Place: 22 - Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; Page: 8; Family No: 77

Library and Archives Canada. Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: RG 31; Folder Number: 81; Census Place: Dummer (Township), Peterborough East, Ontario; Page Number: 3.

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:

Canada. "Military Service File of Harry Saltern." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Record Group150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 8621 - 2. Item Number 211978.