Pte. Samuel Lowe 195925

Pte. Samuel Lowe

93^rd Peterborough Bn/ 5^th Canadian Mounted Rifles

Regimental Number 195925

Samuel Louis Lowe was born in Bury, England on August 25^th, 1897.

He was living and working as a farmer in Warsaw, Ontario when he enlisted as a private in the 93^rd Peterborough Battalion on the 24^th of April, 1916.  William was nearly 20 years old and unmarried.  He stood five foot six and had a dark complexion, hazel eyes and dark hair.  He was a Roman Catholic and declared no previous military experience.  It appears that Samuel might have come to Canada as a Home Child as his attestation paper originally listed “none” beside his next of kin, and was later annotated as “Former Guardian Lady Arundall of Wardour, Tidsbury, Wiltshire, England”.

Private Lowe remained in the city of Peterborough and continued training there for close to a month before the entire 93^rd Battalion moved to Barriefield camp, Kingston.  After another six weeks of training, the 93^rd was transported by rail to Halifax where they boarded the S.S. Empress of Britain on the 15^th of July, 1916.  They arrived safely in Liverpool ten days later.

The 93^rd, like many other Canadian battalions arriving in England at the time, were broken up and their ranks assigned to other Canadian battalions already fighting at the front.  By September 7^th, Lowe was part of a draft of 93^rd men assigned to the 5^th Canadian Mounted Rifles, an infantry unit already in engaged in France.  Lowe immediately made his way to France, but did not join his unit immediately.  Upon arriving on the continent, he spent two weeks at the Brigade Depot before joining the 3^rd Entrenching Battalion.  This was a common occurrence for many soldiers newly landed in France, as they awaited the transition to their respective battalions.  During this time, Lowe would have been employed in constructing and maintaining trenches in the rear and support lines.  He joined the 5^th Canadian Mounted Rifles in the French town of Albert on October 2^nd, only a day after the battalion had come out of a grueling attack on Regina Trench, in which they had lost more than half their strength.  Lowe spent the next week in the rear getting acquainted with his new unit, drilling and preforming the occasional work party.  On the 9^th he accompanied the remnants of the 5^th C.M.R. back into the trenches captured a week previously.  The next three days were characterized by heavy enemy shelling.  It was likely during the shelling that Sam was hit with shrapnel.

He was admitted to the No. 26 General Hospital in Etaples, France on October 12^th, 1916 with wounds to his right thigh and arms.  He was evacuated to another hospital in Reading, England six days later, spending close to three months there, before being moved to a Canadian Convalescent assembly center in Epsom.  He was discharged February 16, 1917 to the 22^nd Reserve Battalion at Shoreham, England before returning to France and rejoining the 5^th Mounted Rifles on the 24^th of April 1917 in their newly captured trenches on Vimy Ridge.

Sam spent the next five weeks at the front until reporting to a hospital in Wimeraux on the 3^rd of June 1917 suffering from deafness.  The condition must have been severe enough to be referred to a different English hospital three days later. There, he was declared almost totally deaf and discharged to the Regimental Depot while he continued to receive treatments for his hearing.

Samuel was next posted to the Canadian Army Dental Corps, travelling to various training camps in England as well as their headquarters in London throughout August 1917 to July 1918.  Though it is certain that during his time there he was preforming duties and not being treated, the nature of his work is unknown.

After nearly a year with the Dental Corps., Lowe was then assigned to the Canadian Forestry Corps on July 2^nd 1918.  He reported to their headquarters at London at the time, before making his way to the Canadian Forestry Camp at Inverness, Scotland.  His work with the foresters would have primarily involved harvesting and processing timber for the war effort.  He worked steadily there, even after the war had ended.  He was awarded a leave of absence from December 20^th to the 30^th, but ran in to trouble when he overstayed his leave by close to two weeks and did not return until the 12^th of January.  For this action he received ten days of Field Punishment No.2, which involved extra fatigues often while being shackled.  He also forfeited 13 days’ pay.  Lowe continued to work at the forestry camp until May 14^th, 1919 when he left Inverness for the Canadian Camp in Witley, England.

Samuel Lowe remained at Witley until June 25^th, 1919 when he left England aboard H.M.T. Caronia for Canada.  He was discharged from military service a couple of weeks later in Kingston, Ontario on the 4^th of July.

Samuel return to the Peterborough area after the war and was married there to Margaret Murphy in 1921.

Sources

Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 585. P.409.

Canada. "Military Service File of Samuel Louis Lowe." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5769-32. Item Number 540838.