Oceans part not kindred hearts / While they remain akin
The Graves Registration Report form for Plot 59 Row D Grave12 lists an Unknown Captain of the Royal Highlanders of Canada – the regimental reference to the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion. A review of all of the information clearly shows only one Captain of the 13th Battalion whose remains exhumed at the location on 25 January 1921. That Officer – Captain Gerald Oscar Lees.
Family History
Gerald Oscar Lees born in Wolverhampton, England on 30 May 1877. His sister, Dorothy Nevile Lees born in Wolverhampton in 1880, the youngest of the seven children of William and Rose Lees. The Lees a long-established Wolverhampton family. In the 1891 census Dorothy’s father described as a ‘justice of the peace, Mediterranean merchant and manufacturer of tinned japanned wares’. Ten years later the family still living in Old Ivy House, Lower Street, Tettenhall.
Dorothy Lees
In 1903 Dorothy Lees travelled to Italy, arriving on 4 November in Florence. She remained here for the rest of her life. On 7 November her brother, Gerald, set sail for Montreal to work there as an agent for Mander Bros. The leading Wolverhampton manufacturer of paint and varnish. Earlier, in 1901 Gerald had been working as a clerk his father’s company.
Later, there may have been some kind of business failure. For, in 1911 the eldest Lees son, Lawrence, working as a’ needle manufacturer’, living with his parents. His father being described as ‘a retired export merchant’.
When William Lees died in 1917 he left only £300 or so. This may be some kind of explanation as to why Dorothy left home. A this time, it was very much cheaper to live in Italy. And, if she hoped to earn money from writing, there was more picturesque ‘copy’ in Florence than in Tettenhall.
Then in 1907 she published two books, Scenes and Shrines in Tuscany and Tuscan Feasts and Friends. She dedicated the latter book to her brother, Gerald, ‘Oceans part not kindred hearts/While they remain akin’. Her son, David Lees, who died in 2004, renowned as a photographer; several photographs of his father are held by the National Portrait Gallery. David’s daughter, Maria Lees Lanzani the great-grandaughter of Dorothy Lees.
Enlistment of Lieutenant Gerald Oscar Lees
A broker at the time of enlistment, Oscar had previous service with 57th RHC, 1907-1910. At this time, he stood 6 feet tall, 165 pounds, with fresh complexion, brown eyes and hair.
Attested at Valcartier on 23 September 1914. Lieutenant Gerald Oscar Lees sailed from Quebec City per SS ALAUNIA on 4 October 1914.
Promotion
As November of 1914 drew to a close, there occurred several small incidents of interest to officers and men of the Battalion. Lt Gerald Lees received his captaincy as a reward for his hard work and efficient handling of his men, while Lt Ernest Marmaduke Sellon (d 1975), for similar reasons, appointed Battalion Scout Officer. Earlier in the month Lt Leverett de Vebber Chipman appointed Intelligence Officer.-
Second Battle of Ypres
On 24 April 1915, the Canadian Division held a line, 4250 yards in length, extending in a north-westerly direction from the Ypres-Roulers Railway to a point some fifty yards beyond the Ypres-Poelcappelle Road. The extreme left of this line held by the 13th Battalion. In addition, the third, and right, section of the 13th Battalion’s front held by No 4 Company, under Capt William Hew Clark-Kennedy, with whom Capt Gerald Lees, Lieut William Stewart Mackay MacTier and Lieut Stanley Bagg Lindsay.
Soon after daybreak the Germans again used gas, which fell with particular severity on the trenches of the 15th Battalion to the right, and followed this with another intense bombardment, wrecking the shallow trenches that had been dug and causing further losses.
Under cover of this shell fire the enemy (infantry worked closer and closer, endeavouring to rush the remnant of the Highlanders and administer the coup de grace. Then, it was at this stage of the struggle that Capt Gerald Lees killed and Capt Lionel Ward Whitehead fatally wounded. Both these officers had displayed resource and courage and their loss to the Battalion a heavy one.
Medals and decorations sent to Miss Elsie Cotton, Pinehurst, Almonte, Ontario. In addition, plaque, scroll and Memorial Cross sent to his mother, Miss Rosa M E Lees, Old Ivy House, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, England.
Investigative Report
This report pertains to an investigation of the identification of the burial location, or headstone markings, of a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the Great War 1914-1921.
Report Date: 19 October 2016
SUBMITTED TO:
CWGC Canadian Agency
66 Slater Street
Suite 1707
Ottawa Ontario Canada K1A 0P4
Reason for Submission: Casualty Identification: Confirmed Identity. Burial Information: Burial Location Identified, Grave Records Correction.
Summary of Findings
The Graves Registration Report form for Plot 59 Row D Grave12 lists an Unknown Captain of the Royal Highlanders of Canada. Regimental reference to the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion. A review of all of the information clearly shows only one Captain of the 13th Battalion whose remains could have been where exhumed on 25 January 1921. The Officer, Captain Gerald Oscar Lees.
Details of Findings
The findings are conclusive that the remains in Plot 59 Row D Grave 12 are those of Cpt Gerald Oscar Lees of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada. The findings are based on the following:
Circumstance of Death
The Circumstance of Death file for Captain Gerald Oscar Lees of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion indicates killed in action on 25 April 1915 in the vicinity of St. Julien (Attachment #1).
Historical evidence, that follows, shows his actual date of death was 24 April 1915.
E-103 War Graves Register
The E-103 War Graves Register states Captain Lees “killed in action in the field” in the area of Langemark (Belgium) and that there was no record of burial. As such, his name inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial (Attachment #2).
13th Battalion War Diary
The 13th Battalion War Diary tells of the devastating conditions in the front line trenches during the period of 22-24 April 1915 near St. Julien (Attachment #3).
The trenches shelled and gassed all day on the 23rd, with heavy bombardment continuing on the 24th, at which time the 13th Battalion forced to retire to the reserve trenches. Sufficient details are provided in the appendices of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade (13th, 14th, 15th, 16th Infantry Battalions) to be able to place each unit in the area during this period.
The Canadians forced out of the front line trenches starting as early as 5:30 am on the 24th, at which time there were heavy casualties. The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders, forced to draw back to Keerselaere. Stated the battalions “were literally blown out of position after position”.
Nicholson Official History
The area occupied by the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the Canadian Expeditionary Force depicted on Map 1 from the Nicholson Official History (Attachment #4).
The specific locations marked show the position on 22 April 1915, to the northeast of Keerselaere, which is just north of St. Julien. In the days immediately following, the 13th Battalion would move to take up a position along the St. Julien to Poelcappelle road, facing Langemark to the northwest. It was in this vicinity that the two Captains of the 13th Battalion would become casualties.
CWGC Casualty Records
The CWGC Casualty Records shows only two (2) Captains of the 13th Battalion killed during the month of April 1915, both of whom listed on the Menin Gate Memorial (Attachment #5).
They are in fact, the only two Captains of the 13th Battalion on the memorial for the entire period of the Great War. That limits the evaluation of this case to either Captain Lionel Ward Whitehead or Captain Gerald Oscar Lees.
History of the 13th Battalion
The History of the 13th Battalion by Fetherstonhaugh provides extensive detail on the action that took place, and the casualties that occurred, during the period of the battle (Attachment #6).
The 13th Battalion reported to have started its move as early as 10 pm on 23 April 1915, at which time the Germans launched the first of many vicious attacks. By dawn on the 24th the 13th Battalion left of the 15th Battalion, pivoting along the road. At this time Captain Whitehead wounded in the head and reported to be “out of his senses”.
Despite the efforts of Lt. Charles Bruce Pitblado, Captain Whitehead had to be left behind. Lt. Pitblado then recovered Major James Cuyler McCuaig; however both men captured by the Germans and served out the war as POWs. At this time Captain Lees reported killed. Captain Whitehead was alive but reported fatally wounded. He was not reported killed in action.
International Committee of the Red Cross
The key piece of information uncovered during this investigation was that, although Captain L. W. Whitehead mortally wounded and out of his senses, he did not die on the battlefield. Archived documents of the International Committee of the Red Cross show that he was taken prisoner by the Germans and moved behind the enemy lines to Langemark, a distance of approximately 1.5 kilometres (Attachment #7).
Although the document reports that Captain Whitehead there at the end of April, we do not know when he died or where buried. It is our belief that he is one of the unknown soldiers in the Langemark Cement House Cemetery, exhumed from the Oostnieuwerke Churchyard Cemetery (COG-BR Files 2364154 & 2364161). That is the subject of a separate investigation and is included here as it lends support to the separation of the remains of Captain Whitehead from those of Captain Lees.
Nicholson Map
A marked up version of Nicholson Sketch 8 provided to show the location of the CEF units and the men on 24 April 1915, when history reports that “The Apex was Lost” between 4 am and 10 am (Attachment #8). The red box highlights the area where the 13th Battalion situated along the St. Julien to Poelcappelle road, with the Germans advancing across the front lines from the north-northwest.
The blue text on the sketch marks where Captain Lees was at the time of his death, corresponding to the capture of Lieutenant Pitblado and Major McCuaig. Captain Whitehead recovered by the Germans and moved back to Langemark, noted to the northwest behind the German lines. Captain Lees killed on the 24th along the St. Julien Poelcappelle road, at the same location where Captain Whitehead wounded and Lieutenant Pitblado and Major McCuaig wounded and taken prisoner. If the Captain’s deaths had occurred on 25 April 1915, they would have been at Wieltje, a considerable distance southwest of St. Julien.
Graves Registration Report Form (GRRF)
The Graves Registration Report Form (GRRF) of 8 February 1922 indicates that an Unknown Captain of the Royal Highlanders of Canada exhumed and subsequently buried in Plot 59 Row D Grave 12 of the Tyne Cot Cemetery (Attachment #9).
As noted previously, the Royal Highlanders of Canada is the regimental name of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion.
Concentration of Graves
The Concentration of Graves (Exhumations and Reburials) Burial Return (COG-BR) shows that the exhumation of a Canadian Officer, a Captain identified by stars and clothing, was from trench map grid reference 28.C.6.b.3.8 (Attachment #10).
A number of other men of the Royal Highlanders of Canada exhumed from the same location. This corresponds exactly to where the Regimental History shows the men killed in action on or about 24 April 1915.
Trench map
A period trench map marked to show the exact location where the remains were recovered at 28.C.6.b.3.8, along the edge of the St. Julien to Poelcappelle road (Attachment #11).
This corresponds to the area marked on the area map in Attachment #4 and the sketch of the Apex in Attachment #8. For reference, we have highlighted the location of Keerselaere and St. Julien. The roads going north to Langemark and Poelcappelle marked at the top of the map. There is no question that this is the exact location of the 13th Infantry Battalion on 24 April 1915, prior to their move to Wieltje, to the southwest of St. Julien, on 25 April 1915.
Menin Gate Memorial
The remains of Captain Lionel Ward Whitehead and Captain Gerald Oscar Lees, both of the 13th Battalion, are the only Captains missing and recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres for the entire period of the war (Attachment #12). There are 239 men of the 13th Battalion named on this memorial, including the 2 Captains. They are the only Officers of the 13th Battalion listed.
Menin Gate Ceremony
The dead remembered to this day in a simple ceremony that takes place every evening at 8:00 p.m. All traffic through the gateway in either direction halted, and two buglers (on special occasions four) move to the centre of the Hall and sound the Last Post. Two silver trumpets for use in the ceremony are a gift to the Ypres Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, of St. Catharines, Ontario, in Ypres in April 1915.”
Action Required
The discovery that Captain Lionel Ward Whitehead had been taken prisoner by the Germans and moved to Langemark provided the key piece of evidence that the remains recovered from the battlefield were those of Captain Gerald Oscar Lees. Thus there is conclusive evidence that the gravestone on Plot 59 Row D Grave 12 should be amended to record the identification and his name should be removed from the Menin Gate Memorial.
Richard Laughton
Canada
Private Researcher
LMC Great War Research Company
The Royal Ottawa Golf Club
Son of William and Rosa M.E. Lees, of Old Ivy House, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, England. Brother of Elsie Cotton.
As a former member of The Royal Ottawa Golf Club, Aylmer, Quebec; Captain Lees commemorated on a plaque in the entrance to the club.
