Corporal John Hamilton Close MM, survivor of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, returned to the battlefield for the 75th Anniversary to honour his comrades. He died the following year in 1993, in his hometown of Hagersville, Ontario.
John Hamilton Close born in Mitchell, Grey County Ontario on 4 July 1896. Next of kin his Uncle, Mr William Hamilton Cherry of Hagersville. His parents John (d.1910) and Caroline Delphine Cherry Close (d.1913).
Enlistment of Private John Close
Private John Close 739656 attested with Haldimand Regiment, C Company, 114th Overseas Battalion, CEF on 10 March 1916 at Hagersville, Ontario under Col Thompson. A Farmer, standing 5′ 11″ tall, 156 pounds, with fair complexion, brown eyes and black hair. John only nineteen years of age at this time.
About March the 15th, 1916, when six of us signed up for the Haldimand Regiment, the 114th Battalion, under Colonel Thompson. And “C” Company was in Haggersville so we started training there almost immediately.
Camp Borden
About July we went to Camp Borden, and the whole battalion then was together. We formed fours, learned how to fix bayonets and everything, connected under an old English soldier by the name of Batridge who taught us all he knew about army life, but after we got to Camp Borden, why we did it all over again.
We marched in the dust and went out on manoeuvres and poison ivy patches. The sergeant warned us not to make our bed anywhere near where the poison ivy was, but unknown to him or us they’d put a laxative in the tea. And in the night, the troops got restless, everybody escaped the poison ivy but him. He used it for toilet paper.
Being as he was an ex-minister, I happened to be passing his tent three days later and he was holding a looking glass and a brush and painting. He said, “Close, can you swear?” and I was a little startled. I said, “On occasion.” “Well,” he said, “do some for me.” So, it was a very unhappy event.
England
Following months of training at Camp Borden, Close arrived in England aboard SS CARONIA on 11 November 1916, and ToS of the 35th Battalion at West Sandling.
Six weeks later, Close transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment on 23 December 1916. He is about to enter the Western Front.
France
Pte John Close arrived at his unit in the Field, 27 January 1917.
You hear the stories from the fellows that had been in. I was not apprehensive. Some fellows was, but I was just, had a feeling, could I stand up to it like you’re supposed to stand up to it? Because some of them confided to me that they didn’t know whether they could take it or not, you see.
Before we went in the line we carried stuff up to the line and one night a shell lit right near us and it started to hiss. Me, being a greenhorn, I thought the thing was going to blow us to pieces, but somebody near me hissed. “Get your gas mask on,” so I was much relieved that it was just a gas shell. That was my first experience.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge
We stayed in the tunnel all night and the air was so bad that a candle couldn’t be lit, so many people in there. In the morning, before daylight we took up our positions for to wait for the barrage to open up.
A chap near me, he broke down, started to cry. The sergeant was trying to hush him up. But just about then, the barrage started to creep, so away we went following it.
I only went about 20 feet and I saw a fellow about my age, the bullet had gone in his forehead and the grey came out, and I had two thoughts; your brain is grey and they play this game for keeps. So, I followed along, I fired a few shots about where I thought would be about the height of a man, just for kicks.
The trenches that we had figured was there was all plowed up, you couldn’t tell where a trench was. You could see planks and everything laying around and dead Germans. In fact, no opposition, just following the barrage.
So there was a high mound of dirt. One of our officers appeared from somewhere carrying a cane and he motioned four of us to follow him and he climbed up over this high ground. We could have gone around it but privates don’t tell officers what to do.
Wounded
So, we just got on top and it was being swept with machine gun fire. He was instantly killed with two. The end of my rifle and bayonet dropped off, a bullet went right through the barrel and the steel splinters hit me in the neck and I was trying to… threw me back and as my leg came up a bullet went in and plowed along the bottom and came out about a foot through my flesh and made quite a hole.
So I crawled on my hands and knees down the other side and the one fellow didn’t get hit, I said, “What’s the matter with my backside.” He said, “You got a hole in it.” So, I started hobbling back then and another wounded fellow waved to me.
There was a man buried to his waist in the mud. So three of us got a plank and we pulled him out. I think we stretched him but we pulled him out. And I looked at a sergeant of ours laying there, he had 16 bullet holes in his arms and legs but he still was breathing, but there was nothing you could do.
German POWs
Another fellow had his foot blew off and his coat threw around it. He was ok. So six Germans appeared from some place. I motioned them ahead and I tagged along til I got in the dressing station. They fixed my wound up and we sat on a bench and a fellow inoculated us for lockjaw.
They put an indelible cross on our heads. One fellow, not badly wounded, next to me whispered, “What’s that cross for?” He said, “Those the ones we think are gonna die.” That really made him look solemn. But he was only kidding. It was so that they knew you was inoculated. He really looked solemn when he said it was the ones we thinks are gonna die. I knew what it was for.
No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill)
GSW right buttock, 9 April 1917. Pte Close to No.3 Canadian General Hospital, Boulogne on 10 April 1917.
That night, we went down on a terrible long train just full of wounded. We ended up in Bologne and I climbed up three flights of stairs by pulling one leg after the other.
It was a hospital and the doctor come in the morning with a nurse and said, “Make him a stretcher case.”
So that night we were going over to England on a hospital ship and there’s four guys carrying me down them three flights of stairs and one was obviously a Cockney, he says, “These bleeding buggers walk up here and we got to carry the buggers down.”
I wanted to snicker, but I was afraid they might drop me so I didn’t do anything. But when I was on the hospital ship you really saw the after-effects of war; the fellows with the legs off and arms off. The fellow next to me had an eye out. He was, seemed to be in terrible pain.
Norfolk & Norwich Hospital
Anyway, when the ship landed, why, volunteers were carrying us to the ambulance. I went piggy-back with quite a big Englishman. I felt kind of sore when he was holding my bum up on his back. But anyway, I landed up in Norfolk in Norwich hospital where I spent 34 days there before the wound healed up.
Pte Close admitted to Norfolk & Norwich Hospital on 12 April 1917. To Canadian Military Hospital, Epsom on 17 May 1917 and later discharged on 18 June 1917.
Soon admitted to Ontario Military Hospital, Kent, 18 June 1917 with Rhinitis/Adenoids – slight inflammatory condition of nasal mucous membrane.
Discharged later on 22 June 1917. Likely had his tonsils and adenoid removed at this time. 26th Reserve Battalion from 15 October 1917.
Return to France
Pte John Close re-transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment on 10 November 1917, and landing in France the following day.
Pte Close appointed L/Cpl in the Field, 3 August 1918. L/Cpl John Hamilton Close promoted Corporal later on 6 September 1918.
Military Medal
Corporal John Hamilton Close awarded the Military Medal, 10 October 1918. John appears in MIKAN No. 3397520 captured by Lt William Rider Rider on 19 October 1918.
Cpl John Hamilton Close MM proceed to Canada with the RCR, Sailing No 25, 1 March 1919. Corporal John Hamilton Close discharged at Medical District No 6 on 15 March 1919.
John married Olive Brown Parkinson Close (d.1938) in 1925. Remarried to Grace Flora Ratcliff Close (d.1989). Daughter Jean Anne Close Carpenter (d.2003).
Return to France
John returned to Vimy for the 75th anniversary.
The CBC featured Corporal John Hamilton Close MM during the anniversary. Little, if anything mentioned about his Military Medal actions.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/913925187640
John died in Hagersville, Ontario in February, 1993. One of the last surviving soldiers of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. LCpl John Henry Foster Babcock, the last known Canadian veteran of the Great War, died 18 February 2010, at the age of 109.
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