Buried at Sea
Rifleman Harold Leo Butler born 18 September 1899. Harold Leo Butler 2768761, enlisted with 1st Depot Battalion, Eastern Ontario Regiment, CEF at Barriefield on 16 September 1918. He stood 5’7″ tall, 125 pounds, with dark complexion, hazel eyes, and black hair. Butler included in the Siberian Draft. His mother resided at 92 Dufferin Street, Peterborough, Ontario.
Service
Harold immediately began his service by contributing $20 a month of his pay for his mother, Sarah E. Butler. Then, embarked overseas with the 259th Battalion, CEF, from Vancouver on 26 December 1918. Butler headed for the Canadian camp at Gournastai, Siberia, by crossing the Pacific Ocean.
Tragedy befalls Rifleman Harold Leo Butler, shortly before reaching his destination. A Board of Inquiry is held on S.S. PROTESILAUS. Firstly, the testimony of Corporal F.B. Jackson, ‘B’ Co., 259th Battalion.
I was standing on port side aft near the refrigerator between11:30 and 12:00 O’clock noon on the 30th day of December 1918. The cable securing the refrigerator to the ship gave way and the refrigerator slid along the deck towards the hatchway. [Butler] was leaning against the hatch and the refrigerator knocked him over pinning him to the hatch. The roll of the ship carried it away from him. he fell to the deck. The refrigerator slid back again pinning him Neath the steering rod and remained there until removed by the Ship’s crew.
Corporal F.B. Jackson
Secondly, the testimony of Lieutenant Elliott, in answer to “How long did the refrigerator remain pinning the deceased to the gear?
About ten minutes. There was no means at hand to pry it off.
Lieutenant Elliott
Finally, examined late on 30 December 1918 by Major G.A. Winters AMC and Captain W.G. Sheperd, AMC, aboard S.S. PROTESILAUS.
Patient profoundly shocked. Pulse rapid, thready, at times not palpable at wrist. Skin is cold and clammy. Anxious expression. Patient suffering from fracture of pelvic bones, left femur, right tibia and fibula, with extensive rapture of fasciae covering of left thigh. The Board is of the opinion that the injury sustained by Private Butler is serious, and will terminate fatally.
Major G.A. Winters AMC
Buried at Sea
Rifleman Harold Leo Butler, buried at sea, 31 December 1918. During his voyage, Rifleman Frank Joseph Kay also of the 259th Battalion accidentally killed, and buried at sea, 26 December 1918. Rifleman Kay had fallen down the stoke hold and fractured the base of his skull. He died within 30 minutes.
Two months earlier, Private Edward Biddle, a Base Guard, died on 22 October 1918. The first of three Canadians listed on the Vladivostok Memorial. The first Canadian buried at sea in the Pacific during the Great War. He had been travelling aboard S.S. EMPRESS OF JAPAN. Private Biddle had extensive prior service with the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion. Wounded, invalided home to Canada, but convinced authorities capable of serving again. Biddle re-enlisting with the 260th Battalion in August of 1917. However, he died of pneumonia, admitted to the ship’s hospital for Influenza on 13 October 1918.
Vladivostok Memorial
The 259th Battalion reached Gournastai Camp on 31 December 1918. A good camp, with stone barracks built by German POWs. However, the Bolsheviks damaged the power supply and polluted the drinking water. The front was at Omsk, over 4,000 miles away. This memorial commemorates 13 Commonwealth servicemen who were killed in Russia in the Great War and whose graves are not known.
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Casualties of the Great War, continued until the Scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet, 21 June 1919, just prior to the official end of the Great War, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
Nursing Sister Lenna Mae Jenner, C.A.M.C. in the Great War
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