Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie VC DCM rose in the ranks of the PPCLI, earning the Distinguished Conduct Medal as a Corporal, and later a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross as a Lieutenant seconded for duty with 7th Canadian Machine Gun Company.
Early Life of Hugh McKenzie
McKenzie born in Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, on 5 December 1885. The second son of Jane Macdonald McKenzie of 23 James St, Dundee and the late James.
The family moved from Liverpool to Inverness following the death of his father (in the Merchant Navy as an engineer and lost at sea 16 November 1888). They then moved to Dundee (the city where his parents married 13 June 1877) around 1905. Hugh worked for Watson & Sons, Seagate and the Caledonian Railway Company as a Carter. Hugh also a keen sportsman and a founder member of Dundee Amateur Boxing and Wrestling Club and crowned North Scotland wrestling champion.
Emigration to Canada
Hugh McKenzie emigrated to North Bay, Ontario, Canada around 1911 and when Marjorie McGuigan from Dundee came out to Canada they married on 14 March 1912. Their daughter born 25 April 1909, prior to their marriage would appear to have stayed in Dundee with relatives.
Enlistment of Private Hugh McKenzie in the CEF
In August 1914, McKenzie volunteered in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (the PPCLI). Four years previous service with Garrison Artillery and two years with Field Artillery. He stood 5′ 7″ tall with fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. In November of 1914, Hugh forfeits two days pay.
On 21 January 1915, admitted to No 2 Clearing Station Hospital with dysentery.
Serving initially as a private, McKenzie promoted steadily through the ranks. Promoted corporal on 22 May 1915 following the Second Battle of Ypres.
Distinguished Conduct Medal
April 1915 found the Pats in the salient south of the Canadian Division. They had missed the first poison gas attack, but the following month at Bellewaerde they fought a defensive action that has become enshrined in regimental legend. Hugh by then a Corporal in the machine-gun section, his numerous acts of gallantry began on 4th May when the Pats crude trenches pounded by shells, which wiped out his gun team and went on until 8th May, when he led fresh troops to their relief.
In 25 days the Pats had lost 700 men. Hugh awarded the D.C.M. on 14 January 1916 for his actions during this battle.
DCM Citation
For conspicuous gallantry, his machine gun having been blown up by a shell and his whole crew killed or wounded, Cpl McKenzie displayed the utmost coolness in stripping the wrecked gun of all undamaged parts and bringing them out of the trench, which by then had been absolutely demolished. Having no gun, he volunteered to carry messages to and from Brigade H.Q. under terrific fire and succeeded. His devotion to duty has always been most marked.
Sergeant
Promoted to Sergeant on 12 September 1915.
The following month, Hugh, who had been promoted to Sergeant, awarded the Croix de Guerre for Gallant and distinguished service in the field – London Gazette 29503, 11 March 1916.
7th Canadian Machine Gun Company
Hugh transferred to 7th CMGC on 3 September 1916. The 7th Coy organized in Belgium in March 1916 as the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade Machine Gun Company. Initially commanded by Captain H T Cock. Composed of machine gun sections of the 7th Brigade’s infantry battalions.
Redesignated as 7th Canadian Machine Gun Company in July 1916.
The 7th, 8th, 9th and 15th Canadian Machine Gun Companies detached from their respective infantry brigades in August 1917 and formed the 7th, 8th, 9th and 15th Companies of the 3rd Canadian Divisional Machine Gun Battalion.
CSM Warrant Officer Second Class
Sergeant Hugh McKenzie promoted company sergeant-major on 15 November 1916.
Lieutenant
On 28 January 1917, CSM Hugh McKenzie commissioned as a lieutenant, posted to the PPCLI and seconded for duty with 7th Canadian Machine Gun Company.
Infidelity
Hugh ceases to send $20 of his pay home to his wife in February of 1917, cause infidelity. His pay now in trust to the Canadian Patriotic Society, Drummond Building, Montreal.
Victoria Cross action of Lt Hugh McKenzie
On 30 October 1917, McKenzie in action at Meetscheele Spur, near Passchendaele when he earned the Victoria Cross. Captain Talbot Mercer Papineau MC also killed this day.
You know, Hughie? This is suicide.
Last words of Captain Talbot Papineau MC, 30 October 1917.
On this day, Lt Hugh McKenzie in charge of a section of four machine guns accompanying infantry on an attack. After seeing a number of officers had been injured and the soldiers hesitating before a group of machine guns, he brought the infantry together in an organised attack on the strong point. After a reconnaissance of the position, McKenzie took the frontal attack.
The pill box subsequently captured but McKenzie lost and believed killed in the attack. Later confirmed, Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie killed on 30 October 1917, aged 32. He has no known grave so his name can be found on panel 32 of the Menin Gate Memorial.
Victoria Cross Citation Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie VC DCM
An extract from The London Gazette,” No. 30523, dated February 12, 1918, records the following:
For most conspicuous bravery and leading when in charge of a section of four machine guns accompanying the infantry in an attack. Seeing that all the officers and most of the non-commissioned officers of an infantry company had become casualties, and that the men were hesitating before a nest of enemy machine guns, which were on commanding ground and causing them severe casualties, he handed over command of his guns to an N.C.O., rallied the infantry, organised an attack, and captured the strong point.
Finding that the position was swept by machine-gun fire from a ‘ pill-box ‘ which dominated all the ground over which the troops were advancing, Lt. McKenzie made a reconnaissance and detailed flanking and frontal attacking parties which captured the ‘pill-box’, he himself being killed while leading the frontal attack. By his valour and leadership this gallant officer ensured the capture of these strong points and so saved the lives of many men and enabled the objectives to be attained.
The London Gazette, No. 30523, 12 February 1918.
Just like Captain Talbot Papineau, Lt Hugh McKenzie killed instantly.
Like thousands of other Missing Canadians of the Great War, Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie VC received a burial by his comrades – buried a short distance from where he fell.
However, the grave of Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie VC DCM never registered, and therefore lost. Perhaps recovered and later buried Known Only to God in a CWGC cemetery in the Ypres Salient.
Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie VC’s name recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial.
Telegraph
The Director of Records at the CWRO sent news of McKenzie’s death to his estranged wife on 5 November 1917.
Memorial Registration sent to his daughter Nora McKenzie of 22 James Street, Dundee Scotland during 1924.
Please Contact CEFRG
Or Subscribe
More
- Home of CEFRG
- Blog
- CEFRG on FaceBook
- CEFRG on YouTube
- Soldiers and Nursing Sisters
- Units (Brigades, Battalions, Companies)
- War Diary of the 18th Battalion (Blog)
- 116th Battalion CEF – The Great War
- Les Soldats du Québec Morts en Service
- Montreal Aviation Museum
- Battles of the Great War
- Cases
- Cemeteries
- Memorials
- On This Day
- About CEFRG