The Soldier’s General
Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer, the epitome of a Soldier’s General. During the period from 1 March 1915, until 10 November 1915 (when his Personal Diary ends), Mercer records 57 visits and inspections of trenches held by troops under his command. Mercer’s insistence on being close to the action would prove his undoing. During the Battle of Mount Sorrel, in a matter of minutes, Mercer is wounded twice. Last seen disappearing in the smoke of an enemy artillery barrage, Mercer is killed hours later by a retaliatory bombardment.
Malcolm Smith Mercer created a Brigadier General on 22 September 1914 and a Major General on 11 November 1915. Became the Officer Commanding the 3rd Canadian Division on 24 December 1915 and awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath in the same year. Mentioned in despatches four times, the highest ranking officer of the Canadian Corps to die in action during the Great War. Maj.-Gen. Malcolm Smith Mercer, the antithesis of the Armchair General.
Early Life
Mercer born on the family farm, 17 September 1856 in what is now north-west Toronto. Until age 25 he worked on the farm, acquiring a high school diploma and then enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1881. Malcolm Smith Mercer graduated in 1885 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. He then studied law at Osgoode Hall and called to the Bar in 1888.
While at university, he enlisted as a private in the Queen’s Own Rifles of the Non-Permanent Active Militia. Mercer rose steadily through the ranks. He did excel at rifle shooting. Resulting in several trips, to provincial and national competitions, and the Bisley Rifle Competition in England in 1909. Adjutant of the Canadian team. In 1911, Mercer became Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant. He stood ramrod straight, six feet tall with dark brown hair and blue eyes.
Mercer established a law practice in 1889 with classmate S.H. Bradford that lasted until his death. The contents of his estate, auctioned in 1925, showed him to have been a collector of art, and included European and Canadian paintings, sculpture, porcelain, and antique furniture. Many of the Canadian paintings by Carl Ahrens, whom Mercer had supported financially when Ahrens was a young artist.
Valcartier Camp
Malcolm Smith Mercer left Toronto on 22 August 1914 for Camp Valcartier, then under construction near Quebec City. He was commander of the soldiers from the Queen’s Own Rifles. At Valcartier, he was given command of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade. Composed of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions recruited in Ontario.
To England
The 1st Contingent left Quebec City on 25 September 1914, on a fleet of passenger liners destined for England. Delays in the Gulf of St. Lawrence while waiting to rendezvous with its Royal Navy escort. Followed by embarkation of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, compounded the slow speed of the convoy. Result, a miserable 20-day journey to Plymouth.
Brigadier-General Victor Arthur Seymour Williams
The Canadian Contingent under the command of Colonel Victor Arthur Seymour Williams. One of the few Permanent Force officers on board. This Permanent Force officer shortage due to the fact the Royal Canadian Regiment sent to Bermuda on 6 September. Williams, a graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston, and the Adjutant-General of the Canadian Militia. He would ultimately play a role on Mercer’s last day. See The Grant Brothers in the Great War for information regarding the Canadian Garrison in Bermuda.
Salisbury Plain
Malcolm Smith Mercer placed in command of Bustard Camp on Salisbury Plain near Stonehenge. The conditions appalling. The Canadians housed in tents (British in barracks). Contractors busy building huts, and hundreds of carpenters and bricklayers seconded from the Canadian Contingent to speed up construction. Mercer’s brigade the only one that spent the entire winter under canvas. It rained 89 out of the 123 days.
After a Royal Inspection on 4 November 1914 by King George V and Queen Mary, accompanied by Field Marshal Lord Roberts (Honorary Colonel of the Queen’s Own Rifles at the time) and Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, Mercer recorded their comments in his diary: No finer physique in the British Army. A fine brigade. Splendid.
To France
Four days before the brigade embarked for France on 9 February 1915, Malcolm Smith Mercer promoted to full colonel. The training routine intensified in France and Belgium. Units of Canadians placed in the front line at Armentières, along with experienced troops of the BEF. Then, the Canadians moved into the trenches at Fleurbaix. Their role to hold the trenches defensively while the British 1st Army attacked at Neuve Chapelle. Colonel Mercer received another promotion on 2 March, this time to temporary brigadier-general.
No Château General
The brigade was at the Fleurbaix front from 1 to 24 March. Brig.-Gen. Mercer demonstrated that he was not a château general. To understand fully the conditions his soldiers endured, he visited the trenches on 16 occasions and the billets on five. During the tour, fatal casualties at Fleurbaix totaled only one officer and 29 men. The Ypres Salient would prove far more lethal.
Ypres Salient
On 22 April 1915, for the first time in warfare, an enemy attacked using clouds of poison gas. The French colonial troops on the left flank of the Canadians hardest hit by the gas and fled in panic. But, the untested 2nd and 3rd Canadian Brigades filled in the gap. They held despite the lack of any better protection from the gas than urine-soaked cloths. Mercer’s 1st Brigade was in Divisional Reserve in Vlamertinghe. Its 2nd and 3rd Battalions transferred to the 3rd Canadian Brigade at 2130 hours on 22 April.
Early on 23 April, Malcolm Smith Mercer ordered to march the 1st and 4th Battalions across the Yser Canal. To attack in the direction of Mauser Ridge west of Kitcheners Wood. Following the battle, over 400 casualties in each battalion. The remnants of the 1st and 4th Battalions withdrew to Wieltje, the afternoon of 24 April 1915.
General Malcolm Smith Mercer Order of the Bath (CB)
On 28 April, the entire 1st Brigade again under Mercer’s command. Now guarding the canal bridges and in billets for reorganization. For their conduct under fire, he and the three other Canadian brigadier-generals named Companions of the Order of the Bath (CB) by King George V.
Festubert
After two weeks of refitting and adding reinforcements, Malcolm Smith Mercer’s brigade marched southeast to Festubert. It relieved the 3rd Brigade in the front line on 22-23 May. By the end of the month, Mercer’s brigade was back in billets in Béthune. On 10 June at Givenchy, a short distance from Festubert, the 1st Brigade relieved the 3rd Brigade in the trenches. To be the main Canadian formation in the attack that began on 15 June.
For the first time in battle, they would use the Lee-Enfield rifle. Replacing the Canadian-made Ross rifle that had caused problems in previous engagements. The Ross, an excellent target rifle, but could not stand up to rapid fire with British-made ammunition in muddy conditions. The Ross would continue to be the preferred rifle of snipers.
Mercer had protested to General Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson that orders for Canadian troops to man the front trenches while a mine was exploded under the German lines were both dangerous and unnecessary. He was overruled, and subsequently, there were many casualties.
Canadian Corps Creation
At the end of September 1915 the Canadian Corps created. Lieutenant-General Alderson as General Officer Commanding (GOC). Major-General Currie became GOC of the 1st Division, and Major-General Turner took over as GOC of the 2nd Division. A third division was planned, and Malcolm Smith Mercer notes in his diary that on 23 September. Gen A called – said he had a new position in prospect for me. On 19 October, Alderson told him that he was being recommended for the position of GOC of the Corps Troops from which the 3rd Canadian Division was to be formed.
The official notice of the appointment was issued on 22 November. Mercer subsequently was struck off strength of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade on 4 December. Appointed GOC 3rd Division with the temporary rank of major-general. Thus, the GOCs of the three Canadian divisions had risen from lieutenant-colonels in the Non-Permanent Active Militia to major-generals in the Canadian Corps within 14 months.
When the 3rd Division formed in December 1915, six regiments of Mounted Rifles converted into four battalions of infantry. Making the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Battalions of the 8th Brigade under Brig.-Gen. Victor Victor Arthur Seymour Williams. On 28 May 1916, Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng appointed GOC of the Canadian Corps, replacing Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson. Byng would continue to promote Canadian-born commanders from within the Corps.
Death of Highest Ranking Canadian Officer
The first real battle for Mercer’s division unexpected. On 1 June his CMR battalions held the last part of the Ypres ridge in allied hands – from Mount Sorrel to Hill 62. The top of a spur that stretched west into the allied line between Armagh and Sanctuary woods. Vital ground the Germans, bent on distracting the British from their expected Somme offensive farther south, determined to attack. Even inexperienced troops could eventually see the signs of German preparations.
General Julian Byng visited Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer, who explained the situation at Mount Sorrel and Tor Top (Hill 62). General Byng told Maj.-Gen. Mercer he wanted him to carry out a reconnaissance with a view to a local operation to improve it. Then, Mercer asked Byng if he would come. After a considerable pause, General Byng said. No. You had better go yourselves tomorrow and make your own proposals. I will come around and see them on Saturday.
At dawn on 2 June 1916, Mercer and Brig.-Gen. Victor Arthur Seymour Williams of the 8th Brigade set out to visit Mount Sorrel and Hill 62. They were with the 4th CMR when the German barrage fell with an unprecedented intensity. A German eyewitness, The whole enemy position a cloud of dust and dirt, into which timber, tree trunks, weapons and equipment continuously hurled up, and occasionally human bodies. Practically decimated – only 76 of the 702 officers and men unscathed.
First wound
In the first minutes both generals affected. Another officer remembered the bombardment left them dirty and very white and shaken, also quite deaf. Victor Arthur Seymour Williams badly wounded (face and head) and, Mercer’s eardrums broken by a shell explosion. However, severely wounded, he made his way back to a dugout with assistance from Lieutenant Lyman Edward Gooderham, Mercer’s aide-de-camp. Initially, Lt. Gooderham had been knocked unconscious by the same blast.
They are near the edge of Armagh Wood, perhaps at this very location in MIKAN No. 3329051. Following the war, in May 1919, Lieutenant William Rider-Rider made a last tour of the Western Front. Armed with only his camera, and orders to capture images of significant battle areas of the Canadian Corps. Finally, with that intent, Lieutenant Rider-Rider captured several images pertaining to the death of Maj.-Gen. Malcolm Smith Mercer at the Battle of Mount Sorrel – Observatory Ridge.
Second wound
Lt. Lyman Edward Gooderham stayed with Mercer for four hours until the enemy shelling abated, and then they proceeded back. Shortly thereafter, Mercer again wounded, this time machine-gunned, fracturing his leg. Lt. Gooderham applied a tourniquet, and dragged him into a ditch. By this time, the Germans advanced over their position. Later in the evening, the British guns forced to retaliate. Shrapnel from an artillery strike pierces Mercer’s heart shortly after midnight. Technically, Mercer killed by friendly fire, though his previous wounds would have likely proved fatal.
Prisoners of War
Shortly after noon, German troops advanced almost without resistance, capturing Brig-Gen. Victor Arthur Seymour Williams, Lt. Lyman Edward Gooderham, and a few hundred shaken survivors. Mercer’s body not seen among them. Then, on 12–13 June, Canadians retook the lost ground. And, on the 21st, Mercer’s partially decomposed body found in Armagh Wood. A staff officer concluded the body struck and partly buried by a shell. Possibly during the unsuccessful Canadian counter-attack on the night of 2–3 June.
Recovery of Body
4th Battalion
A search party had discovered the location of Maj-Gen. Malcolm Smith Mercer‘s body. About 100 yards down the hill from the old Battalion HQ on the night of 21 June 1916. Too dangerous for recovery, a note was left behind marking the trail. Two days later, 23 June, Corporal John Reid, one of fifty men assigned to improve trenches at MT SORREL. His party found and buried approximately 30 corpses. Corporal Reid’s letter describing the finding and recovery of General Mercer’s body published subsequently in The Globe, a Toronto newspaper.
Corporal John Reid
… examining bags of stuff taken off the dead the night before. When I came across a pass with “General Mercer” signed on it. Just think of the excitement then, as we believed he in the hands of the Hun. I called Pioneer Range, as we together out searching the night before. He said that must be the spot where they opened the machine gun on us…The real excitement then started for we were spotted as soon as we left the dugout and [it is] thanks to some shell holes that we ever got there. They were not contented putting the machine guns on us.
They even sent coal boxes [heavy shells] over, and some near ones too. Anyway, by six o’clock, body dragged to a shell-hole. About five yards from where we dug it out. Buried except one boot and about four inches of a leather legging sticking out of the mud. Disinterring really the worst part of the lot. We lay face down and scratched until the General’s body uncovered. Then, we searched the body again and saw the epaulets with crossed swords and star. I then cut off the General’s service coat and placed the body in a shell-hole till after dark.
The Globe
At 9:00 p.m. on 23 June 1916, General Malcolm Smith Mercer‘s body recovered.
Burial of Major General Malcolm Smith Mercer
General Malcolm Smith Mercer buried with full military honours at 3:00 p.m. on 24 June 1916 at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
Legacy
A devoted militia officer and courageous commander. Mercer was known as a man of few words, even temper, and quiet study. His fame rests less on military achievements than on being the senior Canadian commander killed in action in either world war. His death remains a refutation of the title of Charles Yale Harrison’s book Generals die in bed.
The late Desmond Morton (d. 4 September 2019)
Maj.-Gen. Malcolm Smith Mercer, the antithesis of the Armchair General.
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