Lt Frank Melville Lott served with 1st Divisional Signal Company in the Great War. In 1917, he invented a device for twisting telephone cable. Following the war, he became a dentist and appointed Director of Dental Services overseeing the Canadian Dental Corps in the Second World War.
Born 9 November 1896 in Uxbridge, Ontario. A junior banker, Frank Melville Lott attested in Ottawa 26 May 1916.
Signal Service
Visual signalling and telephony the responsibility of the Signal Service throughout the war. Telegraphy a function of the Canadian Engineers. The telephone soon became the vital means of communication in France and Belgium and signal companies increasingly occupied in the laying, maintenance and repair of air lines and cables.
Divisional signal companies consisted of a headquarters section, a wireless section and two cable sections. The companies provided telephone and wireless service (including policing and interception) and visual signalling. Each had motorcycle dispatch riders, a pigeon service and personnel for airline and cable construction, electric light and battery charging. They also operated repair shops for mechanical transport and for telephone, telegraph and wireless instruments.
The Signal Service of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces came under the command of the Canadian Engineers.
1st Divisional Signal Company
Organized at Valcartier in August 1914 under the command of Major F. A. Lister. Personnel from the Permanent Force, from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th Signal companies of the NPAM and from Canadian Telegraph and Telephone companies. Left Quebec 28 September 1914 aboard MONMOUTH and ANDANIA. About 50 other ranks detailed to the different boats of the convoy for the purpose of communication owing to the fact that the use of wireless was prohibited. Arrived in England 18 October 1914 with a strength of 14 officers, and 252 other ranks. Arrived in France 11 February 1915 with a strength of 6 officers, 204 other ranks, with the 1st Canadian Division.
Frederick Alexander Lister
Major Frederick Alexander Lister (Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster-General of First Canadian Army throughout its operations in the Netherlands, 44/45), Major Thomas Edward Powers (As a Major, on 26 January 1917 he took over command of the CSC Headquarters Signalling School in Ottawa).
Elroy Ford
Captain Elroy Ford (In December 1915 he was promoted to Major and placed in command of 1st Canadian Divisional Signal Company. On 20 June 1917, upon promotion, Lieutenant-Colonel Forde became the Corps’ first Chief Signal Officer (C.S.O.), an appointment which he held until the end of the war).
George Alton Clise
Captain George Alton Clise (At St. Julien (2nd battle of Ypres) he was struck by shrapnel but unharmed. Later he was made head of the Divisional Signallers for the First Division and was attached to Headquarters).
William Webster Wilson
Captain William Webster Wilson (Missing, 9-10-16, VIMY MEMORIAL).
1916
Frank Melville Lott departed Canada on HMS Olympic, 14 November 1916.
He disembarked in England on 21 November 1916 and ToS Canadian Signal Training Depot (C.S.T.D.), Crowborough.
Tara Hill
1st Divisional Signal Company took over the office at Tara Hill on 4 September 1916.
Five days later, Captain W W Wilson declared missing, and later presumed to have died. ‘Gibraltar’ on the road at the south-west limit of Pozières.
Tara Hill was further south-west of La Boisselle.
1917
Crowborough
Lt Lott On Command Conducting Duty (France), 16 April 1917. Off Command Conducting Duty (France), 20 April 1917.
On Command (Shorncliffe), Crowborough, 4 June 1917. Off Command (Shorncliffe), Shoreham, 13 August 1917.
Lt Frank Lott On Command (Dunstable), Shoreham, 30 August 1917. Off Command (Dunstable), Seaford, 28 October 1917.
SoS to 1st Divisional Signal Company, France, from Seaford, 7 November 1917.
Lott arrived in France 7 November 1917, reaching his unit at Chateau-de-la-Haie on 19 November 1917.
Taken on staff of 1st Can. Div. Sig. Co. now in Belgium assisting the Canadian Corps (1st CDA) in the Passchendaele campaign. Frank joined the unit on 19 November 1917 as the 1st CDSC had moved back to Chateau-de-la-Haie in France.
On 15 December 1917 Frank sent to Abbeville to take a months wireless course at the Central Wireless Depot.
1918
Auchel
Lott returned from course to 1st CDSC on 16 January 1918 at Auchel. 1st CDSC to Bracquemont relieving 3rd CDSC on 24 January. Bracquemont in Nouex-les-Mines.
In February the 1st CDSC laid a mile of cable communications around Cite St Pierre, east of Lens.
During March/April 1st CDSC working out of Bracquemont and installing cable communications into the industrial locations of Lens.
On 4 March 1918, Lance Corporal Gordon Edgerley 10898 killed-in-action. Buried at FAUBOURG D’AMIENS CEMETERY, ARRAS (VI. E. 3.).
Also on 4 March 1918, Sapper Kenneth Henry Lind KIA. Also buried at FAUBOURG D’AMIENS CEMETERY, ARRAS (VI. E. 2.).
May.1st CDA Moved 50 kms to the East to le Cauroy for arms training and rest.
22 June granted 14 days leave to UK.
Etrun
14 July. Moved to Etrun north east of Arras and commenced buried cable work in this sector.
Boves
Early August 1918, moved in secrecy 70kms south to Boves near Amiens for upcoming Battle of Amiens. From day of attack 8 August 1st CDSC provided mobile telecommunications support. Moved forward with the attack and salvaged 3 German switchboards at Warvillers.
Le Quesnel
On 16 August 1918, HQ at Le Quesnel. On the 19th August, relieved and moved back to Marcelcave (Amiens).
The unit moved back north of Arras on 25 August 1918 in preparation for the Battle of the Scarpe.
Achicourt
The 1st CDSC at Warlus and on 20 September 1918 moved to Achicourt. The work for the month involved running communications cables towards Canal Nord.
On the 27th (Battle of Canal du Nord) the Canadian Corps attacked and the 1st CDA ran cables over the Canal Nord to support communications.
Ferin
On 28/29 September 1918, 1st CDSC moved forward as the advance rapidly moved on.
Lewarde
1st CDSC at Ferin in October, then onto Lewarde and by end of the month at Masny, just east of Valenciennes.
Masny
11th November 1918 found the unit in Masny.
1919
1st Divisional Signal Company participated in the March to the Rhine and the Allied Occupation of Germany following the Armistice.
1st Divisional Signal Company returned to England on 18 March 1919, and embarked for Canada the following month on 14 April 1919.
Brigadier Frank Melville Lott D.D.S., MSc., Ph.D, CBE
After the war, Frank Lott enrolled into the University of Toronto’s dental programme. He established his practice in Detroit and Sarnia, eventually moving back to Toronto to become Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry at the University of Toronto in 1931. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Frank Lott appointed Director of Dental Services overseeing the Canadian Dental Corps, an organization he proposed in his 1941 Phd thesis “Proposed Dental Service for the Defence Forces of Canada.” He entered the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel and eventually promoted to Brigadier. Under his leadership, mobile dental clinics – trucks equipped with an X-ray machine, dental chair, water, electricity, and staffed by a dental officer and dental assistant – were created and attached to each Canadian battalion bringing dental services directly to the front. Similar and clinics were established for the navy and air force.
In 1946 he moved to New York to join the Dentist Supply Company of New York but 1949 was appointed head of Prosthetics at the University of Southern California. Frank Melville Lott eventually passed away on 16 May, 1982 and is buried in San Luis Obispo, California.
Foreign intelligence
Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) is the Government of Canada’s foreign signals intelligence agency.
CSE alert the government to the activities of foreign entities that seek to undermine Canada’s national prosperity and security. These activities could be:
- foreign-based cyber threats
- espionage
- terrorism
- kidnappings of Canadians abroad
Information helps inform Government of Canada actions and decisions to combat these threats.
Foreign intelligence also supports government decision-making and policy-making in defence, security and international affairs by providing important insights into global events.
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