A Common Theme: A Family’s Sacrifice and the First World War
The Roberts family, of Southhampton England could be seen as a typical English family during the First World War. Three sons, all under the ages of 30, served in combat units during the conflict. While two of the Roberts men, Thomas and James, served in Canadian units, one of the Roberts, Henry, served in the Prince Consorts Own Rifles of England.
James Roberts II (left) with his mother Sophia Roberts, his brother Thomas Roberts (right) and father James Roberts I (middle). By the time this photo was taken Henry, known at Harry, had been killed at Ypres.
Their story is one of tremendous sacrifice. By the war’s end, in 1918, Thomas was forever crippled by his wounds received at the infamous Vimy Ridge in 1916, and he would never be able to walk without use of a cane for the rest of his life. James, 30 years old upon his discharge, had been wounded three times, and was deemed an invalid by military authorities. Henry David Roberts had been killed in Ypres on March 15th, 1915.
The three Roberts brothers were born to James and Sophia Roberts. James was born in 1888, three years before Thomas, born in 1891 and Henry came along in 1897. James Roberts Sr. was an elusive father. To make a living he held down a number of odd-jobs, most commonly working as a gardener and caretaker on various estates. His sons would often know him to be an absent father, often leaving his wife to raise their sons, and later daughters on her own. For a short time, James Sr served as a police officer in the British colony of South Africa. Sophia, while not from a family of means, would inherit periodic sums of money, and her estranged husband always reappeared as soon as money came back into her life.
In 1912 James Jr. and Thomas both left England to find work in Canada, where both worked as farmers in Manitoba until Canada was pulled into the First World War. Eager to join the fight their younger brother Henry joined the British Army, serving briefly with the Prince Consorts Own Rifles before a transfer to the 4th Rifle Battalion. Henry had been in one of the units rushed to the Belgian front in Ypres to relieve the decimated British Army who for one month in October of 1914 held back the German onslaught. 18 years old, and new to war, Henry did not last long as a soldier when on March 15th 1915 he was killed in action. His name is forever etched into the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres, Belgium.
Thomas, upon receiving the news of his baby brother’s death, joined the Canadian Army in June of 1915. He was transferred to the 27th Battalion. The 27th was moved into a quiet sector of the Ypres front until they were pushed into the breach of horrific action starting on March 27th 1916. It was here, where the Canadian forces were subjected to some of the most torrential German artillery fire, in a battle that lasted until April 1916. Historians have written that at any given minute during that battle three German Artillery shells were cascading towards the Canadian trenches. Thomas was so traumatized by artillery fire that he was rendered speechless, and suffered from tremors upon coming off the line. From April 29th 1916 to October 17th, he was speechless, in various hospitals being treated for shellshock.
Thomas’ medical records show that he spent more than 6 months recuperating from shellshock. Shellshock is the First World War term for what would now be known at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
James joined the Canadian forces one month after Thomas , and was transferred to the 19th Canadian Battalion upon his arrival to France, a battalion infamously named the Argylls. In August of 1916 James moved into the mud slogged fields of the Somme front alongside his unit. They arrived in the midst of the Somme Offensive as the British Army was again deadlocked in trench warfare. The British high command had a plan to breakout of the rigid battlefield, and James’ battalion was selected to partake in the offensive on the Flers and Courcelette front of the Somme battlefield. The offensive began on September 15th, 1916. The battle was again a faceoff between attacking British, and Canadian forces, and entrenched German machine-gunners. New to combat James crouched low under the zipping bullets of German weapons. He could recall the red flashes lighting up the mist as the guns raked through his lines. Explosions of muddy geysers rained down on him as German shells broke through the ground. The officer in front of James took a hit and fell backwards and as an amateur of war James stood up to look for another officer to follow. Three bullets whistled out from the fog. One bullet smashed into his right hip, another went higher into his arm and the final round scathed the side of his face, tearing the skin.
James was immediately relieved from combat, and was later discharged from the hospital in November of 1916. He returned to his unit, and fought on in major battles like the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge, the slaughter that occurred at Passchendaele, and later campaigns like 1918’s Amiens. He was later discharged, but struggled to ever regain strength where his hip wounds occurred, and he was granted disability upon his return to Canada after the war.
Thomas , after recovering from Shellshock rejoined his unit in time for the planned Vimy Ridge offensive. Vimy Ridge holds legendary status to Canadians, often seen as the moment of true independence from Britain. Thomas returned to the 27th to find his old unit decimated, and filled with replacement soldiers. The 27th had been at Thiepval Ridge, where they took heavy casualties. The planned assault on Vimy Ridge, beginning on April 9th 1917 went almost too perfectly as the first waves walked behind walls of moving Canadian artillery. The 27th moved up as a later wave of the attack, and Thomas made it through unscathed. It was during mop-up operations on the ridge, on April 20th, eight days after the end of the major offensive, that Thomas took a bullet from a German machine-gunner in his knee. The bullet lodged into the head of his tibia and he immediately lost his ability to walk in his left leg.
A page of Thomas Roberts’ Medical Records, from his personnel file. Obtained from the Library and Archives of Canada. Source below.
Thomas’ life forever changed that day. While surgeons removed the foreign body from his leg, he was never able to walk without a cane for the rest of his life. He was deemed an invalid, and received full disability. Despite his struggles in life, he managed to marry his later wife Ethel, after much convincing that he was not incapacitated. He fought through constant pain and later retired from the Detroit Gas Company, before passing away in 1983. Thomas’ brother James returned from the war, and lived until 1985.
(ABOVE) These are X-Rays taken of Thomas Roberts knee, following his wound at Vimy Ridge, April 20th, 1917.
While the two men lived long lives, the war haunted them both for the rest of their lives. Thomas Roberts was forever angered at God for the waste of young men he witnessed during the war. The two men suffered from painful wounds that tormented them for the rest of their lives, and carried the memory of a brother who was killed at the young age of 18. The unfortunate reality is that the Roberts war story is a common theme among families who sent men off to fight in the terrible conflict.
Sources:
Service Record of Thomas Roberts 1915-1919 C.E.F. Military File. ID # 613819. Library and Archives Canada, Personnel Records of the First World War, last modified February 7, 2019. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=613819.
2. Service Record of James Roberts 1915-1919 C.E.F. Military File. ID614954. Library and Archives Canada, Personnel Records of the First World War, last modified February 7, 2019. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=614954.
3. First Canadian Division War Diary, April 1, 1917-April 30, 1917. War Diary. ID2005564. Library and Archives Canada, War Diaries, last modified March 16, 2021. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/CollectionSearch/Pages/record.aspx?app=fonandcol&IdN umber=2005564&new=-8585822414597885665.
4. Tascona, Bruce. From the Forks to Flanders Field: The story of the 27th. City of Winnipeg Battalion 1914-1919. Winnipeg: Bruce Tascona, 1995.