The Story of Lt-Col. Sam Sharpe

Further reading: Mathew Barrett, “’Absolutely Incapable of Carrying On’: Shell Shock, Suicide, and the Death of Lieutenant Colonel Sam Sharpe,” Canadian Military History http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol25/iss1/19

In November 1915, Samuel Simpson Sharpe, Conservative member of parliament for Ontario North, organized the 116th Battalion and began recruiting men throughout Ontario County. After departing Canada on 23 July 1916, the 116th arrived for training in England. While almost all high-numbered battalions were broken up, Sharpe managed to ensure that much of 116th remained together when deployed to the Western Front in February 1917.

Sharpe lost many more of his men during the battle of Passchendaele. He was re-elected in December 1917 and received the Distinguished Service Order, but had started to break down under the strain. In his last message to the people of Ontario County, Sharpe explained, “Whether at Ottawa or whether in France, I have given my best, such as it is, to the service of my country. In every way possible, I have striven to maintain the honor of my country.”

Overcome by the mental strain and the misery of war, Sharpe was sent back to England by the end of 1917 and later admitted to hospital with nervous debility. He was released to Canada after several months of treatment. Just days after arriving in Montreal, on 25 May 1918, he jumped to his death from a window in the Royal Victoria Hospital. As the Toronto Globe eulogized, “He gave up his life as truly ‘on the field of honor’ as if he had fallen in action.”

Order Through Their Eyes: A Graphic History of Hill 70 and Canada’s First World War