82nd Battalion

The Mink Breeder

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel William A. Lowry
82nd (Lowry’s Lions) BattalionLowry

The attack was timed for 12 o’clock. There had been no preparation for any artillery fire from our side. The 10th battalion was given the position of honor–that in front. Not a shot was fired by the Germans until we were within 50 yards of the wood, then a most terrific rifle and machine gun fire commenced; it was practically a sheet of lead. In the space of a few seconds, possible between 700 and 800 of our men fell.

(Calgary Herald, 26 Nov 1915, 12)

In September 1914, William Arthur Lowry enlisted as an officer in Lieutenant Colonel Russ Boyle’s 10th Battalion at Valcartier. Born on 19 July 1878 in Wellington County, Ontario, Lowry was a veteran of Strathcona’s Horse in the Boer War and a member of the Corps of Guides since 1912. He was wounded in the second battle of Ypres and witnessed Boyle’s death in hospital on 25 April 1915.

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The Recruiter

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel George Morfitt
137th (Calgary) BattalionMorfitt

The Major has another good one. During his recruiting experiences—and he has enrolled 3,800—he has come across two Tipperary men who did not know their birthday. He christened them both for Christmas Day, so that it would be easy for them to remember in the future.

(Medicine Hat News, 7 Oct 1915, 4)

Born on 16 March 1873 in St. Mary’s Ontario, George W Morfitt was a Calgary broker and member of the 103rd Militia Regiment. Before his appointment to command the 137th Battalion in November 1915, he had been a recruiter for the 31st under Arthur Henry Bell and second-in-command of the 82nd. Suspicious of foreign volunteers with Germanic names, the “eagle-eyed” recruiting officer vowed, “I’m not taking any chances—not if I know it. A German who slips into the 82nd will have to get up pretty early in the morning.”

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