HWM's 11th of November

The 11th of November was very important to my father, Harry Whitfield Mollins.

First, it was the day in 1895 that he was born–in Melrose, Mass., where his family lived until their return home to Moncton, N.B. when he was completing high school in his teens.

Several years later in 1918, November 11 was the day when an overnight agreement between the leaders of the invasive German forces and Germany’s British, French and allied foes to end “the Great War”—World War One—with an armistice at 11 o’clock that morning.

For Harry Mollins, that officially closed his role as a Canadian army artilleryman, albeit by then suffering from an infection that struck him earlier that year on battle grounds. and forced his retreat to medical care in England.

Following is what he had to say about his birthdays in little pocket diaries from the time of his enlistment in 1915 in Prince Edward Island, throughout training at the Sussex town of Horsham in southern England and during battle in France and Belgium until the early days of 1918, before he was sent back to England as an invalid--on a “Blighty” in front-line jargon--for treatment .

The diary entries about his birthdays begin with a late-November entry in 1915 reviewing his enlistment and early training:

We have been entertained by all the churches in town (Charlottetown) and on one occasion the battery gave a concert in the Prince of Wales Hall. I have sung songs at all these events. We have paraded to church every Sunday and I have had the privilege of singing solos in several of the churches. . . .

Thursday, the eleventh of November, was my twentieth birthday. Received a box from home which contained a chicken and lots of other good things to eat. Several of us started on it at noon and when we got thru the contents were very scarce.

Another birthday gift which I got from home was a gold wrist watch. I was not expecting it and was surprised and delighted to get it. The next day I received a box from Verna and Muriel which contained many useful articles, such as a drinking cup, a steel pocket mirror, flashlight and two Khaki handkerchiefs. This was another delightful surprise.

So my twentieth birthday is one which will long be remembered.

Saturday, November 11, 1916 Weather: Fine
This is my twenty-first birthday. Left Horsham at 9.30 A.M. Arrived in London about eleven. Had dinner & caught the 3 o’clock train for Shornecliffe. Arrived about 6 P.M. Put up at the Fernall Hotel, Folkstone. As it is useless to try and find any of the boys tonight we went to the Pleasure Gardens Theatre & saw a play called "The Whip." Enjoyed it very much.
--- --- --- --- ---
In the autumn of 1917, the artillery battery had advanced through Flanders, from the Somme River region of northwestern France into southern Belgium—which he described as “an awful, desolate looking country, all torn up by shell fire.”
--- --- --- --- ---
Sunday, November 11, 1917 Weather: Showers
Were relieved this morning at 9 A.M. Was never so thankful for anything in my life. Was wet thru & coated with mud from head to foot. Returned to billets & turned in for a sleep. Stayed in bed all day. We fired 240 rounds during our twenty-four hours duty This is my twenty-second birthday. Spent my last birthday in England and the one before that in Canada. Where shall I spend the next? I hope in Canada. #
--- --- --- --- ---
Speaking of Flanders:

During the Second Battle of Ypres, a Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2 May, 1915, by an exploding shell. He was a friend of the Canadian military doctor Major John McCrae.

John was asked to conduct the burial service because the chaplain was away. It is believed that later that evening John McCrae began the draft for his famous poem,

'IN FLANDERS FIELDS'

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
--- --- --- --- ---

The art of the dying general at 250 years old

Originally published on The Great Debate, Reuters, September 9, 2009.

- Carl Mollins is a Toronto-based journalist who has worked at the Toronto Daily Telegram, The Toronto Star (in Ottawa),  Reuters (in London), The Canadian Press news service (in Toronto, London, Ottawa, Washington, D.C.) and Maclean’s magazine (in Toronto and Washington, D.C.). This blog post was originally published on Reuters' The Great Debate on September 9, 2009. -

It was long ago, in 1761, when Pennsylvanian portrait artist Benjamin West moved east—across the Atlantic. Nine years later in England, he looked back west to produce a controversial but renowned portrayal of the death of British General James Wolfe during England’s seizure of Quebec from France 250 years ago, on September 13, 1759.

Attention to the picture persists nowadays, so long since the British soldiers set up what rapidly became complete English control of the Canadian colony. Perennial prints and publication of West’s art and comparable materials are reminders of what launched Canada as a country divided linguistically, in culture and politically, the situation that remains today.

West devised that picture as the hired “history artist” of King George III, who was already ensnarled in England’s imminent loss of its other North American colonies as the independent United States of America.

That heightened the popularity of West’s picture, despite some criticism of its then-modernistic appearance. Painting Wolfe and the cluster of soldiers around him in battle dress strides away from the traditional portrayal of military heroes draped in capes and god-like postures. West did four paintings, differing in size, and they were repeated in hundreds of prints in the 1870s, more and more ever since.

West’s picture, titled “The Death of General Wolfe”, portrays the situation by guesswork and by adding veterans who paid for their inclusion. In the foreground is a half-naked, barefoot, head-feathered person, an apparent tribal warrior of First-Nation Canadians, although the record indicates none were involved.

Even more factually fanciful is a similar picture showing the death in the same battle of the French commander, Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm de Saint-Veran. In fact, the record indicates that Montcalm dies the following morning. Not only does the Montcalm army include First-Nations soldiers, but a tropical palm tree rises above the distraught soldiers.

Reinforcing the West painting’s provision of Wolfe’s heroism are poetic and musical tributes composed over the centuries.Barely six weeks after the Quebec clash, the early English publication “Busy Body” published in its issue of October 22, 1759, a poem of Oliver Goldsmith, including the lines:

“. . . . O Wolfe! to thee a streaming flood of woe,

Sighing we pay, and think e’en conquest dear;

Quebec in vain shall teach our breast to glow,

Whilst thy sad fate extorts the heart-wrung tear . . . .

Yet they shall know thou conquerest, though dead!”

More than a century later in Canada, the poetic and musical Toronto schoolmaster Alexander Muir (Principal of Leslie and later Gladstone schools), composed during the 1867 formation of the Canadian Confederation what became a virtual national anthem in many schools for most of the following 100 years.

The lyrics of his stirring song, “The Maple Leaf Forever“, proclaim that, “from Britain’s shore Wolfe, the dauntless hero, came and planted firm Britannia’s flag on Canada’s fair domain.”His nationalist chorus reaches beyond that divisive history. 

Muir altered a line in which original lyrics referring to Canada’s commitment to the British floral emblems—Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock, English rose—to add the French fleur de lis, or lily.

The song goes on in the chorus to applaud “the maple leaf our emblem dear, the maple leaf forever”—an outlook fulfilled a century after Confederation with Canada’s replacement of its red ensign of the Union Jack with adoption of the Maple Leaf flag in 1965.

Yet still, two and a half centuries after the English took over Canada from the French, the country’s national attitudes created 250 years ago divisibly, day-by-day persist.

Dad'sDayHarrumpff

From: Carl Mollins
To: Roy MacGregor  

Sent: Fri Jun 19 18:22:15 2009
Subject: Dad'sDayHarrumpff

Roy, old friend (couldn’t get this into yr blog, but place it there if you wish):
 I agree with you, as I have for years and years and years, including my Ottawa days and ever since—this time about Father’s Day.
   Along with you, I have a birthday that falls in June, plus an opinion that is planning a change from the conventional, gift-garnering Dad’s Day.
   In fact, I have decided to celebrate the years and years and years of pleasing, joyful fatherhood by expressing my gratitude wholewalletly with gifts to those who made it so--my wife and the two wonderful daughters she provided.
   --Carl Mollins, Toronto  19-6-09

* Globe and Mail Thursday, June 19, 2009

Father’s Day is just a Hallmark holiday

Roy MacGregor

Thanks all the same, but I’ll take a pass.

  Forget that new putter – it’s hopeless, anyway.

  No need for a flat-screen TV – nothing’s on, anyway.

  As for a whole day to myself – makes me fidget.

  This Sunday will mark the 100th Father’s Day since Washington’s Sonora Smart Dodd got struck by lightning – well, figuratively speaking – while listening to a sermon on Mother’s Day. While “Sonora” is a fascinating name to have while listening to sermons, “Smart” isn’t exactly what some of us would call Mrs. Dodd’s little gift to the world.

  That she would wish to honour her own father is perfectly understandable. Bill Smart had fought in the Civil War and then won an even tougher battle when, after the death of his wife in childbirth, he raised six fine children, Sonora included.

  She got local churches and the Y to buy into marking the day on June 19, 1910, and by the 1970s, much to the delight of Hallmark – with its approximately 800 cards to mark the occasion – it had become a recognized day of observance in countries around the world.

  Sonora lived long enough, to age 96, to see what her little idea had twisted into, but she could never have imagined the advertising and attitudes of the 21st Century.

  Some people call it the “Second Christmas.” Before this recession hit, Americans were spending almost $10-billion a year on Good Ol’ Dad.

  For many, the day also became a “freedom day,” a day to do whatever one wished: golf, fish, open a beer before noon.

  In parts of Germany, they don’t even pretend otherwise, men gather on Father’s Day to hike together while pulling a wagon filled with beer and wine. There is, not surprisingly, a movement to ban the celebration.

  In Canada, it is mostly about gifts, none of which ever appear necessary.

  Personally, I want none of it.

  But then, in respect of full disclosure, I feel obliged to admit that my birthday also falls in June.   #