On Wednesday, October 6, 1915, five weeks short of his 20th birthday on November 11, Harry Whitfield Mollins, along with some pals, travelled from his home in Moncton, New Brunswick, to a Canadian Army recruitment centre at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and signed on to #2 Siege Battery. He began immediately keeping a diary in tiny pocket-sized notebooks. Here is what he had to say later on his birthday:
Saturday, November 11, 1916
(Based in a training camp at Horsham, Sussex, southern England)
Weather: Fine This is my twenty-first birthday. Left Horsham at 9:30 A.M. Arrived at London about eleven. Had dinner & caught the 3 o’clock train for Shorncliffe (Kent, southeast coast of England). Arrived about 6 P.M. Put up at the Fernall Hotel, Folkestone. 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.
Sunday, November 11, 1917
(Northern France battle grounds)
Weather: Showers Were relieved this morning at 9 A.M. Was never so thankful for anything in my life. Was wet through and 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. I spent my last birthday in England and the one before that in Canada. Where shall I spend the next? I hope in Canada.
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By November 11, 1918, the day the war ended, Harry Mollins was being treated for an illness from an infection acquired while an aimer in a cannon crew in combat. There’s no diary entry for that birthday—the same day armistice ended the war. But he was soon able to spend his birthdays in Canada.
Ten years later, with fellow Monctonian Vera Grace Mollins his wife, he was winding up studies at Nova Scotia’s Acadia University, where—despite his married state—he acquired Bachelor titles in Arts (BA) and Divinity (BD) to become a church pastor. Not to mention receiving a grand reputation as a baritone songster—a powerful talent enriched by singing lessons as a soldier in Horsham, as his diary reports. His singing embellished his role as a Baptist minister in Windsor, N.S., Ottawa, Brantford and Toronto.
