Private Arthur Stanley Oates, Private, 54th Battalion

Dear Friends of the 54th

Your website is a great resource so first of all – thanks for all you have done and are doing on that.

While reading your narrative I came across a detail that you might like to consider amending. In your story of the 54th in June 1917, the narrative goes: “On the night of the 3rd of June we moved forward into the Vimy-Angres line, going into the front line the following night and relieving the 44th Battalion there. Nothing of incident occurred during our holding of the line. On the 7th we were relieved and moved back into support…” Then if you then move along to 26th July 1917 in the narrative, “the Battalion was subjected to its first dose of gas shelling, sustaining a certain number of casualties”.

I knew that a relative of mine who served with the 54th, Private Arthur Stanley Oates, was gassed in the first half of June 1917, so this didn’t seem to add up. Eventually I found the relevant section of the battalion War Diaries. This records that the first gas shelling experienced by the battalion was in fact on 6th June 1917, while they were manning the Vimy to Angres front line in the aftermath of Vimy Ridge. As the diary records, 28 soldiers were gassed in the course of this attack (see screenshot below).

Arthur Oates was suffering from swollen eyelids and other nasty effects of the gas and was evacuated out on 12th June. He endured lengthy hospital treatment and convalescence in France and England, but he made a good recovery and eventually rejoined the 54th on 20th April 1918. He continued in active service until the end of the war and returned to B.C. in May 1919.

Best regards

Andy White

(in York, England)

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