|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Gnr. Stuart Henry Quick
Canadian Expeditionary Force 5th Battery Royal Canadian Artillery
from:Newmarket, Ontario
On September 26, 1914, just six weeks after Britain had declared war on Germany, Stuart, a printer working with the Newmarket Era newspaper in Newmarket, Ontario, had voluntarily enlisted in the Canadian Army in Quebec City, Quebec. One of the first group of Canadian soldiers (known as the First Contingent) to be sent to Flanders, Gunner Quick as he became, was assigned to the 5th Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division Canadian Field Artillery. He sailed for Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force on October 3 on the Cunard liner RMS Ivernia, amongst an armada of 31 transport ships carrying 83,000 troops from the Dominion, the largest military force that has ever crossed the Atlantic at one time.
After disembarking at Plymouth on October 20th, he travelled to Amesbury by train the next day, thence on to Westdown North Camp, to undergo training in England, at the Canadian military training base on Salisbury Plain. There, in canvas tents, they spent one of the worst winters on record in England. In early February, Stuart's regiment was sent to France and in March took part in his first action in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Soon after he took part in the Battle of Ypres and experienced the horror of the Germans chlorine gas attacks. Somehow he managed to survive this and for the next 15 months, he was up to his neck in mud and gore in the trenches of Flanders exchanging high-explosive shells with the German troops who probably didn't want to be there either.
Early in the morning of 6th of May 1916, Stuart's luck ran out. Whilst out on a night-time reconnaissance patrol at the front with two comrades, a German shell exploded a few feet from them, killing Stuart instantly and badly wounding his friend Sid Williams. His other chum, Signaller George Arthur McClintock escaped with a hole in his cap, a rip in his coat sleeve and minus part of his trousers. All of these three were First Contingent men, who up until then had managed to come through some serious action, including, without a scratch. Today, Stuart's remains are buried in the Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Reninghelst, a short distance from where he was killed.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
