Thank you to all who helped make our annual Remembrance Sunday service such a moving occasion. It never ceases to shock me, listening to the names of those who gave their lives in two world wars, and it is particularly poignant hearing the same family name called out more than once. Every year we hear an account of one of those on our Roll of Honour, and thanks to the scrupulous research of our resident local historian Ian Broad, Brian Mead was able to produce the following moving tribute to Archibald Harvey, a young man from Ningwood who died 100 years ago.
ARCHIBALD JOHN HARVEY
Archibald’s parents, John and Jane, were married here at St.Michael’s Church and Archibald was born in 1885, the only son among six children. The family lived at Green Farm in Ningwood where John was a tenant farmer and the 1891 Census records that Archibald was a 6-year old scholar, no doubt walking the relatively short distance down Station Road to Shalfleet School.
He is also mentioned in the 1901 Census when aged 16, listed as being a grocer’s apprentice. It seems that he had no intention of following in his father’s footsteps. For whatever reason Archibald decided to leave Ningwood, the Island and indeed his country. On 8th June 1907 the 22-year old Archibald sailed from Southampton, his destination New York. It is not known what he did for the next 7 years, perhaps spending most of this time in the U.S.A, or perhaps he immediately travelled north – but anyway we find him next in Canada.
In August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany and the Empire immediately responded: in Vancouver, British Columbia, the 29th Infantry Battalion was formed and Archibald, now a salesman, joined it on 15th November. It appears that he was immediately given the rank of Lieutenant. In May 1915 the battalion embarked for Britain in a Canadian Pacific liner. From Liverpool the force quickly moved south to Aldershot and then to Folkestone for training. On September 17th 1915 they were transported to Boulogne and thence by train to Cassels, only a few miles from the Ypres salient in Belgium. There they became a part of the 6th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division.
The battalion’s first actions were fought in different parts of the salient until it was moved south in September 1916, where it fought in some of the most lethal actions of the Somme battlefield until taken out of the trenches on November 3rd.
In April 1917 the battalion took part in the Battle of Arras, including the successful assault on Vimy Ridge, an operation which won honours for the new Canadian army. In 1917 Archibald himself was awarded the Military Medal for the courage and ability he had shown.
From Vimy the battalion moved back into the Ypres salient and there from July 1917 became involved in what became known as the Passchendaale campaign. By November the whole front line had managed to move forward only two miles over a terrain which was a sea of mud. On the night of November 6th most of the battalion was moved back to the relative safety of a bivouac camp near Ypres – but one small group, Archibald’s ‘B’ Company, remained in the front line, where on November 9th he was severely wounded.
He was evacuated from the line and taken back to one of the military hospitals, where he died on November 12th, exactly 100 years ago today. He was 32 years of age. It was particularly sad that the battle itself had ended on November 10th and that the battalion had been taken to a rest centre near Ypres. His father John died in 1925, his mother Jane in 1928, and they are buried together in our graveyard. The plaque to Archibald Harvey is on the wall of our south aisle just above the altar.
We think we live in troubled times – and perhaps we do. But once a year, as we put on our poppies, it is good to remember those so close to home who died that we might live. We will remember them.