Lance Corporal Harold Bertram Campbell

1. Lance Corporal, 54th Battalion, Infantry (Army).
2. Private (Army). 1915-12-13 ?
3. Private, 54th Battalion, Infantry (Army).

The capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 was a remarkable achievement for the Canadian Corps and has often been called our national “coming of age.” The assault on the Ridge followed months of intensive training and preparation and the Canadians suffered over 10,000 casualties in the six day operation. One of the fallen was Lance Corporal Harold Bertram Campbell, who was killed in action on the first day of the battle.

Harold was the oldest son of Peter Clarence Campbell and his wife Jessie May McOuot. Peter was born in Dalesville, Quebec, a small town northwest of Montreal, and Jessie was from the nearby village of Brownsburg. They were married in Dalesville in 1894 and a short time later they moved to Rat Portage (now called Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, where Peter worked as a labourer and fisherman. Their first two children were born in Rat Portage, Laura May in November 1894 and Harold Bertram in August 1896. Peter's brother was married to Jessie's sister and they lived in Beaver, BC, a small community in the mountains west of Banff. Not long after Harold's birth his family moved west to join their relatives in Beaver. Peter worked there as a clerk and lumber shipper. His wife made a trip home to Quebec in 1898 and their next child, James McOuat, was born in Dalesville while she was there. Their last two children were born in Beaver, Philip Clarence in 1900 and Gwendolene in 1902.

By 1911 the Campbells had moved a little further southwest, to Salmon Arm, and in 1914 Harold joined the local militia unit known as the Rocky Mountain Rangers. The following year he was living in Kamloops and working as a clerk for the Bank of Hamilton. The war had started in August 1914 and he enlisted on 13 December 1915, joining the 172nd Battalion which was also called the Rocky Mountain Rangers. The 172nd had just been organized and it was being recruited in the Kamloops area. After ten months of training the battalion embarked for England, leaving from Halifax in October 1916 on the Mauritania. The recruits were all used as reinforcements for other battalions and Harold was one of a draft of 200 men transferred from the 172nd to the 54th (Kootenay) Battalion. He joined his new unit in France in December 1916. The 54th was in the 11th Brigade, 4th Canadian Division and that fall all four Divisions had been at the Somme Offensive, which ended on 18 November. In less than three months there the Canadian Corps suffered 24,000 casualties and over the winter of 1916-17 the battalions rested, trained and received reinforcements to bring them back up to strength. Early in the spring they began to prepare for their next big operation, the Battle of Vimy Ridge (9-14 April 1917).

In January and February the 54th Battalion was based west of Vimy and they had several rotations in the front trenches. The men also formed working parties, repaired trenches and dugouts and carried out raids and patrols. On 1 March they took part in a disastrous, poorly-planned gas attack on the Germans, suffering heavy casualties. Afterwards they received a large draft of reinforcements and on 23 March Harold was promoted to Lance Corporal. By then the men were undergoing intensive training for the upcoming attack, the first time all four Canadian Divisions would be used in one operation. On the night on 8 April the 54th Battalion moved into position and the assault began at 5:30 the next morning. From the War Diary of the 54th Battalion, Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, 9 April 1917: "Weather snow & rainstorms. 5:30 am Bn attacked, - 350 all ranks in four waves behind 102nd Bn." The unit was on the right flank of the 4th Canadian Division and their objective was a high point of the ridge called Hill 145. Artillery had failed to put the German machine guns out of action and the men were under heavy fire as they advanced up the slope. Their casualties that day were 24 killed, 105 wounded and 100 missing, a total of 229 or 2/3 of their battle strength. Harold was one of the men killed in action.

Harold is buried in Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery in Vimy Memorial Park in France. All of the burials in the cemetery are soldiers who died at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Harold is commemorated on the War Memorial in Salmon Arm, BC and on the Bank of Hamilton War Memorial Plaque. The plaque honours members of the bank's staff who gave their lives in the Great War.

Harold's parents both died in Salmon Arm, his mother in 1945 at age 69 and his father in 1955 at age 82.

By Kenora Great War Project

There are photos of the Bank of Hamilton Memorial plaque, the Salmon Arm Cenotaph, and Harold's grave marker on his CVWM page: here

Details of death are from Ancestry.com which includes a digitized image of the casualty form from the "Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948” database.