L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Bookcovers - Montgomery and the 116th Battalion

newspaper clipping about Col. Sam Sharpe

One news account in Montgomery's scrapbook tells of Sharpe's planning a special campaign at Vimy, going out into no man's land the night before battle to mark with white tape where his men could cross the enemy's barbed wire most easily. In The 116th Battalion in France, the Adjutant tells of rousing speeches made by Sharpe to his men. He explains that it was largely through the constant lobbying of Sharpe that the comparatively green recruits were trusted to take part in the great push at Vimy Ridge. The Adjutant explains the importance of Vimy this way:

newspaper clipping about 116th Battalion

"The successful capture of Vimy Ridge ended another chapter in the annals of the Canadian Corps which was soon to be regarded as second to none on the Western front. It also witnessed the birth of a new battalion, whose fame up to the present, had not extended beyond the borders of the County of Ontario, but whose ideals, if lived up to, would make it second to none in the gallant Corps to which it now belonged." (27)

The Adjutant says Sharpe was "untiring in his energies" on behalf of his men, telling how he "personally led a reconnoitering party into Avion in broad daylight" (33) so that Sharpe could be sure of the territory his men would raid.

Colonel Sharpe's story ended sadly. He suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to England where his wife traveled to be near him. Believing he was well enough to come home, he was sent out in May of 1918 and was heading by train to his native Uxbridge, where townspeople were going to give him a hero's welcome. Unwell, he got off the train in Montreal and was taken to hospital there. Left alone for a moment in his room, he leapt from a second-story window and died on the concrete below. He lay in state in Uxbridge and was buried in the family plot there. At his funeral and in all the tributes to him, his men tell of a gallant, caring man who put himself at risk to help his soldiers. One of the news tributes to him ends this way: "He gave up his life as truly 'on the field of honor' as if he had fallen in action."