Eyewitness: A Badly Wounded Private Allan (CEF) Is Taken Prisoner, 2 June 1916

Canadian Prisoners of War with a German Guard

Given the size of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and the nature of the First World War, the number of Canadian prisoners of war (POWs) was surprisingly small. According to the Report of the Ministry, Overseas Military Forces of Canada, published in London in 1919, some 3,747 men, including 236 officers, were captured by enemy forces and interned in Germany or in occupied France. The Overseas Ministry reported that 301 died in captivity; 438 were repatriated prior to the end of hostilities; and 100 men, including one officer, escaped during the war. 

Private Alexander Millar Allan (1887–1968) born in Wishaw, Scotland, was an organist and choirmaster by profession when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Collingwood, Ontario, on 24 September 1915, service number 475313. He originally joined the 4th University Battery but was transferred to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

He was wounded at the battle of Mont Sorrel and went missing 2–4 June 1916. He lay injured on the battlefield for two days, surviving multiple artillery bombardments, before becoming a prisoner of war and eventually being repatriated to England, and later Canada, during the war.

. . . for I walked right into a number of Germans. Not a soul spoke they all watched me with staring eyes. I looked at them for a few minutes examining the focus of every one, then signed to them that I wanted water. Still nobody spoke; when I saw that they weren’t likely to have water to give me, I crawled on my way through them all, and not one offered to stop me. I continued on my way with the idea of getting to a place where I knew we had water; very soon I met an officer and some men; when he saw me he yelled ‘the enemy’! Now, I thought, here is where I get it; he calls me the enemy; not much hope there.

I slid down on to the ground and waited to see what was going to happen. He gave a few sharp orders. I looked up to see what he was about to do and I must say I was surprised; he was looking at me with sympathy clearly marked on his face. His orders were to one of his men to take me along to the dressing station and see that I was properly attended to.

Private Allan's lower left jaw was badly damaged and initially treated by the Germans. He was returned from Germany and admitted to the Queen Alexandra Hospital (Millbank) in London, England, on 9 December 1916, where a rib bone was grafted to his jaw, after which he was transferred to the CCAC Shoreham and then on to Hastings. On 10 March 1917, he was transferred to the Eastern Ontario Regimental Depot at Seaford before being invalided to Canada on 25 May 1918 via Liverpool. Upon his return to Canada he was admitted to the Davisville Military Hospital in Toronto on 7 June 1918 for further treatment and was discharged on 12 September 1918. As a result of the damage to his jaw he required special dentures and could no longer sing but returned to being an organist. Allan died in Toronto in 1968.

Source: Canadian War Museum