Glenholm Wilson was born on January 18, 1894 to Arthur and Eliza Wilson. The family lived but 100 meters from St. Matthew’s at 164 First Avenue, just east of Bank Street in the Glebe. In 1910, as a sixteen-year-old, he joined the 43rd Regiment, Duke of Cornwall’s Own Rifles and served with this unit for 5 years while also working as a printer on Sparks Street with Mortimer’s Printing.

 Less than seven months after the start of World War 1, on Feb. 22, 1915, Glen Wilson, 21 years old and single, enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force (#410230) and was assigned to the 38th Battalion, known as the ‘Ottawa Overseas Battalion’, part of the Eastern Ontario Regiment, 4th Division. Following six months of training, his 1,000 man strong Battalion was shipped to Bermuda for island protection. Finally, on June 9, 1916, the 38th arrived in England and was eventually deployed to the Western Front in north west France on August 13 to join those in the trenches in Ypres, Belgium as part of the Battle of the Somme.

Their battalion defended the allied line near Kemmel Hill at the southern point of the Ypres salient until September 23, 1916 when the 38th was ordered to join other units of the Canadian Corps to prepare for what became known as the Battle of Ancre Heights, near Beaumont Hamel, where the Newfoundland Regiment had earlier suffered gravely on July 1, 1916 (670 casualties out of a total force of 780 men).

Following two months of action, the 38th Battalion on November 17, 1916 was ordered to join the fighting taking place in the Battle of Ancre, part of the attack on the Regina Trench, the longest single German line in all of World War 1. The next day, on what is regarded officially as the last day of this excruciating four-and-a-half-month long Battle of the Somme, the 38th Battalion ‘went over the top’ as part of the Canadian 4th Division. The battle was a success for our Canadian troops with all military objectives having been gained, including the capture of the Regina Trench, north of Courcelette as well as the Desire Support Trench on November 18. But what a cost paid for this victory in terms of human life. Five hundred casualties were suffered by the Battalion. And one of those was Sergeant Glenholm Wilson, who on November 18, 2016, was killed in action “…while leading his platoon on to victory when his superior officer had fallen.” He was two months short of his 23rd birthday.

This Battle of Ancre, on November 18, brought the Battle of the Somme to a close. Three million soldiers on both sides were involved, with a total of one million casualties suffered by both German and Allied forces. Sergeant Wilson was one of 700 men killed as well as 2,000 others who were wounded, from the 38th Battalion, the ‘Ottawa Overseas Battalion’, part of the Eastern Ontario Regiment, 4th Division, Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. This from a total unit force of 4,500 soldiers who served with the Battalion during all of World War 1, a casualty rate of sixty percent.

On Sunday evening, June 17, 1917, almost 7 months to the day after he was killed, led by Ottawa Anglican Archbishop Charles Hamilton, a commemorative bronze plaque was unveiled to a crowded St. Matthew’s church congregation. Prime Minister Arthur Meighen was in attendance that early summer evening and, according to the Ottawa Journal (June 18), read extracts of Glens’ letters home to his family and in his comments, “encouraged other young men to follow in the footsteps of this young man who was ready to give all for his ideals.”

In his final letter home, Glen wrote to his parents: “If I fall, with God’s help, I shall have died doing my duty.”

This specific message is commemorated on this memorial plaque, commissioned by his family, with the 38th Battalion badge. The plaque is located on the south west wall of St. Matthew’s. Sergeant Glenholm Wilson, twenty two years young, of 164 First Avenue, Ottawa, is buried in the Regina Trench Cemetery in the Somme Valley near Courcelette, France, where he rests to this day.

Photo: The War Graves Photographic Project