He was then shipped back home to the UK to train. While there, he visited his sister Lilian and her daughter Edith, my Grandmother. Arthur Symons with Edith Bevan his niece, my Granny. At Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, the Canadians trained for four months, most of it in terrible mud, as England experienced one of its wettest winters in decades. While most troops stood up well to the awful conditions, Canadian equipment did not.
Much of it was soon discarded in favour of British types. The Canadians learned basic soldiering in England after a hasty mobilization and a difficult, uncomfortable winter.
Their real training would come at the front. After training, Arthur was sent to France and later Belgium. Both sides suffered appalling conditions and heavy casualties. Arthur was wounded in at Passchendaele.
The hospital was established at Dannes Camiers in the Pas-de-Calais area on 19 th June under canvas. A staff of 35 Officers, 73 Nursing Sisters and rank and file. Life under canvas that cold wet November was tough, with deep mud, storms, frost and collapsing tents. The conditions so undermined the health of one Lieutenant Colonel Yates that he was invalided to England where he died the following year.
Leg fracture and left foot. It makes for fascinating reading. NOTE: Amongst the patients at Buxton, was Frederick G Banting, who would return to Canada after the war to continue research into diabetes and the use of insulin in its treatment, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize.
