1915-05-06ee

 

“Another illustration of the sense of sacrifice and patriotism that inspires Canadian women in this hour of Britain’s need was found by a Spectator reporter when he called at the home of Mrs. Fish, 149 Glendale avenue yesterday.”.

Hamilton Spectator.    May 6, 1915.

Most visits by newspaper reporters  to the homes of Canadian soldiers who had been sent to the front, were not happy occasions. Usually the reporters were after photographs and brief descriptions of Hamiltonians who had appeared on lists from the War Office as being wounded, missing or dead.

However, on May 5, 1915, a Spectator reporter had a different experience when he visited a lady at her home in the east end:

“This loyal and devoted woman was working hard over a parcel to be dispatched to the firing line in France, where Mrs. Fish’s husband and two sons are fighting.

“The little kitchen table was covered with good things, pipes, tobacco, cigarettes, bandages, medical supplies, knives, forks, socks and other articles that only a mother can think of”¹

¹ “Grim Humor As Hamilton Men Faced Camera”

Hamilton Spectator.    May 6, 1915.

Mrs. Fish’s husband was a sergeant in the Hamilton battery, serving as an orderly to Major Carscallen. One son, Colin, was a corporal and the other, Fred, a gunner.

She had only recently returned from England where she had been staying where in the village of Chirton, Wiltshire, near where he husband and sons were billeted in private homes, awaiting the call to France:

“This is one of the most beautiful rural districts in the old land, as the photos Mrs. Fish has brought will testify. The description of the private homes where the Hamilton boys were quartered will no doubt give pleasure to many a wife, and mother, in this city.

“Chirton is one of those beautiful old villages so famous in England for their beauty, especially in the springtime. Gardens full of trees covered with blossom, neat and attractive lanes with trimmed hedges, old ivy-covered church and gardens, with flowers, giving an air of contentment to all.

“This is the place the Hamilton boys left before going to the front.

Two or three days before the battery pulled out for France the boys had their picture taken in the old church yard, which caused a little comment among the superstitious, who thought it was a kind of presentment.

“On Major Carscallen pointing out that if it was, they could not have a more fitting and beautiful monument then this ancient ivy-covered church, the grim humor appealed to them.”¹

Mrs. Fish was the only women from Hamilton, indeed for all of Canada who was on the platform of the train station as the battery pulled away. From the cars, numerous soldiers shouted to her to remember them to their friends and family back in Hamilton.

The Spectator reporter was impressed with Mrs. Fish and the home she lived in:

“No. 149 Glendale avenue may be one of the many unpretentious homes in Hamilton, but it proudly floats the Union Jack and inside is one whose heart beats enthusiastically for Britain and her allies, and who is prepared to give her very all for the cause of right and justice.”¹