Private MacEachern

Many Nova Scotian miners served their country during the world wars. Here is the story of Private Colin Francis MacEachern.

MacEachern was born at Judique, Inverness County, on May 9, 1892, but was raised on a farm at East Havre Boucher, Antigonish County.

MacEachern was a coal miner in Glace Bay by the time of the 1911 census. A half dozen coal mines operated in Glace Bay in the early 1900s and we do not know at which mine(s) he worked.

It was in Glace Bay that he enlisted with the 94th Regiment’s local militia detachment during the First World War. He started training with a Cape Breton detachment of the 40th Battalion (Halifax Rifles) in 1915 and arrived in France in January 1916 to fight with the 25th Battalion, the first Nova Scotian volunteer unit to serve on the Western Front.

Throughout the winter of 1915-16, patrols were conducted in No Man’s Land to probe German defences and attack enemy trenches. To carry out these nightly activities, each battalion trained a small group of men to act as scouts. Their duties involved leading patrols to locate German defensive positions and guiding bombing parties to their targets. Scouts also accompanied relieving units to help familiarize them with their new sectors.

MacEachern served as a scout.

On the night of February 28, 1916, the 25th’s officers organized four scouting patrols, working in two shifts. The first two groups departed at 9:30 p.m., one accompanied by scouts Charles Dawson (Sydney), Robert Waylein (Canso), and Frank Kizer (Round Hill, NS). During their patrol, the group located a German “sausage bomb” and delivered it to the unit’s grenade officer. Scouts Thomas Addicott (New Aberdeen, CB), William Curtis (Glace Bay) and a Pte. Trudell led a second patrol close to the German line, where they heard work parties “hammering stakes and sawing wood.”

A second pair of patrols departed at 1:00 a.m. MacEachern was one of three scouts accompanying a group led by Lance-Corporal Abraham Thurgood (Gabarus, CB). The party explored the area to the right of a farm, while their compatriots ventured to its left. Both groups reached the German wire, which “was only four to six feet thick and not heavy.” Fortunately, none of the night’s parties encountered enemy patrols.

The following night, another four parties entered No Man’s Land, accompanied by the same scouts. Once again, the soldiers advanced as far as the German wire, which was considerably thicker than the section explored on the previous night. The soldiers reported that the “ground on our front [was] grassy with few shell holes.”

Nightly patrols continued until March 5, at which time the 25th briefly retired to Brigade Reserve. Two days later, the unit returned to the front trenches and nightly patrols resumed.

On the night of March 13/14, two officers, guided by scouts MacEachern and Waylein, conducted a raid on the German line, throwing 30 grenades into enemy trenches and detonating two “Bengalore torpedoes” underneath the German wire. Reports indicated that “all but two of the hand grenades landed in the trench and as it was a complete surprise, at least several casualties must have occurred.”

The following day, the 25th retired to Divisional Reserve for a well-deserved rest. On March 18, however, two of its officers — Major Duncan S. Bauld (Halifax, NS) and Major William Bates (Birkenhead, Cheshire, England) — returned to the forward area to look over new trenches near Locre, Belgium. While the 25th’s war diary does not identify their companions, subsequent events indicate that at least one scout — MacEachern — accompanied them.

German snipers spotted the group. Both officers were “seriously wounded,” Major Bates succumbing to his injuries six days later.

Private Colin Francis MacEachern was “shot through the head by an enemy bullet and [instantly] killed.” He was laid to rest in La Laiterie Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Our thanks to the Antigonish Cenotaph Project for sharing MacEachern’s story and those of other Nova Scotians who served in WWI (https://antigonishcenotaphproject.wordpress.com/).