#704076 Corporal Arthur Gerald Leeson
102ND CANADIAN INFANTRY
IN GOUGH’S SECTOR, REGINA TRENCH was still in German hands, and on 21st October his men were to carry out a third attack to attempt to seize it. There had been a period of comparative quiet on the northern part of the battlefield after the events of 8th October, but on the 14th, Schwaben Redoubt finally fell. Despite the German use of flammenwerfer to try to claim the ground back, the attackers held on. Plans then had to be postponed during the rainfall of the next few days. In both of the previous attacks on Regina, the trench had been reached, but the Germans had unceremoniously dumped Gough’s British and Canadian troops out of it again. Now the Reserve Army was determined to capture and this time hold on.
Forty-six-year-old Gerald Leeson had been born in south-east London, the only son of a doctor and educated at the Merchant Taylor’s School. In adult life he had been imbued with a spirit of adventure, travelling the globe. In 1895 he emigrated to Canada and spent eight years in the North-West Mounted Police. Subsequently Gerald became a mining engineer and moved to the United States, settling in California long enough to meet an artist named Adelaide Hanscom. They married in Alaska in 1908, while Gerald was employed at the Treadwell Gold Mine for three years. At the end of that tenure they returned to California and settled in Danville, in the San Ramon Valley, where for another three years Gerald farmed locally. There was a brief spell in Kellogg, Idaho, near the border with Montana, for work on another mining project that lasted well into 1915 before Gerald abruptly left home, crossed into Canadian territory and enlisted at Rossland, British Columbia, some 200 miles away.
Canadian troops receive a lecture from an officer before going into battle. (Authors’ collection)
By mid-August 1916, he had arrived in France and had been ensconced in pleasant country south of Calais until the new arrivals swapped their rifles for Lee-Enfields, picked up box respirators to protect them from gas and began the journey south to the Somme. Gerald Leeson was at Tara Hill, to the north-east of Albert, by the second week of October. The Canadian Corps was now being removed from the line and Gerald was among the last left, moving into a British Corps. The view was something to behold for men completely new to the field of battle. ‘The Albert–Bapaume Road was literally alive by day and night with a never-ending stream of vehicles of all kinds travelling east or west.’ The traffic encompassed a multitude of different types: ‘lorries laden with ammunition going east, or crowded with weary soldiers coming west, ambulances, ration wagons, motor cycles, all the traffic of an army actively engaged poured ceaselessly back and forth along this main highway which miraculously escaped complete destruction by the enemy’s artillery.’
After practice sessions, on the night of 18th October, the 102nd Battalion went into trenches as rain cascaded down. The ground was a morass, ‘making the trenches almost impassable’. No sooner had Gerald arrived than word came down the support line that the men next to them were being bombed by a German attack and calling for help. In silence the men flitted past headquarters; ‘jumping over trenches and shell holes they looked like phantoms in the dark, illumined by the light of German flares and leaping to the crash of bursting shells’. Rain continued all night along with constant shelling. The artillery were desperately focusing on smashing the German wire entanglements, in the hope that this time the men would not be left lingering in no-man’s-land trying to get into Regina Trench, they sought out machine-gun spots and any gatherings of enemy troops spotted. Patrols were reporting that their efforts were successful.
Owing to the weather the infantry attack was put back until the 21st, so Gerald, ‘a most efficient Non Commissioned Officer’, and his battalion were sent back out of the line to rest until they were needed. Back they waded in hip-high mud. ‘Men had to be literally dug out by their comrades as they sank exhausted in the liquid, glue-like substance.’ The following day they made the same journey in reverse and arrived exhausted in the front line trenches. Overnight they had more work to do, digging assembly trenches in which to form up and establishing dumps of ammunition for the following afternoon. At dawn all was ready and then there was nothing to do but wait in the mud.
Zero hour was at 12:06am on the 21st, a fine, chilly day. The first wave went over, followed by two smaller ones. Gerald kept up behind a creeping barrage, ‘lying down until it again lifted and advancing as it moved, all in perfect uniformity’. Aided by an intense overhead machine-gun barrage arced up towards the German lines, Gough’s men got into Regina Trench ‘with practically no opposition’. It was all over in half an hour. A defensive flank was formed with outposts well forward of Regina. The first wave had poured out 150 yards in front of the captured trench ready to defend it and the enemy appeared to be in disarray. The Canadians found the macabre spectacle of Regina Trench brimming with fallen Germans and their wounded comrades. The enemy initially limited their response to laying down a barrage as the third wave of British and Canadians went out to help secure the forward position in front of the trench. The second did the same in Regina, rounding up prisoners, and more men began restocking the dumps and bringing up supplies ready to mount any defence necessary. Just like that Regina Trench had finally been conquered and the capture of Thiepval Ridge was complete. Inexplicably considering all that had passed before, the 102nd Canadian Infantry had only lost five men killed and ten wounded in taking it.
Throughout the afternoon though, the German bombardment increased in ferocity. Then came the counter-attacks. Three times the enemy attempted to repeat the success of ejecting Gough’s troops from Regina Trench, but this time they failed. By the end of the day, in doggedly clinging to their prize, the 102nd Battalion had suffered almost 100 casualties, including Gerald Leeson. As well as his widow, Adelaide, he left behind two children, Gerald Jr., 6, and Constance, 4. Adelaide broke down and her husband’s death contributed to spells in mental institutions later on. She moved to England for a time to be nearer to his relatives, but eventually returned to California. She was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Pasadena in 1931. Buried where he fell, the location of 46-year-old Gerald Leeson’s grave was subsequently lost and his body, if recovered, was never identified. He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. Canada’s contribution to the Battle of the Somme had been bloody to say the least. By the time the last of her countrymen departed the field of battle, it was to the tune of some 24,000 casualties in just a few weeks.