Born: 2/08/1879 at Kent County, ON. RG 150, Accession 1992-93, Box 2621-6, Item: 358556, PDF: B2621-S006. His Next of Kin:  Miss J. E. Douglas (sister) living at Cedar Springs, Kent Co., ON. At the time of his enlistment he was a single farmer at R.R.#1, Blenheim, ON. His attestation at Valcartiar, PQ. 22/09/14. Age 35 years, 5’6”. Prior to his enlistment in the CEF he was a Lieutenant in the 24^th Kent Regt., Chatham, ON.

Lieutenant Donald E. Douglas was a trooper in the 1st. Hussars, London, from June 1897 to August 1901, when he received his commission with this unit and qualified as Captain in the Cavalry. In October 1911 he received his commission with the 24th.  Kent Regiment and qualified as Captain in the Infantry. In September 1915 he qualified as Field Officer in the Canadian Militia.

Lieutenant Donald E. Douglas went overseas with the 1st. Contingent September 22nd, 1914, proceeding to France February 7th, 1915. He received wounds about March 10th, 1915, evacuating from France March 18th, 1915. He left St. Thomas Hospital, London, England in June 1915, and was invalided to Canada July 6th, 1915. He returned to England in January 1916, qualified as Instructor in Musketry, Trench warfare, Bombing, Lewis Machine Gun, Anti Gas, and Range finding. With the rank of Captain he acted as Quartermaster of the Canadian Pioneer Training Depot from February 11th. to August 25th, 1916; commanded a company a company in the 25th. Reserve Battalion from February 1st. to September 10th, 1917; command a Depot company in the Western Ontario Depot from October 10th, 1917, to January 28th, 1918. He returned to Canada February 1st, 1918.

Donald sailed with the 1^st Contingent CEF on 22/09/14. After training in England he was shipped to France and was reported slightly wounded while serving with the 1^st Battalion CEF at the Battle of Fleurbaix 7 & 8/03/15 he was issued a special boot..  He was reported being at Bromley Canadian Hospital 23/06/15 suffering from a GSW to his thigh / scrotum and thumb.

Donald sailed with the 1^st Contingent CEF on 22/09/14. After training in England he was shipped to France and was reported slightly wounded while serving with the 1^st Battalion CEF at the Battle of Fleurbaix 7 & 8/03/15 he was issued a special boot..  He was reported being at Bromley Canadian Hospital 23/06/15 suffering from a GSW to his thigh / scrotum and thumb. At his ‘Medical Board’ 23/06/15 and discharged 17/11/16. he was “fit for light duty”. “Armour Cpl. of the 1^st Batt. while examining the revolver of the officer in question, accidentally discharged the same wounding Lieut in the testicles.”  Reported by Sgt. P. W. Hory.

Lieut. Douglas was at Shorcliffe Hospital with a deformed toe a result of a GSW to the foot 7/10/16. He was discharged from Grenville Hospital at Ramsgate, England 14/10/16 a to the Canadian Pioneers 

The CDP: 22/06/17 reported that Captain. ‘Don’ Douglas ‘makes special reference to a number of the ‘Old Fighting First’. The Captain of 25^th Reserve Batt. at Bramshott, Hants 20/15/17 it reads 

I am going to ask a favor of you for the First action. But for concerts, etc. Nearly every other battalion. 

Lieut. Douglas was at Shorcliffe Hospital with a deformed toe, a result of a GSW to the foot 7/10/16. He was discharged from Grenville Hospital at Ramsgate, England 14/10/16 to the Canadian Pioneers.

The Old Battalion never had a band, and a band behind the lines is quite a treat for the boys only in marching but for concerts etc. Nearly every other battalion was given sufficient grant to supply, but ours got nothing.

A total of $750.00 form Major Thomas, of Amherstburg, took the resposibillty on his shoulders,and has shipped them to the 1^st Battation in France 

I am delighted to have raised – (100.00) from Chatham.

His next trip to hospital would be to No. 12 Canadian General Hospital at Ramsgate for treatment for Epilepsy, he was 38 at the time and discharged 14/01/18. His last hospitalization was for Influenza and he had four attacks before passing out and taken to the L.M.C.H. by ambulance. He would be S.O.S. (Struck Off Strength) and received an honourable discharge 8/03/1918 to Canada 25/03/18 “Medically Unfit.”

He would reach Canada and was promoted to the rank of Captain “Fit for Home Service” 26/08/18 and T.O.S. (Taken On Strength at No. 1 District, London, ON. Capt. Douglas was discharged as “Medically Unfit”.  

Captain Donald E. Douglas received his honourable discharge March 8th, 1918, on recommendation of the Medical Board as medically unfit for service.

In February 1921 he was appointed Clerk of the County Court as well as local registrar of the Supreme Court and registrar of the Surrogate Court.

In 1923 he took over one of the detachments of the 2^nd Canadian Machine Gun Battalions and stayed with that until 1928.

Captain Douglas would pass away 15 January, 1951, interment at the Crawford Cemetery, Cedar Springs.

The Chatham Daily Paper after receiving containing a letter  written on September 22^nd 1917 as follows 

Dear Mr. Stephenson: 

   You must be surprised to hear from me again after what has been rather a long silence. I still see The Planet occasionally to me the other day that you might like to hear of my whereabouts and how I am getting on.

I am afraid I am not allowed to write articles for the press nowadays without a great deal of bother getting them censored after which process they are entirely unrecognizable. Otherwise I would have sent you along stories of the parts of the war I have seen whenever I got the chance.

At present I am up in Kashmir in India being trained at a Staff School for a Staff Officer. How to managed to end up in India is a long story , perhaps not worth the telling but I will give you an outline of of it in case it might interest anyone on the other side, 

   Directly the first contingent landed in England I left them to take a commissioning the North Staffords, who  were with them on Salisbury Plain. That was in October. In June 1915 we left for Gallipoli and we went into trenches at the Cape Halles end of the peninsula on July 10^th for the first time. We were there for three Weeks just before the end of which the Turk did a little attack on the left of our line which was our first real blooding.

  At the beginning of August we were taken by sea to Anzac where we were all through the Sari  Bair fighting. I was machine gun officer in those days, until August 21^st when I got command of a company. I was very lucky to come out of that month’s fighting alive and unwounded as by the end of the month practically the whole division had been wiped out. At the beginning of September we marched over to Suvia, were we were in the trenches for the next three and a half months, until the evacuation on Dec. 20^th . I was still going strong and feeling much better than I had during the summer months, when there was a great deal of disease about and the heat was very enervating 

After the evacuation of Suvia, we went back to Mudros for a week and then two days after Christmas we were sent back to Cape Helles the only part of the peninsula that we still held. We went back to the same old trenches which we had occupied in July.

We had not been there very long before we realized that we had been brought back to evacuate it as well. The evacuation was fixed, weather permitting, for Jan. 8^th Luckily for us the Turks took it into his head to deliver an attack on our left (exactly the same place as he had attacked us in July) on Jan. 7^th the day before we were going to evacuate. 

My regiment had a good many casualties, our Colonel being killed amongst , and I managed to stop the grater part of a Turkish bomb with my left knee. I was taken down to a hospital ship that night and was lying in it off the Cape when the final evacuation took place the next day.

I was taken to a hospital in Malta, where I was laid up for a couple of months while they extracted the bomb from my knee, and then directly I was able to hobble about, they sent me to Florence, in Utaly, for a month’s convalescence, as a Consolation for not allowing me to go to England. I had an awfully good time in Italy, and was very sorry to have to come back to war again.

My division was then in Mesopotamia, so I drifted out there via Egypt. I was there eleven months altogether, all through the summer and  most of the winter until I got wounded again in the attacks on Kut last January, which prevented me being in at the capture of Naghdad. 

I got a broken and splintered fore-arm this time which jus bad enough to get me away to India I was in hospital in Bombay or a while, and then when my arm came out of the sling, I was allowed to go up on leave to Simla. My arm hadn’t been set right or it was growing crocked or some thing, so after I had been up in Simla about two months, I had to have my arm broken again. I was up there five months altogether and then I was sent up to place called Tanginarg.   

My division was then in Mesopotamia so I drifted out thee via Egypt. I was there eleven months altogether, all thought the summer and most of the winter until I got wounded again in the attack on the Kut last January, which prevented me being in at the capture of Baghdad. I got a broken and splintered fore-arm this time which was just bad enough to get me away to India.

I was in hospital in Bombay for a while, and then when my arm came out of the sling, I was allowed to go up on leave to Simla. My arm hadn’t been set right or it was growing crocked or some thing, so after I had been up in Simla about two months, I had to have my arm broken again.

I was up there five months altogether and then I was sent up to a place called Tangmarg in Kashmir where they have a Staff School and that is where I am writing this letter from now. The course, which is a three months’ one ends in November, and then I shall probably go out to Mesopotamia again.

Kashmire is a lovely country; I enclose with this a few odd photo I have taken up here, which perhaps might interest you. The Kashmir alley lies a height of about 6,000feet in the middle of the Himalayas which girdle it completely round. The only good entrance into the valley is by the narrow winding valley through which the River Jhelum flows down to the plains. All other routes into the country are over passes 14,000 and more feet high which , of course, are blocked by snow in the winter, and are only practicable for a few months in the late summer.   

The remainder of the letter is very poor. 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sources

IODE(P), Chatham Daily Planet (24-09-1914), Chatham Daily Planet (30-11-1914), Chatham Daily Planet (09-03-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (17-03-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (27-03-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (28-06-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (06-07-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (07-07-1915), Chatham Daily Planet (14-10-1916)

Height	5' 6''1/8
Eye Colour	Brown
Age	35
Complexion	Fair
Hair	Red
Race	White
Birthplace	Cedar Springs, Ontario.
Religion	Presbyterian
Last Place of Employment	Farmer at Cedar Springs
Average Earnings	$2000.00 per year
Marital Status	Single
When Enlisted	August 8th, 1914
Where Enlisted	Chatham, Ontario
Next of Kin	Sister- Miss J. E. Douglas, Cedar Springs

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