They Went Together

THE STORY OF BILL NESBITT AND KEITH ROBLIN OF THE 21ST BATTALION AND THE 4TH CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLES AND SOME OF THE 619,634 OTHER CANADIAN SOLDIERS IN WORLD WAR 1

Foreword

cover pictureMy purpose in writing this book was to try to give to the descendants of Bill Nesbitt and Keith Roblin, and perhaps others in Northumberland County, some idea of where they went, what they saw, what they did, what conditions they lived and fought under and perhaps some idea of how they might have felt about it. Very little correspondence from Bill and Keith exists and it is mostly through the recordings and recollections of others that I can attempt to do this.

To describe their activities and those of their units, I will quote from The Emma Gees and A Rifleman Went to War by Captain Herbert McBride, The Experiences of (the barely literate) Frank Maheux by Desmond Morton, 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles History, 20th Battalion History by Captain D. J. Corrigall, 21st Battalion Historical Calendar, 21st Battalion War Diary, 4th Brigade War Diary, 8th Brigade War Diary, Marching to Armageddon by Morton and Granatstein,

Canada in Flanders – Vol. 2 by Lord Beaverbrook, Canada in Flanders – Vol. 3 by Charles G. D. Roberts, Vimy by Pierre Berton, The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes by Bruce Cane, A War Diary by Sandy Bain, Story of the 28th Battalion by G. E. Hewitt and other writings.

John Stephens

  1. The Onset – August 1914 
  2. Preparations/Belgium and France
  3. Brighton, Ontario, October, 1914
  4. Kingston – November 1914
  5. Departure – May 1915
  6. The Situation in Europe/West Sandling
  7. Europe – September 1915
  8. The Command/The Situation in Belgium and France
  9. First Action
  10. The Trenches
  11. 1916
  12. The Battle of St. Eloi
  13. Trench Mortar Battery
  14. June 1916
  15. The British and French at the Somme – July 1916
  16. The Canadians – July 1916
  17. August 1916
  18. The Somme – September 1916
  19. The Sugar Factory and Courcelette
  20. Killed at Sugar Factory and Courcelette – 21st Battalion
  21. Regina Trench
  22. Arras
  23. The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles
  24. Richard Wood
  25. Rebuilding the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles
  26. Trench Raids
  27. Early 1917
  28. Preparation for Vimy Ridge
  29. The Battle of Vimy Ridge
  30. Killed at Vimy Ridge – 21st Battalion
  31. Spring 1917
  32. Passchendaele
  33. Postscript – Bill Nesbitt and Keith Roblin
  34. Postscript World War I

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