“England has declared war on Germany!” We were working on a pumphouse, on the Columbia River, at Trail, British Columbia, when these words were shouted at us from the door by the boss carpenter. . . . Every one stopped work, and for a full minute not a word was spoken. Then Hill, a British reservist who was my work-mate, laid down his hammer and put on his coat. . . .“I am quitting, George,” he said to the boss carpenter, as he pulled his cap down on his head and started up the bank. That night he began to drill us in the skating-rink.2
That was August 4, 1914. A year later 30-year-old Second Lieutenant William Henry Ostler Hill, fighting with the Yorkshire Regiment, would be dead. His name is one of the 250 names of World War I soldiers engraved on the cenotaph in the nearby city of Nelson.
With the outbreak of World War I, a patriotic hysteria consumed the western world. The major powers seemed eager to make use of their massive military forces, and their citizens believed that victory would be theirs, probably by Christmas. The small city of Nelson, tucked into the furrows of the Selkirk Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, was no exception. Not yet an independent country but part of the British Empire, Canada was now also at war. Men rushed to enlist in great numbers throughout the Kootenays, which had more recruits per capita than any area of British Columbia outside the West Coast.3
Nelson was a thriving little city of about 5,000 people in 1914, a commercial and government centre that served a district population of about 12,000.4 Mining, logging and fruit ranching were the main industries. The city became the recruitment centre for the area only a few days after war was declared. At the outbreak of war, British Army veteran and Boswell fruit-rancher Major Percy Rigby was among the first to enlist in Nelson, joining the 7th Battalion, the First British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own). He was put in charge of the West Kootenay–Boundary contingent.
On August 13, a week after Britain declared war on Germany, volunteer lists were opened at the Nelson Armories.
An enthusiastic crowd gathered at the armory last evening when the lists were opened for volunteers to serve both here and abroad in case Britain should become involved in hostilities. Volunteers to the number of 32 signed the list during the evening. . . . Among those who signed were a great many who had seen service at some time, and some had served in the militia, both in Canada and Britain.5
Ten days later some 60 recruits began drilling on the Nelson recreation grounds under the command of Major Rigby. The numbers had swollen to 175 by
