This post traces the wartime journey of my maternal great-grandmother Lilian’s brother, Peter Wilkinson – a man who enlisted under the alias “Peter Jackson” before facing the harsh realities of the Western Front. Focusing on his service with the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) of Canada, we look closely at the perilous winter days of late December 1916 when a gas attack near Neuville-Saint-Vaast changed the course of his war.
After weeks of heavy trench routine, the men of the 24th Battalion were relieved from the front line on December 20, 1916, moving back into reserve. On Christmas Day, A,C and D Companies gathered for their Christmas dinners, followed by B company holding theirs on Boxing Day. During these days, the battalion also conducted essential equipment maintenance: inspecting equipment and running training exercises.
In December 1916 around Arras, the trench experience was a miserable, bone-chilling endurance test where soldiers stood waist-deep in freezing mud and water-logged ditches. As the wet autumn gave way to the bitterest winter in decades, troops experienced a grim cycle of relentless wind, constant artillery threats, and severe sleep deprivation – in some areas they were forbidden from even lighting braziers for warmth to avoid drawing enemy fire.
The brief respite ended on the December 27th, when the 24th Battalion marched back up to Fosse 10 to relieve the 25th Battalion in the front-line trenches of the Arras sector. Taking up positions in the immediate vicinity of Angres and Bully-Grenay, just north of Vimy ridge, the men settled back into the cold, mud, and routines of trench warfare.
Fosse 10 was an industrial complex located on the southern outskirts of the village of Sains-en-Gohelle. Because it sat just a few kilometres behind the firing lines, it served as the staging ground or “jumping-off point” before entering the communication trenches. Passing Fosse 10 meant leaving the relative safety of the rear billets, where soldiers could sleep in beds, eat hot meals, and clean their uniforms. Beyond Fosse 10, they had to move under the cover of darkness or navigate a labyrinth of deep, muddy ditches to avoid German snipers and artillery. – Google
The Gas Bombardment
The following day began with the familiar rhythm of trench life – intermittent artillery exchanges and “usual Trench mortar activity” was logged by the battalion adjudicant. But as night fell on December 28th, the situation deteriorated.
Under the cover of darkness and continuing into the early hours of December 29th, German artillery opened up with a heavy, concentrated bombardment of gas shells across the sector. As recorded in the 24th Battalion War Diary, the shells rained down heavily on nearby Bully-Grenay and Corons d’Aix. It was during this heavy bombardment of December 28th that Peter was caught in the gas. Overcome by the poison, Peter was evacuated.
Whether Peter took a direct hit from a gas shell or inhaled low doses that seeped into his dugout, the experience would have been terrifying. Peter would have immediately reached for his Small Box Respirator. Even inhaling a small amount of the phosgene or a mustard agent meant an immediate, violent burning in his throat and chest, followed by a smothering sensation as fluid built up in his lungs, leaving him gasping for air.
https://historylearning.com/world-war-one/western-front-world-war-one/gas-attack-ww1
On December 29th, 1916 – Peter was taken into No.22 Casualty Clearing Station at Bruay. There, in a converted schoolhouse turned medical hub, doctors worked to stabilise his breathing. In an era before modern ventilators, treatment relied on strict bed rest, oxygen therapy, and careful monitoring to prevent his lungs from swelling shut.
If a soldiers exposure was mild, they would be held in a rest station for a week or two before being sent directly back to the trenches. If they were severely gassed but stable, they would be sent by ambulance train headed to a Base Hospital on the French coast and eventually transported to England.
Peter must have been suffering more severely, as once stable enough to travel, he was loaded onto a stretcher train. On January 9th, 1917, eleven days after the gas attack, he arrived at No.20 General Hospital in Camiers, a sprawling tent-and-hut hospital near the English Channel.
A week later, Peter crossed the Channel on a hospital ship and was admitted to Mile End Military Hospital on Bancroft Road in East London. Tended by military nurses and medical staff, he spent 34 days recovering until his damaged lungs slowly cleared.
Peter’s eleven-day crisis at the Bruay Casualty Clearing Station, followed by thirty-four days at Mile End Military Hospital, underscores the severe nature of his internal respiratory injuries.
By February 3rd, 1917, Peter was officially discharged from Mile End. Two days later, on February 5th, he stood before a Canadian Medical Board in the coastal town of Hastings. The board noted that after five weeks of treatment, his lungs showed no lingering active symptoms , though he remained “slightly weak”. With that evaluation, Peter was marked for duty and sent to a command depot to rebuild his strength.
Following his recovery from gas poisoning in East London, Peter eventually re-joined the 24th Battalion in France. His second tour on the Western Front proved both perilous and victorious. Promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1918, he was wounded by gunshot in the left foot on August 9 during the Allied breakthrough at Amiens. After a brief stint at a convalescent hospital in Le Tréport, he re-joined his unit and was promoted to Corporal, with his records officially corrected to his true name, Peter Wilkinson, in September 1918.
Before crossing the Atlantic back home to Pawtucket, Peter returned home to Preston for a reunion with his family. At this time, Peters sisters worked in clothing retail and dressmaking, whilst his father William was a hard working overlooker at Preston’s Peel Street Mill.
Sources and further reading:
- Canadian Great War project – 24th Canadian Infantry Battalion war diaries
- Fold 3 – Peter’s Service Record
- Archives Canada
- Wikipedia
- Ancestry
- Newspapers.com
- worldhistory.org
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/podcasts/voices-of-the-first-world-war/ep-13-gas-attack-at-ypres
- The 24th Battalion, C.E.F, Victoria Rifles of Canada – by R.C. Fetherstonhaugh