Corporal Hugh Murray McBride
Corporal Hugh Murray McBride was born on May 18th, 1885 to parents William and Bessie (nee Murray) McBride. He, his younger brother Charley, and his younger sister Beulah grew up on a farm in Maitland Bridge. Hugh was a Baptist and listed his occupation as a farmer when he enlisted on April 6th, 1916, just shy of 31 years old. He stood five foot 8 ½ inches tall (174 cm) and had light brown hair and blue eyes.
Hugh was assigned the rank of Private and Regimental number 283372 when he joined “C Company” of the 85th Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders, often called the “Never Fails”) as an Infantryman, and sailed from Halifax on SS Olympic on October 12th, 1916, disembarking in England on October 18th.
Private McBride trained as a Gunner on the Lewis Gun and deployed with the Battalion, disembarking in France in February 1917, where the Battalion fought as part of the 4th Canadian Division in France and Flanders (Belgium) until the end of the war. The Battalion is most famous for capturing Hill 145 in their first battle; today, the site of the Vimy Memorial.
Private McBride was appointed Acting Corporal on August 3rd, 1917, and fully promoted to Corporal on October 1st. He perished less than one month later, on October 30th, during the hellish battle at Passchendaele against the German 4th Army. From Veterans Canada website - It was a region largely made up of flat, low ground that was kept dry only with the help of an intricate series of dikes and ditches. Three years of heavy fighting there, however, had entirely destroyed these drainage systems. The ground, churned up by millions of artillery shells, turned to sticky mud when wet. In 1917, the autumn rains came early and turned the battlefield into a sea of muck, the likes of which still make Passchendaele synonymous with the horrific fighting conditions most people picture when thinking of the First World War. 275,000 British and Canadian lives were lost, as were 220,000 German lives.
Corporal McBride was 31 years old when he died. He left all his possessions to his mother, Bessie. After the war, she was presented with the Memorial Plaque and Scroll, and the Memorial Cross Medal (also known as the Silver Cross). His mother was a widow and was listed as his Dependent, so she was also awarded a “War Service Gratuity to Dependents of Deceased Soldiers” of 180 dollars.
Corporal McBride is commemorated on Panel 30 at the Ypres Memorial in Belgium, along with fifty-five thousand Canadian and Allied soldiers who were lost without trace (Memorial Inscription). Corporal McBride is also memorialized with a headstone at Maplewood Cemetery in Maitland Bridge, but his rank is incorrectly listed as Sergeant.
Corporal McBride is commemorated on page 278 of The World War One Book of Remembrance. He is also listed on the Caledonia Cenotaph, but at the incorrect rank of Gunner.
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Note that the Archived Military records show that Corporal McBride was promoted to that rank in the same month that he perished. He is listed as Gunner on the Caledonia Cenotaph, which would be equivalent to an Army Private and is thus incorrect. His Maitland Bridge headstone shows his rank as Sergeant, perhaps through miscommunication at the time. Of these three sources, the Military Records must be taken as the definitive source, so this web page refers to him as Corporal McBride.
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Online References
War Grave Search – https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1593986/hugh-mcbride/
Local Grave Search - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208452265/hugh-murray-mcbride
Canadian Virtual War Memorial - https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/1593986?Hugh%20McBride
Canadian Census - https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=census&IdNumber=8029436&ecopy=e001964964
First World War Personnel Records Database (File is 15.5 Meg Download size) - https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=pffww&IdNumber=144585&ecopy=517371a
Excerpts from References; Google References
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/first-world-war/battle-of-passchendaele
