Lives of the First World War

known 1st October 1918

What a story there is to tell about the short life of Lance Corporal Jack Page who was born and raised in the tiny village of Welford. There are not too many details in the report in the October 1, 1918, edition of the Market Harborough Advertiser but we do learn that Page left his parents and friends before the war to emigrate to the United States – quite an event in itself. But he wasn’t content to just enjoy the good life and he ‘left a good position’ to join up with the Canadian Army and was shipped to France early in 1918. He found himself in the thick of one of the last big battles of the war when the Canadians seized control of the Drocourt-Quéant line, the crucial western edge of the German defences called the Hindenburg Line. The Germans suffered massive losses but it was tough for the Canadians too: 5,600 of their soldiers were killed in the offensive – and Page was among them. A memorial service was held in Welford’s parish church with nearly all the village attending to mark the passing of one of their sons. A battalion chaplain, in a letter to the family, says: “Your son was killed in action near [redacted] in the big advance on September 2nd when the battalion met with severe opposition from a strongly held machine gun post.” The chaplain adds: “A competent military authority has said that the taking of this strong point on that day by the Canadians is the biggest military feat of the war and perhaps of history. In all your sorrow it will be a satisfaction to remember that your son gave his life and thereby made the supreme sacrifice while discharging his duty to the full to King and Country and to humanity in their great need.”

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