SOLDIER DETAILS:
Slack, William
Lance Corporal 4th Battalion 10988
April 23, 1915
20th Halton Rifles, Joined with Bastedo
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Victoria Park Cenotaph
R. Laughton
Commonwealth War Graves
Menin Gate Inscription
Thanks to Sabine
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Lance Corporal
Slack is remembered on the Victoria Park Cenotaph,
Milton ON.
Lance
Corporal Slack has no known burial in Flanders. His
name, like other Milton boys, is inscribed on the Menin
Gat Memorial i Ypres, Belgium.
Milton
Soldiers on the Menin Gate Memorial (Google
Earth). |
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SOLDIER SUMMARY:
| Lance Corporal Slack has been tied to Milton as a
result of his service with the 20th Halton Rifles guarding
armouries. He was one of the first men to join up with Captain
Bastedo. He had previously served in the UK regiments
and his next-of-kin were still in the UK. The CWGC reports he
served in the South African Campaign (the Boer War). He does not
appear in the 1991 census for Ontario.
His attestation papers suggest that he attested directly to
the 4th Infantry Battalion in the First Contingent (1st
Battalion, 1st Infantry Brigade), probably as a loyal British
soldier who had done service with the North Staffordshire
Regiment. He was in the company of Edwards,
Lees and Paterson,
also with the 4th Battalion. Interestingly enough he received
Field Punishment #1 in February 1915 for being absent without
leave, then 2 months later on April 18, 1915 he receives Lance
Corporal pay.
L/Cpl. Slack was killed in action only 4 days later on April
23, 1915 at Vlamertinghe, Belgium (due west of Ypres) the
scene of the first gas attack of the Great War. The 4th
Battalion was crossing the Yser Canal at 4:10 that
morning. There were 503
casualties that day from the heavy rifle and machine gun
fire that met them as they approached the enemy line (see
Nicholson Sketch
7). History states that the attack was doomed before it
began from lack of preparation, absence of reconnaissance and
the uncertainty of the enemy's location. The Canadian's would
learn from this mistake, but it was too late for Lance Corporal
Slack |
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The soldier pages contain information
that is available from a number of resources. The following hyperlinks
are active where the information is available:
The summary of the service is taken from
the soldier's service records, if they were available from Library and
Archives Canada. A complete copy of the service record is
available in electronic and paper format in the Alex
Cooke Memorial Archives at the Milton Historical Society.
Using that summary, combined with the key references, a summary of the
events leading up to the death of the soldier has been prepared.
The research information available is as noted on the Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group web site Matrix
Project as well as in the Library and Archives Canada On-Line
War Diaries.
A summary of all the soldiers is
contained on the Web Blog "Great
War Soldiers of Milton, Ontario CANADA". Please also
be sure to purchase your own copy of "Milton
Remembers World War I - The Men and Women We Never Knew" by
John Challinor II and Jim Dills, edited by Ken Lamb. |
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