#TellTheStory #LestWeForget

#LestWeForget cautions against forgetting those who served and died in war. Perhaps the best antidote to forgetting is to retell the stories of the veterans who served. In the days leading up to Remembrance Day 2020, my mind turned to a family tale of a father and son's service in The Great War. In August 1914, my grandfather (22 years) and great-grandfather (stating his age as 38, in reality, 55) enlisted to serve with the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force. Here are some highlights I discovered from reviewing 200+ pages of their war records.

The son: Arthur Mulvey (1893-1944). A plasterer by trade. Assigned to the Royal Canadian Regiment and despatched to Bermuda for garrison duties. Redeployed to France in November 1915, he entered active duty in Somme and earned several in-field promotions before being evacuated for a fever to a hospital in Wimereux on September 19, 1916. He developed VDH (valvular disease of the heart) and a case of Trench Fever and spent six months convalescing in England before returning to his unit. He would fall victim to the Spanish flu pandemic that unleashed itself in July 1918. Ongoing battles with pneumonia would follow. He was discharged and returned to Canada in March 1919. For his First World War service, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He returned to military service in World War II as a member of the Veterans Guard, including a posting at Fort Henry internment camp in Kingston Ontario. He died of lung cancer on June 18, 1944 – which his survivors linked to mustard gas exposure in the trenches of northern France in WW1.

The father: William Mulvey (1858-1946). Also a plaster contractor. Previously he served for 12 years with the Rifle Brigade in the British Army, with part of that service in Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880. In December 1914, he was deployed to Le Havre, France with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and became sick, suffering from the lingering effects of rheumatic fever. He was discharged and sent back to Canada in March 1915. Undeterred, he re-enlisted with the 2nd Pioneer Battalion and transferred to the Canadian Pioneer Training Depot at Shorncliffe England. His Medical Board discharge papers (September 22, 1916) stated: "Healthy man of 56 or 60 years of age is unfit for full duty on account of age. Is useless for base duty as we have no work for him." On October 2, 1916, the Pensions and Claims Board recommended: "that this man be not granted a pension."

If you have read this far, please take a moment to remember the service of veterans like Arthur and William Mulvey. Arthur was survived by his widow (Catherine, my grandmother), his eight-year-old son (John, my dad) and two daughters (Marian and Norma, my aunts). As they too have passed, it falls upon the next generations to take up the torch and #TellTheStory. #LestWeForget.