Guysborough County historian shines light on local men, women of WW I

On Feb. 28, 1915, Jack Tate became the first Nova Scotian to die in combat in the First World War.

Now, nearly 100 years later, another Nova Scotian is telling his story.

Bruce MacDonald is a retired social studies teacher and an amateur historian in Antigonish who is researching Tate's story.

It's part of a larger project honouring the men and women from Guysborough County who served in the First World War. MacDonald said that's approximately 1,000 men and women — 133 of whom were killed in action or died of wounds, sicknesses or accidents.

Tate, who was serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was killed in action on the battlefield on the Western Front, in Belgium. He had been in no man's land, retrieving wounded comrades, when he was shot by German sniper fire.

Tate joined the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in August 1914. He had been working in Alberta as a teamster. By October 1914 he was on his way to England, then to France in December — and finally Belgium.

'Perhaps a bit rebellious'

MacDonald describes Tate as a free spirit, and says he was "energetic and perhaps a bit rebellious in his younger days."

According to family stories, Tate left home without saying goodbye to his parents.

MacDonald said Tate's story represents an entire generation affected by the war. Families were affected. Many lost children during the war, or lived alongside physically or psychologically damaged soldiers who returned to Canada.

"I think by retelling their stories, it perhaps recreates a sense of the tremendous cost of the war and its broad impact on Nova Scotians and Canadians, in general," MacDonald told CBC's Information Morning.

MacDonald has his own family connection to the First World War. His grandmother had two older brothers who served. One of them, Robert Burns, was killed in the trenches of Belgium in November 1915.

MacDonald said young people learn more from personal stories than a broader narrative about battles.

"When you can make it personal and you can connect it to individuals who come from their smaller communities, I think it makes it real for them," he said.

"Many of them are interested in trying to identify relatives in their own families who had served."

Instilling pride

He said these stories have the potential to bring some pride to the youth of Guysborough County.

"Guysborough has had a long and very difficult story, economically. The county has not prospered in recent years," MacDonald said.

"For the young people in Guysborough to recognize or perhaps be aware of contributions that their ancestors — many of them related to these people — made to the First World War, I think, is one way of instilling in them a sense of pride, and certainly a sense of acknowledgement of the contribution previous generations to Canada's history."

MacDonald intends to research the stories of the 133 people from Guysborough County who died during the First World War, with a particular focus on the 71 who died in the three years between 1915 and 1917 when Canadians saw action in France and Belgium.

He plans to publish a book later this year.