xii Postscript 



and then became assistant secretary of Bolckow, Vaughan 

 and Company, Ltd., at Middlesbrough. Here he stayed for 

 seven years, and at the outbreak of war occupied the 

 position of secretary to the company. 



As soon as the war broke out, Erasmus decided to join the 

 army, and in September, 1914, he was gazetted a Second- 

 Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion (Territorial) of Alexandra 

 Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment. The Com- 

 manding Officer, Colonel Bell, and many of the other officers 

 were among his personal friends at Middlesbrough. The 

 battalion crossed to France, as part of the Northumbrian 

 Division, on April 17, 1915, and was almost immediately 

 called upon to take part in very severe fighting in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ypres. It is impossible to give any very accu- 

 rate or detailed account of the action, but to their honour 

 be it said that these Territorial troops, fresh from home and 

 tried at the very outset almost as highly as men could be 

 tried, played a worthy part in the battle which has earned 

 such undying glory for the soldiers of Canada. They be- 

 haved with a steadiness and coolness which gained for 

 them the congratulations of the Generals commanding 

 respectively their Division and their Army Corps. Early 

 in the afternoon of April 24 the regiment had lined some 

 trenches. Later, at about three o'clock, they were with- 

 drawn from the trenches and ordered to attack. This 

 attack they successfully carried out, and drove the enemy 

 back for a mile or more before being ordered to retire about 

 dusk. It was during this advance that Erasmus fell, killed 

 instantaneously. The Royal Irish Fusiliers recovered his 

 body, together with that of his friend, Captain John Nan- 

 carrow, and the two lie buried in one grave, with a little 

 cross over it, by a farmhouse near St. Julien. 



I cannot do better than quote a letter written to Eras- 

 mus's mother by Corporal Wearmouth, who was in his 

 platoon : 



" 1 am a section leader in his platoon, and when we got 

 the order to advance he proved himself a hero. He nursed 

 us men ; in fact, the comment was, 4 You would say we 

 were on a field-day.' We had got to within twenty yards of 



