Canadian Forestry Journal, May. ipi6. 



545 



On the Field of Honor 



The following- forms a very grap- 

 hic description of the death in 

 battle of Lance-Corporal D. X. 

 Trapnell, who was attached to the 

 Forest Products Laboratories at 

 McGill as assistant. He enlisted in 

 1914 and was reported missing after 

 the battle of St. Julien. No more 

 definite word was heard of him un- 

 til the following letter was sent on 

 bv his father. It was written bv a 

 Chicago friend of Mr. Trapnell to 

 his sister in St. Johns : 



"One of the boys in our depart- 

 ment invited me to go out to his 

 club and listen to Mr. Philip Samp- 

 son speak on his war experiences in 

 France; I accepted the invitation, 

 and to-night found me at the club. 

 Mr. Sampson's talk was very inter- 

 esting indeed. After the affair was 

 over, I walked toward his home with 

 him. I happened to mention I was 

 a Canadian and inquired of him 

 whether or not he knew any McGill 

 boys. He said, ''Do you remember 

 me talking about my two soldier 

 friends who were killed at the same 

 time I was wounded?" "Yes," I 

 said, "Well," he added, "one of those 

 chaps was a McGill man." "What 

 was his name I asked?" "Don 

 Trapnell," he replied. Well you 

 could have knocked me over with a 

 feather, I was so surprised. 



To think that I should meet a 

 man who knew Don and was with 

 him at his death made me feel sure 

 that "truth is stranger than fiction." 



Sampson was the last man who 

 saw him alive, and therefore I 

 thought that perhaps his people 

 might like to know about it. On the 

 other hand, it may open an old sore, 

 so that you may use your own judg- 

 ment as to whether you tell them or 

 not. 



Sampson told me the happenings 

 in his own vicinity, that is, the do- 

 ings of 300 men who comprised the 

 unit he belonged to. At the battle 



of Ypres, the Germans attacked sud- 

 denly, but the Canadians mowed 

 them down with their machine guns. 

 The Germans retreated, then under 

 the cover of their gas fumes attack- 

 ed twice more. The 300 Canadians 

 referred to dwindled down to 15, 

 and among them were Sampson, 

 poor Don and another chap. 



The 15 men got together and de- 

 bated on their future movements. 

 The Germans coming on again, and 

 the Canadian survivors decided that 

 it would be useless to try and hold 

 a front with their numbers which 

 took 300 men to rightly defend. 

 They therefore came to the conclus- 

 ion to leave the trench, go over to 

 the other side of the road and join 

 the Canadian Scots and cover the 

 gap their leaving made in the line, 

 by an enfilade or cross-fire. Don 

 and Bush (I think his name was) 

 were first out of the trench ; Samp- 

 son was the third man. Just as he 

 had climbed out, Sampson heard a 

 "Jack Johnson" coming, and he 

 hurriedly threw himself back into 

 the trench, but, not a moment too 

 soon, for the shell exploded, blew 

 the trench in on top of him and 

 covered up all but his head. Finally 

 he extricated himself, got up but 

 found that two men had been blown 

 in on his legs and feet. He pushed 

 them off. There were Don and 

 Bush. He spoke first to Don and 

 then to Bush asking them both if 

 they were hurt, but neither answer- 

 ed. 



He says poor Don and Bush 

 showed no signs of wounds; there- 

 fore it was his belief that the con- 

 cussion of the shell killed them. As 

 the Germans were coming on again, 

 he left the two boys there Iving 

 dead, and crawled away. 



Sampson says Don was a fine 

 chap, and that he liked him verv 

 much. 



As I said before, this man was the 

 last man to see poor old Don alive, 

 and therefore I have written all he 

 told me." 



