A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces

A fine Great War Ypres 1915 operations M.C. group of six awarded to Captain C. B. Pitblado, Canadian Military Forces, late 13th (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion, Canadian Infantry

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately engraved, ‘Capt. C. B. Pitblado, Ypres, 1915’; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. C. B. Pitblado, 13/Can. Inf.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. C. B. Pitblado); Canadian Voluntary Service Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45, silver, mounted as worn, lacquered, very fine and better (6) £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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M.C. London Gazette 6 October 1920:

‘His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Military Medal to the undermentioned Warrant Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers and men for bravery in the Field, whose services have been brought to notice in accordance of the terms of Army Order 193 of 1919. To be dated 5 May 1919, unless otherwise stated’.

Charles Bruce “Pits” Pitblado was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on 25 November 1892, and attended the Royal Military College of Canada from 1910-14, where he excelled in all things aquatic, and graduated in May of the latter year.

Appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal Highlanders of Canada in June 1914, he proceeded to France with the re-designated 13th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, in January 1915, and won the M.C. for his gallantry at Ypres on 24-25 April 1915, when the Germans unleashed their first major chlorine gas attack. Beyond Courage, by George Cassar, takes up the story:

‘Three of the four companies of the 13th fell back in good order despite German artillery fire, described by one eyewitness as ‘absolutely hellish in its accuracy’. The far right company under the redoubtable McCuaig was not nearly as fortunate. Now badly exposed and reduced to three officers and 40 men it stood no chance of getting out unscathed.

The moment McCuaig gave the signal the men dashed backward toward the nearest cover, about 50 yards away. Only a few managed to scramble to safety. The Germans who had been expecting the move, swept the open ground with intense rifle and machine-gun fire, cutting down most of the Highlanders before they had covered half the distance. It was then that Lieutenant Pitblado showed exceptional courage in carrying Captain Whitehead, second-in-command, who had been mortally wounded and was delirious. Whitehead collapsed into unconsciousness and Pitblado was compelled to abandon him after being hit in the knee. As he struggled on he came face to face with McCuaig and the two men saw to the retirement of the remnant of the company. McCuaig’s report, written after the war, described what followed:

‘We were going back together when I was wounded in the knee but was able to proceed. I was shortly after shot through both legs and rendered helpless. Pitblado in spite of my protests refused to leave me and bandaged up the wounds in my leg under a very heavy fire. He was then wounded a second time in the leg, which finished his chances of getting away. I was subsequently wounded four more times while lying on the ground. We both remained there until picked up by the Germans an hour or two later. Their firing line passed us about ten minutes after we had been wounded.’

For McCuaig and Pitblado the war was over. The courage and devotion to duty shown by these two men throughout the engagement were later acknowledged when they received respectively the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross.’

Interned in Germany, and from March 1918 in Holland, Pitblado was repatriated at the War’s end.

He remained in the Royal Highlanders of Canada after the War and retired as a Captain in 1937, though he afterwards held appointments in the Canadian Provost Corps and Veterans Guard of Canada during the period 1940-42.

A kind-hearted and generous man, but possessed of a stubbornness likened to the the Rock of Gibraltar, he died in Montreal in February 1974; sold with copied service papers.