BX November 24, 1915
Returned Men Came to City Very Quietly – Paris man Went Through and Private A.J. Rose Slipped Home – Men Were Mixed Up at Toronto
Private A.J. Rose of 19th Battalion, residing at 25 Foster Street, and Private W.J. Roach 27 Cayuga Street, both invalided home with rheumatism contracted at Shorncliffe, England, both disappointed because they did not get to the firing line, came home last evening. They slipped out of the train and into a taxi and went home, avoiding the reception given to Pte. Bloxham and Bugler Lewis. Both are on two weeks’ furlough from the convalescent home, Toronto. Rose is from near London, England, and Roach from Devonshire.
At least these two returned heroes slipped unostentatiously into the city last evening and managed to miss the big civic reception prepared for them. Had it not been for a mix up in Toronto all the men would have arrived on the 6.42 train as per schedule.
The wounded men were taken to the Union Station in Toronto in two batches from the convalescent home. At the station they both arrived from different directions and one went to the front of the station while the other went to the rear. The ambulance that arrived first went to the rear of the station and waiting for the second car, missed the first train.
Through this mix-up Mr. J.C. Bloxham, who was in Toronto to meet his returned son, missed him at the station, and while his son came in on the first train, arriving here in time for the reception, the father didn’t get in till shortly after 8 o’clock.
There is still uncertainty here as to how many arrived. Bloxham only knew of two other men besides himself on the train he came in on, and that was Bugler Lewis, who got his share of the reception. The other was a Paris man, but he went directly through to Paris.
Then on the train that Mr. J.C. Bloxham arrived on was Private H.J. Ireland, of the 36th Battalion, residing on Kennedy Street.
It is somewhat of a matter for lament that the unavoidable mix-up occurred in Toronto for all the returning heroes were thus unable to participate in the reception prepared for them.
Private J.H. Ireland, Kennedy Street, who left here with the 36th Battalion sailing for England on the 18th of June with the third contingent, returned here last evening on the 8.34 G.T.R., having been delayed owing to the mix-up at the Union Station. Ireland was only in England two weeks when he was taken with chronic rheumatism and spent four and a half months in various hospitals. He is home for a week and then goes to the convalescent home in Toronto.
To a reporter Private Roach told stories of deadly Zeppelins in the night sky and sudden darkness and silence in English camps. He said:
“I was sent home from France suffering from rheumatism and left the men of the 19th Battalion behind me. Life in the English camps had done for me. We marched four days and nights through mud and rain, and only bivouacked for short intervals. Zeppelins make life in an English camp as dangerous as France.” Roach says that all the 19th are at the front.
