BX March 12, 1915

Paying His Way Back to Fight for Old England – Joseph Isaacs of Burford, Not Tall Enough for Any of the Canadian Contingents is Bound to Get to the Firing Line – An Example of Loyalty for Young Canadians

He has to wear thick-soled shoes and then stand on his toes to stretch the recruiting officer’s measuring tape to five feet three inches, but Joseph Isaacs is a man every inch of him, and the German who bumps up against him, should he succeed in reaching the firing line, will probably learn what kind of stuff a true Britisher is made of. By birth Isaacs is an Englishman, but for some time past he has been doing the chores on a farm near Burford, and incidentally has been increasing his knowledge about Canadian methods of farming. Yesterday he drifted into a local ticket office and producing a none too healthy looking bank roll, asked for a passage on the first boat sailing for England. It didn’t matter much to him whether it was a passenger or a cattle boat, nor whether it sailed from New York, Halifax, or some other port, so long as its destination was England.

“Going back to see the fun?” inquired the good-natured ticket agent as he made out the pasteboard that was to carry the little “sawed-off” back across the pond.

His face wasn’t exactly prepossessing, nor was there anything in particular about him to attract attention, unless it was his stubby appearance and broad shoulders and, when you took a second look, his full chest, but when he started to tell his story a hush fell over the “fireside brigade” that gathers daily to point out just where Kitchener, Joffre, et al, are making big mistakes and how much better they would have handled matters had they but been given the chance. Joseph wasn’t speaking for [?] but his words rang true and they made more than one of the young Canadians within his hearing do some thinking.

“Yep,” said he, “I’m going back and I’m going to see the fun or my name’s not Joe Isaacs. My governor served for 19 years and now that it’s up to me to do my bit I ain’t going to let no red tape, or the fact that the ocean lies between me and the old sod, stop me from doing it. I’ve got seven cousins in France now and do you think my governor likes to think about his brother’s seven boys being at the front while his own son is out here in Canada enjoying himself. Not much; that’s not the kind of stuff the Isaacs are made of.

“Yes, I am a little late in starting, but then that’s not my fault. When the first call came I tramped it in from Burford to volunteer with the Canadians, but when the infantry recruiting officer got his lamps on me he just gave me a pitying look and told me I had better try the cavalry, where the height standard was not so high. I tried, but the Dragoons shuffled me on to the artillery. Then the artillery officer, not having any other corps to pass me off to, and I guess, not wanting to hurt my feelings, went through the formality of passing me on to the medical examiner.

“Did I pass,” continued Joseph. “I was sound as a bell in wind and limb, and they couldn’t find a flaw. My teeth were perfect and my feet without a fault and it looked as though I was going to squeeze in at last. My chest measured 39 and I could expand more than any of them; but then there was my height. The Lord hadn’t seen fit to put me on stilts, so I couldn’t be a soldier. They didn’t tell me then, or I would have been in France long before this. All they told me was that there wasn’t room for me in the first contingent but that maybe they would find a place for me in the second and I tramped back to Burford.

Turned Down Again

“When the second call came, I was waiting at the door when the recruiting office opened but there was nothing doing. It was the same story. I was shot from one to another and finally told to wait for the third contingent. Well the third contingent is about made up and I haven’t been placed yet, so I’m not going to wait any longer. I’ve got a little money saved up and I’m going to pay my own way across and I bet I’ll be right there when the big doings start in the spring. Over home they don’t seem to think that a man must be a giant to be a soldier.”

“Will you get in over there?” enquired a bystander.

“Get in,” answered Joseph scornfully, “of course I will. I’m as big as Bobs, and he got in. There won’t likely be any trouble, but if there is, I’ll find some way to get over it. I’ve simply got to get into that fight. Say, if Germany ever licked us and I hadn’t done my part I would feel twice as small as I am the rest of my life.”

“You’ll make a fine target for the Germans,” put in a Burford acquaintance, who had dropped in in time to hear only part of Joseph’s story.

“Well, while they’re shooting at me, they’ll be letting some good man alone, but the only way they’ll ever get a crack at you is by hunting for you behind your own barn,” answered the would-be-recruit, and the “fireside brigade” enjoyed a laugh at the Burfordite’s expense.

Isaacs left last night, on the 8.17 and will sail tomorrow for the old land. He’s no chicken, being in the neighborhood of 30 years old, and as Kipling said of the industrious “Bobs,”

“Oh, he’s little, but he’s wise, He’s a terror for his size.”

He was given a hearty handshake all round before he left the ticket office

BX February 14, 1946

Joseph Isaacs

Joseph Isaacs late of 59 Mohawk Street passed away Wednesday morning in the Brantford General Hospital following an illness of one week.  He was in his sixty-third year.  Mr. Isaacs was born in London, England and thirty-five years ago came to Brantford where he had resided since.  Previous to coming to Canada, Mr. Isaacs had been a member of the Imperial Army, having served with it in South Africa and India.  When the First World War broke out, he was one of the first reservists to leave Brantford to rejoin his unit in England. He served with the Imperial Army in France and Mesopotamia. The deceased had been an employee of the Cockshutt Plow Company for the past eighteen years. Left to mourn his loss is his widow, the former Ada Pope. Mr. Isaacs rested at the Reid and Brown Funeral Chapel today. The funeral service took place this afternoon, with interment in the Soldiers’ Plot, Mount Hope Cemetery.

BX February 15, 1946

Joseph Isaacs

The funeral was conducted Friday afternoon of Joseph Isaacs, with Rev. F.W. Schaffter, St. Jude’s Anglican Church, officiating.  Service was held in Reid and Brown’s Funeral Chapel. Pallbearers were James Allen, Gordon Small, John Patterson, John Lyle, John Higgins and Joseph Antol.  Interment was in the Soldiers’ Plot in Mount Hope Cemetery.