BX November 28, 1916

District Men of 84th Casualties

Many of the casualties mentioned during the past few days from the Fourth Canadian Division are from drafts furnished to other battalions by the 84th Battalion, which spent a winter in Brantford. In yesterday’s late lists there were nine original 84th Battalion men reported wounded and two as having died from wounds.

Two Brant county men are amongst the wounded and three reported died from injuries are from this county also.

Private Thomas Walsh, who enlisted a year ago for overseas service with the 84th Battalion, is reported among the wounded. Pte. Walsh received military training at Brantford during the winter but was stationed at the Exhibition Camp for a few weeks before going overseas. He had been in the trenches with another Toronto unit a few months only. His relatives are in England.

BX December 12, 1916

Held Up Teutons, Hit by Shrapnel – Pte. T. Walsh Tells How he Was Wounded in the Somme Fighting

Particulars of the wounding of Private Thomas Walsh, who formerly lived with them, have just been received by Mr. and Mrs. H. Cowperthwaite, 99 Eagle Avenue. It was in a big battle on the Somme on November 18 that Pte. Walsh was wounded in the right leg. The shrapnel went right through the leg, dropping out when his trousers were cut off in the hospital. He is now in the 3rd Scottish General Hospital, Hobhill, Glasgow, and he remarks that the nurses call him “Canada.”  The trenches he describes as “hell” and the hospital “heaven.”  An interesting description of the attack in which he was wounded is given in the letter. Describing the taking of German prisoners at the end of the bayonet, he says they throw up their hands in the air crying “Mercy komrad, we don’t want to fight.”  He had eight of them in front of him with their hands up when he got his shrapnel wound, and further, he gives one Englishman credit for being able to take 20 prisoners, for the Huns don’t like the bayonet.

BX August 26, 1918

Mrs. Cowperthwaite received word this morning that Private Thomas Walsh was wounded, having received gunshot wounds in the head. Pte. Walsh was a member of the 84th and was first wounded November 18, 1916, in the leg. While in Brantford he was a prominent member of the Salvation Army.