Description
Mr. MacKay describes being selected from a pool of signalmen to join the 46th Battalion, and then describes his responsibilities during an infantry advance.
Donald Finlay MacKay
Donald MacKay was born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, on April 2, 1897. His father was a pre-Riel homesteader, but Mr. MacKay chose to teach, at age 17, in a one room school. In March 1917, he enlisted in the 249th Battalion at Regina, Saskatchewan. He was sent to Valcartier, Quebec, where he qualified for air force service, but opted to stay in the army. Mr. MacKay was ready to ship out to England, but an epidemic on board saw him quarantined at Camp Aldershot, Nova Scotia. There he took officer training, qualifying as Sergeant. Once assigned to the 46th Battalion, Mr. MacKay served as a Signaller, primarily at Valenciennes. There is no record of his post-service experience. At the time of his interview, Mr. MacKay lived in Wolsely, Saskatchewan.
Transcript
There was a bunch of us signallers sent over to France from England. But we didn’t go straight to the front line or we didn’t go direct to any battalion, we went to this signalling pool. And, while there, we took further training or we were kept in training. And then we waited until we were called for. Well, I suppose it would depend upon what casualties they got in the signalling section of the front line. And all that I can recall about it was, there was so many signallers for this unit, so many signallers for that unit. And I was sent up for the 46th, that’s all that I remember about it. I found the signal work interesting and I liked being a signaller, but when I got in the front line, we had to . . . if we were making an advance, as they usually were trying to do in the last two or three months when I was there, we as the signallers, followed up the troops, the infantrymen that were ahead of us. We followed them up and reeled out the double insulated wire, you see, as we went along. And when we reached our objective, our job was to move in some room somewhere and set up a signal station - contact back to headquarters. And we’d be like setting up a company station up on the front line and we’d have connection with the battalion headquarters behind us.