Mustard Gas Victim

Heroes Remember

Mustard Gas Victim

Transcript

I went down the line, you see with, gassed, and that was it seems to me about the 9th or 10th of May, 1917. It was mustard gas poisoning, you see, it worked on you, slowly. It wasn't just like a sudden thing that got you. It worked on you slowly. And you absorbed it, you see, for instance in your joints. You took it in, you see, and absorbed it that way. It wasn't like cloud gas that would get you at once and you'd see it coming. But the shell gas of course affected you slowly, but it put you out of action just the same. I was taken back to England on a stretcher of course to Graylingwell War Hospital in Chichester, England. And there of course, after some time back to Canada. I crossed, came back to Canada on the SS Regina, on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic.

Description

Mr. Boyce describes being poisoned by mustard gas, returning to England and finally being repatriated to Canada.

Harry Boyce

Harry Boyce was born in Bonshaw, Prince Edward Island on September 4, 1893. After moving to Regina to work as an architect, he returned to P.E.I. to enlist with the 8th Canadian Siege Battery. He trained in Charlottetown then went overseas and continued his training at Aldershot, England, where he specialized on the 8-inch siege gun, which fired a 200 pound shell. In the autumn of 1915 he was sent to France and served during the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Le Preol. He was gassed and repatriated to Canada.

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