Rehabilitation in PEI

Heroes Remember

Rehabilitation in PEI

Transcript

We went to Halifax and then by rail to, eventually to a convalescent hospital. You see I was on a stretcher and speechless and so forth and so on. The 12th Military District in Charlottetown, that was the 12th Military District there. And I was in hospital sleeping outside because of the mustard gas poisoning, you see. The nurses used to come out to taking temperatures and so forth wearing their fur coats and we were sleeping right in it out there, with our head, cover our head you see. And the trouble was your nose would get frozen. We had little, what we called nose caps to slip over your nose because your nose is the first part, you can cover your ears, but you can't cover your nose.

Description

Mr. Boyce describes going to a rehab hospital in Charlottetown, and sleeping outdoors in order to get adequate air, despite frigid winter conditions.

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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