{"id":11557,"date":"2015-07-11T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=11557"},"modified":"2015-07-11T05:00:56","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T09:00:56","slug":"ploegsteert-heroine-receives-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/ploegsteert-heroine-receives-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"PLOEGSTEERT HEROINE RECEIVES RECOGNITION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday, July 11, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n

Reserve Billets\u00a0–\u00a0The Piggeries<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cThe Battalion supplied working parties of 150 by day and 150 by night for work with Engineers on various forts and reserve trenches. \u00a03 officers with each duty.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>[1]<\/p>\n

\n

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cThe village of Ploegsteert behind the wood was very much damaged. Like the other villages at the front, it must at one time have been quite a prosperous place. \u00a0The church, before it was ruined, was well built and capacious. \u00a0There was a building on the main street which a British chaplain had used as a clubhouse, and handed over to me when his division moved south. \u00a0It was well stocked with all things necessary to make the men comfortable. \u00a0It had a kitchen, reading rooms, and upstairs a chapel. \u00a0Two or three shells, however, had made their way into it, and the holes were covered with canvas. \u00a0The mayor\u2019s house was on the other side of the street, and he had a young girl there as a servant, who kept the keys of the club. \u00a0The chaplain who moved away told me that this girl, when the town was being heavily shelled one day, saved the lives of some men who were lying wounded in the house, by carrying them on her back over to a place of safety in a farmhouse. \u00a0It was a deed that merited recognition, because she had to pass down the road which was then under heavy shellfire. \u00a0I brought her case before the notice of the military authorities, and General Seely was asked to take the matter up and make an application to the King for a reward for the girl\u2019s bravery. \u00a0There was a doubt as to what award could be given to her. \u00a0We got the sworn testimony of the mayor and other eye witnesses, and the document was finally laid before the King. \u00a0It was decided that she should receive the bronze medal of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. \u00a0Later on General Alderson sent for me and took me to the mayor\u2019s house in Romarin, where we had the ceremony of conferring the medal. \u00a0It was quite touching in its simplicity. \u00a0The girl, who had a fine open face, was on the verge of giving way to tears. \u00a0The mayor and some other of the chief inhabitants were arrayed in their best clothes, and a Highland regiment lent us their pipers. \u00a0One of the citizens presented the heroine with a large bouquet of flowers. \u00a0General Alderson made a nice speech, which was translated to the townsfolk, and then he presented the medal. \u00a0We were invited into the house, and the girl\u2019s health was proposed and drunk by the general in a glass of Romarin champagne. \u00a0 We heard afterwards that the country people were much impressed by the way the British Army had recognised the gallantry of a poor Belgium maidservant.\u201d \u00a0[2]<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, July 11, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089762.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0\u00a0 Rev. Canon Frederick George Scott, \u201cThe Great War As I Saw It,\u201d<\/em> McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Montreal & Kingston, 2014, pg. 106-107.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sunday, July 11, 1915 Reserve Billets\u00a0–\u00a0The Piggeries The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cThe Battalion supplied working parties of 150 by day and 150 by night for work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}