Acting Corporal James Ross Rutherford—Accidentally Killed March 18, 1942

 James Ross Rutherford was born at Canso, Guysborough County, on January 30, 1917. Ross’s mother, Lillie Mae, was a native of Halifax, the daughter of James and Mary Webster. His father, James McGregor, was born at Pictou, NS, the son of James Adam and Elizabeth (McGregor) Rutherford.

Acting Corporal James Ross Rutherford

James and Lillie Mae were married at Halifax on June 18, 1913. At the time, James was employed as a real estate agent in the city. The couple’s first child, a daughter Doris, was born almost exactly one year later. Sometime after her birth, the family relocated to Canso, where James worked as an accountant. A second daughter, Helen, arrived on November 7, 1915, but passed away two weeks after her first birthday, having suffered from poor health for six months.

At the time of Helen’s birth, James was working as a “cable censor” with the Commercial Cable Company’s Hazel Hill office. The job involved reviewing the content of cable messages travelling to and from Europe, in search of any “subversive” information. During the years after Ross’s January 1917 birth, three more daughters—Ruby (1920), Joyce (1921) and Margaret Elizabeth (1922)—joined the Rutherford household.

At the time of the 1921 Canadian census, the family was residing at Canso, where James was employed as “acting manager” of a “manufacturing company.” Sometime afterward, the Rutherfords returned to Halifax, where they took up residence on Duffus Street. James worked as a Customs Officer at Halifax until his retirement in 1938.

As Ross entered adulthood in the late 1930s, local employment opportunities were scarce. At the time, a local connection offered the city’s young men an opportunity to serve with the British Army. Lieutenant-Colonel R. B. Willis, DSO, had fought with the Manchester Regiment in the South African (Boer) War, and was serving with the Royal Canadian Regiment’s Halifax detachment. When several young men approached him in 1937 and inquired about serving with the British Army, Lt. Col. Willis arranged for their enlistment with his former unit.

Word of the enlistments quickly spread across the city and province. During the years immediately prior to the Second World War, approximately 85 young Nova Scotians enlisted with the Manchester Regiment, a group that became known within the unit as the “Halifax 100.” Ross Rutherford was among their number, departing Halifax in the company of three other young men and enlisting with the Manchester Regiment at Ladysmith Barracks, Ashton-upon-Lyne, England, on February 20, 1939.

Nova Scotian "Manchesters," May 24, 1939

During the ensuing months, Ross completed basic training with the Manchesters, after which he was assigned to its 2nd Battalion. Tensions between Great Britain, France and Germany increased as the weeks passed, culminating in Germany’s September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland. Within 48 hours, Britain responded to Hitler’s actions by declaring war on Nazi Germany and mobilizing the country’s military forces. The Manchester Regiment’s 2nd Battalion was attached to British I Corps’ 2nd Infantry Division and immediately prepared to depart for the continent as part of the British Expeditionary Force.

On September 23, 1939, 2nd Battalion’s personnel landed at Cherbourg, France. In subsequent days, its soldiers and their 2nd Division comrades made their way northward to the Franco-Belgian border, where they established camps between Orchies, France, and Saint-Amand, Belgium. Personnel remained in the sector throughout the winter of 1939-40, improving fortifications and communication facilities under exceptionally cold conditions.

As winter gave way to spring, the situation intensified as Allied forces anticipated a German attack. The April 9, 1940 German invasion of Denmark and Norway suggested that an assault on France—and possibly Belgium and the Netherlands—was imminent. In the event of an attack, British forces were assigned the central section of an Allied defensive line along the Dyle River, stretching from Louvain to Wavre, Belgium. Dutch and Belgian forces would deploy to the north, while French units to the south would form the remainder of the line.

In the early hours of May 10, 1940, German units launched a three-pronged attack, designed to drive a wedge between Dutch, Belgian, British and French forces to the north and the bulk of French forces to the south. While German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, Army Group C attacked France’s Maginot Line, a strategy intended to occupy French forces and prevent their relocation northward.

In response, 35 Allied Divisions moved forward and established their planned defensive line, the British Expeditionary Force assuming its designated locations along the Dyle River. James and his 2nd Battalion mates departed for the sector at 7:00 pm May 10 and reached their destination the following day. By May 14, the situation appeared to have stabilized, with Belgian forces holding a line from Antwerp to Louvain, the BEF covering the area from Louvain to Wavres, and French forces manning positions from Wavres to Namur.

The third prong of the German attack proved to be the decisive blow. Army Group A advanced westward through the Ardennes forest of southern Belgium, located between Namur and the Maginot Line. As the terrain was hilly and considered largely impassable, Allied commanders had not anticipated an advance through this area. Despite significant geographical challenges, German mobilized units made their way across the terrain, encountering only sparse resistance from Belgian and French forces. On May 12, German units reached the Meuse River near Sedan, France—the weakest point on the French line.

Two days later, Army Group A established bridgeheads on the western side of the Meuse and began an advance toward the Channel coast, with the goal of separating Dutch, Belgian, British and French forces to the north from French units to the south. Simultaneously, Germans units launched a test attack on the Allied line in Belgium, followed by a full-scale assault on May 15.

While British units along the Dyle held their ground amidst bitter fighting, the same cannot be said for the adjacent sectors. On the northern flank, Dutch forces failed to halt the German advance and surrendered within 24 hours. More perilous for the British were German successes to the south, where French units were routed along the Meuse and enemy forces swept across northwestern France. By May 16, German Army Group A reached Abbeville, less than 25 kilometres from the Channel coast.

The rapid German advance succeeded in cutting Allied forces in two, pushing Belgian, British and French units to the north into a large pocket east of Calais and Dunkirk. Four days later, the first German soldiers reached the Channel coast, effectively separating the Allied armies. In response, 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment and its BEF counterparts commenced a series of withdrawals, occupying defensive positions along the Lasne, Dendre, and Scheldt Rivers and La Bassée Canal as they gradually withdrew. Heavy fighting occurred at each location, with the 2nd Battalion’s machine guns providing critical covering fire for retreating forces. Disengaging from each position was particularly perilous and resulted in considerable casualties.

On May 24, Adolf Hitler ordered the German advance halted, to permit much-needed repairs to armoured vehicles and replenishment of supplies. In retrospect, the pause allowed Allied forces in Belgium to regroup and eventually avoid the disaster of complete defeat. Two days later, British commanders ordered a withdrawal to Dunkirk, France, the only port from which an evacuation could occur. That same day—May 26, 1940—Belgium surrendered to invading German forces.

As BEF units retreated to Dunkirk along congested roads, German aerial bombardment and machine gun fire inflicted considerable casualties. In the early morning of May 27, the 2nd Division, to which the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment belonged, made its final stand along the northern banks of the Canal de la Lys, where attacking German forces systematically surrounded and overwhelmed each of its Brigades.

The following day, the remaining 2nd Battalion personnel received orders to withdraw to Dunkirk. The soldiers gathered on the beach, where they endured steady German aerial bombardment. The surviving Allied forces were evacuated during a nine-day operation, a total of approximately 230,000 British and 110,000 French soldiers escaping to safety in England via a flotilla of ships large and small.

The fighting proved costly for the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, its losses amounting to 223 “all ranks” killed, wounded and missing. Ross came through the “Battle of Belgium” without injury and was among the Manchesters successfully evacuated from Dunkirk’s beaches and safely transported to the United Kingdom.

Following its return to England, the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment reformed at Lincoln, where it remained for two years. In June 1942, the unit departed for Bombay, India, where its soldiers served for the duration of the Second World War. By that time, however, Ross, had chosen a different path. As Canada had entered the war one week after Britain and had transported thousands of troops to the United Kingdom in 1940, he requested and received a transfer to a Canadian unit.

On September 22, 1941, Ross enlisted with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) at London, UK. In late October, he was attached to a 3rd Canadian Division Holding Unit, but returned to the RCASC on November 21. Following a brief time in hospital for an unspecified illness, Ross returned to duty on December 3.

Ross was promoted to the rank of Acting Corporal with pay on January 19, 1942. Four days later, he was officially appointed to the Canadian Army’s “Permanent Establishment.” During the almost two years in the United Kingdom after the Dunkirk evacuation, Ross had apparently met and proposed to a young lady. On February 13, he received official permission to marry “on or after March 20, 1942.”

In the meantime, Ross commenced training at an RCASC “M/C [Motorcycle] Driving school” on February 16, 1942. Nine days later, he officially qualified as a “M/C Driver” and commenced service with No. 1 Canadian Reinforcement Unit, RCASC. His role was to supervise the training of drivers operating military “lorries” while driving a Royal Enfield Army motorcycle.

Royal Enfield Army Motorcycle

On the afternoon of March 18, 1942, Ross was participating in “a driving instruction convoy of lorries[,]… checking up on the drivers” on his motorcycle. The convoys “had a regular route” and Ross’s role involved observing their progress as the lorries proceeded along roads in the vicinity of Aldershot, UK. Driver trainee Fred Newham was operating an Army 15 cwt Fordson truck along the assigned route at a speed of between 10 and 15 miles per hour as the convoy approached a junction in the road where the vehicles were to make a right turn.

As vehicles in the United Kingdom drives in the left lane, a right-hand turn crosses the oncoming traffic’s lane. Driver Newham later described what he observed as the convoy’s vehicles began to make the turn:

“…the vehicle in front of me commenced to turn to its right. It was drawing a gun It had practically completed the turn, the gun being still on the main road, [when] I saw a motor cyclist coming from behind me, he was travelling at an excessive speed between 40 and 45 mph but I can’t be certain. [It] appeared to me that he was trying to apply his brakes to pull up but could not do so. He skidded broadside into the lorry and seemed to fall under its offside rear wheel. The weather was wet and the road very greasy.”

Both the driver of the vehicle involved in the collision and witnesses confirm that the driver clearly signalled that he was making a right turn before doing so. Within minutes, a Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) ambulance was on the scene. Captain George Taylor, RAMC, examined Ross in the back of the ambulance, and later described “a severe fracture of the skull and deep wound at the back of the head.”

Ross was deceased at the time of Dr. Taylor’s examination. He concluded that Ross “had hit something with his head on the centre at top. I saw no evidence of his having been run over. Death would [have been] instantaneous or practically so.” Hugh Matheson Foster, the coroner responsible for a March 20 inquiry into Ross’s death, concluded that the cause of death was “a fracture of the skull caused by accidental impact with a motor lorry whilst motor cycling on the highway.” There was “no blame to the driver of the lorry.”

Acting Corporal James Ross Rutherford was laid to rest in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. He was to have married on March 25, only one week after his tragic death. The family suffered a second loss on August 13, 1943, when Ross’s father, James McGregor Rutherford, passed away at Halifax, the result of a cerebral hemorrhage. In April 1946, military representatives provided Ross’s mother Lillie Mae with a photograph of his grave marker, which was later replaced by a standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.