Wallace Ernest Barnard was born in Ecum Secum Bridge, Halifax County, on January 8, 1920, to Henry Samuel and Prudence Rosella (Pye) Barnard. Both of Wallace’s parents were natives of Ecum Secum East. Henry was the son of Samuel and Emma (Wilson) Barnard. Samuel was born in Gloucester, England, while Emma was a native of Liscomb. Wallace’s mother Prudence was the daughter of Henry and Phoebe (Moser) Pye, Ecum Secum East. Henry and Prudence were married on September 3, 1912.
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| Private Wallace Barnard's headstone, Bretteville-sur-Laize Military Cemetery |
At the time of the 1921 Canadian census, Henry and Phoebe were living in the Smith Cove census district with their three oldest children—Ruby Ethel, age six (DOB September 27, 1914), Owen Samuel, age three (DOB March 23, 1918), and Wallace, age 11 months. Two more children joined the family shortly afterward. Perry Irvin arrived on November 1, 1921, while Anita Alice was born around 1923.
Prudence’s sixth pregnancy did not end well. The baby was born prematurely and did not survive. Under doctor’s care for several weeks, Prudence died from “puerperal septicaemia” on July 21, 1924, leaving her widowed husband to care for five young children. On February 6, 1929, Henry married Laura Florence Bezanson, daughter of James Calothe and Eliza Frances (Leet) Bezanson. Over the next decade and a half, Henry and Laura welcomed nine children—two sons and seven daughters—into their home.
Around 1935, Wallace Barnard left school at age 15, having completed Grade VIII. Over the next five years, he was employed on both land and sea. He worked as a seaman on a coastal freighter that travelled from Bermuda to Newfoundland and Labrador. During the winter months, Wallace worked in the local woods and was employed at a local mill operated by Lewis Lumber Co., Sheet Harbour, where he occasionally drove a truck. During the three years prior to his military service, Wallace also worked in the local fishery.
On July 15, 1940, Wallace enlisted with the Princess Louise Fusiliers at Halifax, NS. The regiment traces its roots to a Halifax militia unit established by Sir Edward Cornwallis in June 1749, following his arrival in Nova Scotia. Officially authorized as a Canadian military unit in 1867, the unit operated as the Halifax Battalion of Infantry (66th) until it was renamed “Princess Louise” Fusiliers, in honour of Queen Victoria’s daughter and wife of the Marquess of Lorne, Canada’s Governor-General, in November 1879.
The unit served in Western Canada during the North-West Rebellion (1885) and provided personnel for a special service battalion that served in South Africa with the Royal Canadian Regiment during the Boer War. The militia unit also provided soldiers to several battalions recruited in Nova Scotia for service during the Fist World War. During that time, its name was reduced to the Princess Louise Fusilers.
An initial assessment in Wallace’s service file described him as “a sturdy soldier who gets along well [and] is a willing worker.” While he had no formal training, Wallace showed “a definite mechanical tendency” and had “practical experience with cars and trucks” developed through his work.
Wallace decided to enlist because his “friends were joining and he wanted to do the same.” While he was initially assigned to the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers’ machine gun section, the officer conducting his initial interview suggested that he might be “suitable for a Motor Battalion” and recommended that “he be given an opportunity to train as a driver i/c [in charge], failing this, he should continue as a gunner.”
Wallace’s time in uniform commenced with a six-week basic training course in Bedford, after which he completed infantry instruction at Wellington Barracks, Halifax. For the next two years, he served with the Fusiliers in the Halifax area. On October 1942, the unit departed for overseas, arriving in the United Kingdom eight days later.
Following the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the Princess Louise Fusiliers were selected for service in Italy with the newly formed 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, which was part of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. The unit was not included in the initial invasion force. As it prepared to depart for the Mediterranean, a series of personnel changes led to Wallace’s transfer to the Algonquin Regiment on August 20, 1943.
Mobilized on July 22, 1940, the Algonquin Regiment recruited its personnel from the northern shores of the Great Lakes and the Ottawa valley—North Bay, Muskoka, Huntsville, Haileybury, Cobalt, New Liskeard, Kirkland Lake and Timmons, Ontario. The unit trained and served in its home province until February 1942, when it was dispatched to Botwood, Newfoundland, for guard duty at a Royal Canadian Air Force base.
The Algonquins returned to Canada in January 1943 and made their way to Debert, where they prepared to depart for overseas. The unit sailed from Halifax aboard the Empress of Scotland on June 11, 1943, and arrived in Liverpool, England, one week later. It was subsequently assigned to the 4th Canadian Armoured Division’s 10th Infantry Brigade, where it served alongside two other Ontario units—the Lincoln & Welland Regiment (“Lincs”) and the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (“Argylls”).
Wallace’s transfer to the Algonquin Regiment’s ranks coincided with an accelerated training schedule as Allied units in the United Kingdom prepared for an eventual invasion of Western Europe. In late August 1943, the regiment travelled to Norfolk, England, for divisional land maneuvers that continued throughout the winter months. In January 1944, the battalion participated in combined operations training at Inverary, Scotland. The exercise included amphibious landings and extended into the spring of the year.
As Allied forces commenced final preparations fo the invasion of Western Europe, the Algonquin Regiment relocated to Sussex, England. On D-Day—June 6, 1944—its personnel remained in England with the 4th Canadian Armoured Division (4th CAD), awaiting orders to proceed to France.
Final preparations for the move commenced in mid-July, 4th CAD’s units boarding ships and heading out to sea on July 20. On the night of July 23/24, the Algonquin Regiment’s transport arrived off the coast of Normandy, where it dropped anchor. Personnel came ashore on July 25 and moved to a concentration area between Banville and Tierceville, south of Juno Beach. They remained there for three days, organizing and preparing for service in the forward area while their officers received updates on Allied operations inland.
On the evening of July 30, the Algonquin Regiment moved forward under cover of darkness and relieved the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders at Hubert-Folie, southeast of Caen, France. By dawn the following day, the entire 10th Brigade were in the line, the Argylls to the northwest at Bras while the Lincs were at Bourgébus, southeast of the Algonquins.
In front of the three inexperienced regiments lay Tilly-la-Campagne atop Verrières Ridge. The strategic area of high ground blocked the Allied forces’ path southward toward Falaise and was held with considerable strength by German forces. Amidst a landscape largely covered with wheat fields, the 10th Brigade’s role was largely “static,” the three units instructed to carry out routine night-time patrols, probing enemy defences.
On the evening of August 1, the Algonquins dispatched six patrols toward enemy lines opposite its location. The following day—August 2, 1944—six more patrols headed out, one of which “bumped into an enemy post.” The unit’s regimental history provides no further details on the incident. However, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s records, two Algonquin Regiment soldiers were killed in action on that day—Corporal Charles Wellington Riddell, Dundas, ON, and Private Wallace Ernest Barnard, Ecum Secum Bridge, NS. It is reasonable to assume that both deaths occurred as a result of the contact with an enemy post mentioned in the Algonquin regiment’s official history. The two fatalities were the unit’s first losses during its initial tour in the front lines.
Wallace was initially interred in Mondeville Canadian Cemetery, southeast of Caen, France, on August 12, 1944. Four days later, his sister Anita wrote to military authorities, in response to a notice the family received indicating that Wallace had been killed in action. Anita requested details on “what part of the battle he was in as we do not know where was. I would also [want to] know if it is [the] final word about him being killed.”
In mid-September, Wallace’s father Henry wrote a similar letter, requesting details on the circumstances of Wallace’s death and the location of his grave. Before month’s end, military authorities responded but provided no further details. A letter to Henry, dated October 27, 1944, provided details on the date of Wallace’s burial and the location of his grave. On April 19, 1945, Wallace’s remains were re-interred in Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian Military Cemetery, Bretteville-sur-Laize, Calvados, France.
Another tragedy struck the Barnard family on January 12, 1950, when Wallace’s younger brother Perry was killed while traversing a Canadian Pacific Railway crossing in Woodstock, ON. Single and only 29 years old, Perry was employed as a machinist with the Standard Tube Company at the time of his untimely death. His remains were transported to Nova Scotia, where he was laid to rest in St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery, Mitchell Bay, Halifax County.
Wallace’s older brother Owen was serving with the Canadian Army in Italy at the time of his death. He safely returned to Canada and made his home in Ecum Secum West, Halifax County. Owen married Camilla Sullivan Turner and raised a family of two daughters. He worked in the local fishery and later served with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires. Owen Barnard passed away suddenly at home on February 1, 1985 at age 66.
Wallace’s father Henry Barnard spent his later years in Ecum Secum Bridge. He passed away in the Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, on March 31, 1973, at 87 years of age and was also laid to rest in St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery, Mitchell Bay, Halifax County.
Photograph of Wallace Barnard's headstone courtesy of the War Graves Photographic Project.
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