Private Albert Hitchman

William (sr) and Fanny Hitchman lived in the Cottage Wyndley Lane in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. They later moved to Redditch Worcestershire, England. They had a daughter and three sons – William (jr), Frank, born on May 30, 1891 and Albert, who was born on December 1, 1895. William (sr) and two sons were employed as spade and shovel handle makers in the edge tool manufacturing business.

Frank and William (jr) immigrated to Canada together in 1912. In 1913 their parents, William (sr) and Fanny, came to Paris to join two sons and brought with them Florence, then 17, and Albert.

Albert and Frank were boarding with Mrs. Arthur Barrowcliffe at 24 Main Street, Paris when they enlisted. Frank was a member of the Congregational Church and Men’s Society and played on the YMCA basketball team.

Albert and his brother, Frank, a knitter, both enlisted on September 14, 1915 with 84th Battalion. A few weeks after William (jr), a machinist, enlisted with 38th Dufferin Rifles on July 14, 1915.

Albert and Frank were certified in Niagara Camp in September, three days apart. They left Canada together on June 16, 1916, on the S.S. Empress of Britain and disembarked in England on the 29th. On July 3, they were both transferred to 73rd Royal Highlanders Battalion, Canadian Infantry and on August 12, they proceeded for service overseas, arriving at Havre next day in the same platoon. The battalion arrived at the Somme battlefield in mid-October 1916, after the main Battle of Courcelette had concluded, and were involved in later trench operations and general duties, enduring heavy enemy artillery fire and the notoriously muddy conditions that characterized the late stages of the Somme offensive.

The 73rd Battalion's experience in the trenches at Courcelette involved the harsh, grinding reality of sustained trench warfare rather than the initial assault phase of the battle. The battalion experienced casualties during its time in the trenches around Courcelette, including Frank Hitchman, who was killed in action in the trenches of Courcelette on November 11, 1916.

Albert was still in the same platoon, assisting with the same machine gun, when his brother Frank was killed at his side.

Later in November, still at the Somme front, Albert was partly buried by the explosion of a High Explosive shell. He was rendered unconscious for two hours and was sent behind the front line for rest. After two weeks he carried on with his unit until February, 1917 when he was diagnosed and evacuated with Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (P.U.O.), which refers to a high fever that the medical staff could not immediately determine the cause for. This condition was common among soldiers, particularly during trench warfare, and was often associated with trench fever, which had similar symptoms. It was also called neurasthenia and defective vision. In Albert’s case, the condition might also been caused by the explosion of the High Explosive shell.

Between January 20 and February 28, 1917 Albert was sick with influenza and treated in France until February 28, when he was transferred to England with trench fever. March 2 was the first mention in his records of P.U.O. On March 14, he was transferred to the 18th Quebec Regiment, Shoreham. On March 30 he was transferred to 1st Quebec Regimental Depot.

On July 17, he was examined and discharged by a medical board with a disability that put him into Category C3 (sedentary service at home) and then he was discharged from the 3rd Canadian Convalescent Depot, Seaford, then to the 20^th Reserve Battalion in Shoreham. On August 14, 1917 he was transferred to the 1st Quebec Regimental Depot, and then to the Canadian Discharge Depot, Buxton.

Albert embarked for Canada from Liverpool on August 26, 1917, aboard S.S. Carmania. From October 2, 1917 to February 19, 2018 he was treated in Whitby Military Hospital for Neurasthenia, an outdated medical term meaning “nervous exhaustion”. Today, it would be called PTSD.

In the 1921 Canadian census, Albert, then 26, was single is living with the family of his brother, William Henry Hitchman. On January 7, 1922, Albert Hitchman, then a millwright working Hamilton, married Alice Amelia Woodward, a machine operator from Hamilton.

Private Albert Hitchman died at Hamilton General Hospital on April 30, 1965.

Both brothers endured the same battles on the Somme front. Frank died there on November 11, 1916 and is commemorated at the Vimy Memorial. Albert suffered greatly and endured his own hell which started at the same time and continued much longer. There was no memorial for him.