Sidney Thomas Hampson

L/Cpl Sidney Thomas HAMPSON, #426313, of the 10th Bn CEF, was my grandfather. Born in 1893 in England, Sid immigrated, growing up in Moose Jaw from the age of five. With only an elementary school education, he began working as a young teenager in local stores and at 16 joined the CPR, working as a machinist on locomotives. When war broke out, he enlisted in Jan 1915 with the 46th Bn in Moose Jaw and trained in Sewell Camp in Manitoba, before entraining to Montreal for shipping overseas. He was transferred to the 10th Bn and was a replacement after the 2nd Battle of Ypres when the 10th were decimated. He arrived in the front lines end of summer 1915, serving in most of the major battles of the Canadian Corps from that time, including Vimy Ridge in the first wave of the attack. He was also gassed. In late July 1918, he was wounded, shot through the shoulder on a trench raid prior to the “Last 100 Days” pursuit to Mons, and spent the rest of the war in hospital in England. They never got all the bullet fragments out of his shoulder, and he suffered from pain with a small pension for the rest of his life. But this did not stop him, and he returned to the CPR, working for 50 years and earning a gold pass for free travel on any CPR train afterwards. He also served as Legion President at his local branch, chaired the school board of trustees in Moose Jaw, and raised two boys (one my father). He was hugely involved in the community and later returned to Vimy in 1936 for the unveiling of the monument, with 6,000 other veterans. Sadly, he passed away immediately after retiring and never got to use his gold pass for travel. His story has inspired me my whole life to succeed and give back to my community.