Dated: October 14, 1915
George Lee, Battle Scarred, has Returned; Tells of Ypres Fight Lethbridge is entertaining a hero today. He is the first Lethbridge man to return from the front with the marks of the famous battle of Ypres on his body -- that famous fight where the Canadians saved the day on April 22 last.
He is George Lee, a well-known footballer of Lethbridge, who left the city a year ago with the first Canadian contingent. He bears his honorable discharge from service as medically unfit for further work of the front.
With the scars of battle covering his body, George returned today to the city, after being for months and hospitals of England, and latterly in Québec City recovering from his wounds. He is the proud centre of a proud group of friends who are escorting him about the city today, and glance from those who already wearing the Kings uniform, but have yet to receive their baptism of fire.
The big Kentishman is very modest about himself and his wounds. But he is called upon a hundred times a day to unwrap the bandages from his arm and display the ugly gash a German bullet made when it crashed its way through the limb in the charge at St. Julian, were Colonel Boyle, the gallant leader of the 10th, himself met death.
George's right arm hangs in a grotesquely twisted manner at his side. The bullet which shattered it entered the forearm, and came out again on the other side just below the elbow. It was explosive bullet, and left a horrible wound. His other arm is stiff yet from a wound at the elbow. His right thigh is a mass of scars from shrapnel wounds.
George went into the trenches on February 10th last, as a member of the famous fighting Tenth, which won deathless glory in the battle in which he was wounded. On April 22, the day on which the big fight started, the 10th were holding the trenches on the right of the Ypres salient. At two in the morning they got the order to advance across the base of the salient towards the left, where the Germans were most active. They took up a position along a cross-roads just north of Ypres, and while holding that position were joined by the 16th Canadian Highlanders. The commanders of the two regiments conferred for a moment, then turned to the man and told them they were to prepare for he charge.
“Get your cheese-knifes (bayonets) fixed,” ordered Colonel Boyle. “There are a bunch of Germans over in that wood, and we've got to drive them out.”
By this time the Germans had started to dig themselves in the Canadian side of the wood. The two battalions, the 10th and the 16th were deployed into extended order, in four long rows, then told to charge. Away they went, cheering and yelling like madmen.
Lee had gone only 30 yards or so when he fell, wounded in several places. He lay there for a time, watching the battle in the wood. The Germans were sending up star lights, which made it bright as day. He could see the whole fight. It was a terrible affair. The Canadians, after the first rush, fell back somewhat, then went at it again, carrying the Germans through the wood and over the trenches beyond. They had repulsed the German attack but at an awful loss. The 10th came out with only 225 of their 1100 men.
Lee crawled back to the dressing station, where his wounds were dressed. He never saw the front again.
