One-hundred years since one of Canada’s greatest victories, the soldiers of Vimy Ridge have disappeared. Their stories from the front lines have faded as well. But, a newly discovered diary has brought one man’s journey back to life and inspired new pride in his family.
“If this is found on the field of battle by some kind friend, forward to Mrs. J. Fairholm 10241 – 113 St. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. And thanks very much.”
So begins the diary of Private Joseph “Goldie” Fairholm in the year 1917. It’s a small leather-bound book with one single-lined page dedicated to every day.
January 1 was a Monday. Fairholm notes his New Year’s resolutions are much different than in years past.
“To kill as many Huns as I had the chance,” he writes. “And I have made up my mind to return safely from ‘doing my bit.'”
Those resolutions set the tone for the year that follows as Fairholm details his journey through Europe with the 49th Battalion of Edmonton. As a runner, Fairholm’s main duty was to deliver messages in the trenches. He describes life on the front line, both the horrors and the humours.
“Football match in the evening,” he writes in pen on May 9. “After an exciting game, D Coy (D Company) won 2-1.”
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Four days later, he writes in a different pen.
“Fritz sent a little gas over – a new kind, the smell was like a bamboo grove of the tropics,” he writes on Sunday, May 13. “All the same, turned everybody sick at the stomach.”
On June 13, he writes of a near miss with an enemy bullet that hit him in the helmet.
“Evidently, the ‘clank’ I heard,” wrote Fairholm. “One-eighth of an inch or less and the sniper would have got me between the eyes!!”
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Fairholm did in fact keep his resolution to himself. He returned home to Alberta after the war, eventually settling near Edson where he died in 1976.
The diary, however, did not come home with him. It was not returned to Mrs. J. Fairholm (Goldie’s mother) either. It was lost. It was not seen for about 98 years before a man in Wales found it while going through boxes of his father’s old things. How it got there will forever remain a mystery.
“To have this resource to see what he was feeling and experiencing was just was fantastic,” said Laura Ferris, a digital archivist at the University of British Columbia.
When the diary was returned to Canada it ended up in her hands. She took on the tedious task of digitizing the entire thing. When she was finished, the original diary was sent to Fairholm’s only surviving daughter, Isobelle, in Ontario.
“For her to have a piece of her father sounded like it was really important to her,” Ferris said. “(She is) also to be able to pass that down to her own family now.”
Ferris has kept a copy for herself. She has her own connection. Goldie Fairholm is her great-great uncle.
“A connection to a family member — it felt just so much more important to me and special.”
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A point of pride of Ferris and for Fairholm is his role at Vimy Ridge.
“There are some moments where he is quite proud of the contribution that he and his battalion were able to make both in Vimy Ridge and the grander scheme,” Ferris said.
“At 5:30 a.m. this morning we made our advance on Vimy Ridge,” begins Fairholm’s entry on April 9. “The drive was a complete surprise to the Huns who had no comparative come-back.”
Perhaps the most interesting entry comes weeks before, on March 21. It’s there, at the end of several blank pages that it appears Fairholm went back to write retrospectively.
“During this vacant space behind, we rehearsed the whole detail of our now famous Victory of Vimy Ridge,” he writes. “Even in the days after that battle, it appears the soldiers already knew the place it would hold in history.”
“It says our victory at Vimy Ridge, just capitalized everything,” Ferris said. “It felt like it was already a bit momentous.”
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The Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum has been given a copy of Goldie Fairholm’s diary.
Ian Edwards is a volunteer historian at the museum. He says the blank pages and the entry written after the fact make sense. Soldiers were often warned not to keep diaries near the front lines.
“If they got captured, there might me information in that diary that would be of use to the Germans,” Edwards said.
He believes the blank pages in March are likely during the final preparations for Vimy Ridge.
“One thing that led to that victory where others had failed was the effort in practising,” Edwards said. “They practised for six weeks before the battle.”
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Edwards has been working with the museum to commemorate the soldiers from Edmonton who contributed to the effort at Vimy Ridge. He helped produce 12 cards with the pictures and descriptions of different soldiers that will be handed out during their Vimy 100 event on April 9.
Goldie Fairholm is one of them.
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