Stubbins, Private Herbert

Service highlights

  • Service number: 127257
  • Rank: Private
  • Born: Brocklesby, 6 July 1887
  • Came to Canada: immigrated to the St. Marys area sometime after 1911
  • Civilian life: farm worker, employed by John Dunbar of Downie Township
  • Enlisted: B Company, 71st Battalion, at London on 12 October 1915
  • Posted: 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, 9 June 1916, then in Belgium after Mount Sorrel losses
  • Wounded: 7 May 1917, likely from shellfire
  • Died: 7 May 1917,
  • Burial: first buried in a temporary cemetery north of Vimy, later reinterred at Bois-Carre British Cemetery
  • Epitaph on headstone (submitted by his father): “To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.”
  • Commemorated: St. Marys Cenotaph

A Life and Service Remembered

Herbert Stubbins was born in Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, and later made a new start in Canada, settling in the St. Marys area sometime after 1911. He worked as a farm labourer and was employed by John Dunbar of Downie Township, the kind of steady, practical work that quietly holds a community together.

When he enlisted in October 1915, he joined the 71st Battalion and trained before sailing from Halifax on the SS Olympic on April 1st 1916. His time in England was short. Within weeks he was sent on to the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, a unit that had been badly hit at Mount Sorrel. From there he moved into a hard stretch of fighting that included the Somme in late 1916 and the Vimy Ridge battle in April 1917, where his unit captured ground that is now marked by the Canadian memorial.

Only a few weeks later, after the battalion relieved another unit in the front line trenches, Herbert was wounded on 7 May 1917. He was evacuated from the forward area but died later the same day.

He was first buried by comrades in a temporary cemetery north of Vimy. After the war, he was found, moved, and laid to rest in Bois-Carre British Cemetery at Thelus. The words chosen for his headstone by his father are simple and lasting, and they read like a promise kept: “To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.”

Herbert was survived by his parents, George Thomas and Fanny Stubbins of Winterton, and by a brother, Mr. F. Stubbins of Briggs, North Lincolnshire. He is also commemorated on the cenotaph in St. Marys as well as his fathers gravestone.

Major battles and operations

  • Posted to the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in June 1916 during the unit’s recovery after Mount Sorrel
  • Battle of the Somme, October 1916
  • Vimy Ridge, April 1917, including capture of the ground where Canadian National Vimy Memorial stands
  • Front line trench duty after relieving 43rd Battalion on 5 May 1917
  • Wounded 7 May 1917, died the same day

Learn More

Source: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canada/st-marys-cenotaph