Black, Private John (Jack) Allison

126209 Private Jack Alison Black

Service highlights

  • Born: 4 March 1895, Owen Sound, Ontario
  • Came to St. Marys: likely 1912, when his father (an employee of the St. Marys Cement Company) was transferred from Durham
  • Civilian work: apprentice machinist in the Divisional Railway shop in Stratford
  • Enlisted: 7 September 1915, Stratford, Ontario (B Company, 71st Canadian Infantry Battalion)
  • Sailed overseas: 1 April 1916 on the Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic)
  • Units in Europe: 71st Battalion; posted to a reserve unit, likely the 74th Battalion; then transferred to the 2nd Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles
  • Died of wounds: 25 September 1916, France
  • Burial: Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension, France
  • Commemorated: St. Marys cenotaph

A Life and Service Remembered

Jack Alison Black was born in Owen Sound on 4 March 1895 and likely arrived in St. Marys in 1912, when his father’s work with the St. Marys Cement Company brought the family into town. By the time war reshaped daily life, Jack was building a future in skilled work, apprenticing as a machinist in the Divisional Railway shop in Stratford.

He enlisted with B Company of the 71st Canadian Infantry Battalion at Stratford on 7 September 1915. The winter that followed was crowded and intense. Stratford’s armory was small, and it is hard to picture how so many men could be processed and housed through its basement during the 1915–1916 buildup. At the same time, the 110th (Perth) Battalion was forming, and with nearly a thousand soldiers in residence, Stratford had become a true garrison city.

The 71st crossed the Atlantic on 1 April 1916 aboard the Olympic. After arriving in England on 11 April, Jack was posted on 28 May to a reserve unit, likely the 74th Battalion, to complete the infantry training syllabus then in effect. His first direct exposure to the war’s violence came quickly. In early June, the 3rd Canadian Division was hit hard at Mount Sorrel, Belgium, with crushing bombardment and costly fighting that rippled across the formations moving men forward.

For Jack, the war accelerated. He left the 74th on 8 June, reached the Canadian Base Depot in France on 9 June, and reported to the 2nd Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles at Godswarsvelde, Belgium, on the 11th. In doing so, he avoided the notorious “Bull Ring” at Le Havre that caught so many men in exhausting cycles of training and holding. Over the following months, the 2nd CMR saw the kind of “routine” front-line duty that was never peaceful: periodic tours under sniping and shelling, and long stretches of strain. On 23 August 1916, German shelling near Hill 60 was particularly severe, and Jack was treated for deafness soon after.

Not long after, the battalion shifted from the Ypres Salient down toward the Somme. On 25 September 1916, the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles went “over the top” to attack a German position known as the Fabeck Graben. The assault failed, and Jack was wounded, likely in the opening moments. He was carried back through the Regimental Aid Post and on to the 2/1 (South Midland) Casualty Clearing Station, where he died later that day.

Major battles and operations

  • England training and posting: April–May 1916
  • Mount Sorrel sector (3rd Canadian Division fighting): June 1916
  • Ypres Salient, Hill 60 area: summer 1916 (including severe shelling on 23 August)
  • Somme sector, attack on “Fabeck Graben”: 25 September 1916 (wounded and died)

Learn More

Walters Family Tree (image/document): https://waltersfamilytree.net/tng/showmedia.php?mediaID=5195&medialinkID=6269
Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM): https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-vi
Legion Magazine
https://legionmagazine.com/slaughter-on-the-somme/
The Fallen by Richard Holt, 126209 Private J.A. Black, pg 7