The First World War claimed the lives of two sitting Canadian MPs, but until now, only one had been immortalized in the House of Commons.
Killed in Belgium during the Battle of Mount Sorrel in June 1916, Lt.-Col. George Baker was commemorated with a statue in 1924. Lt-Col. Samuel Simpson Sharpe, however, had largely been forgotten after his death by suicide in 1918 following his service.
“The community has really wanted to see this historical wrong corrected,” Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell said in the House of Commons Thursday.
Sharpe was first elected as a Conservative MP in the now-defunct riding of Ontario North in 1908. In 1915, during the First World War and his second term in office, Sharpe sought to abet the war effort by raising a battalion near his home in Uxbridge, Ont.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force's 116th Battalion headed to Europe in the summer of 1916, where, led by Sharpe, it participated in monumental battles, like those that captured Vimy Ridge and Hill 70, as well as the vicious Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, which claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Canadians and wounded nearly 12,000 more.
Following Passchendaele, where Sharpe earned a medal for gallantry, he was re-elected in absentia -- but he would never return to his seat in Parliament.
“He was a fatherly figure,” Canadian War Museum historian Tim Cook told CTV News. “He was about 44, 45-years-old at the time and he had these young guys, 20, 21, 22, and he felt very much that their lives were a part of his.”
As more and more of those young men died under Sharpe’s command, he experienced a mental breakdown. At the time, he was said to be suffering from “nervous shock.” Today, he likely would have been diagnosed with PTSD.
Sharpe was eventually transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, were the 45-year-old died after leaping through a window on May 25, 1918.
Today, a day shy of the 100th anniversary of his death, the forgotten war hero has finally received his due after MPs voted unanimously to remember Sharpe’s sacrifice with a bronzed relief that will be installed next to Baker’s statue, forever honouring the selfless politician and recognizing the service of all Canadian veterans who struggle with psychological injuries.
The piece of art was created in 2015 by Tyler Briley, a sculptor and former first responder who also suffers from PTSD.
“I think that the sculpture will serve as a beacon -- a beacon of light and hope for people affected,” Briley told CTV News.
Conservative MP and former Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole first launched the campaign to recognize Sharpe in 2015. Speaking to CTV News, O’Toole said that he’s elated that that the plaque, which had been hidden away for years, will now hang in the building where Sharpe proudly served his country.
“We’re making sure he will return to Parliament Hill, right behind us,” O’Toole said from the House of Commons’ Centre Block.
With a report from CTV News Parliamentary Correspondent Kevin Gallagher and files from The Canadian Press.
