‘History that’s been overlooked’: The First World War amputees who walked across Canada

CTV’s Joseph Bernacki has more on a ceremony marking Indigenous Veterans Remembrance Day in Winnipeg.

Nearly 60 years before Terry Fox’s famous cross-Canada journey, a pair of First World War veterans attempted a similar feat.

Their names were George Hincks and Marshall McDougall, and they both lost one of their legs while serving their country during the Great War.

According to Eric Story, an adjunct history professor at Wilfred Laurier University, Hincks’ injury came in 1915 when he took several bullets to the leg during the Second Battle of Ypres in western Belgium. After lying in a pool of his own blood for three days, he was captured by the Germans and brought to a prisoner of war camp, where his leg was amputated.

McDougall’s wound came a few years later, toward the end of the war during the Hundred Days Campaign. He also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg that led to amputation.

“As you can imagine, the battlefields of the First World War were terribly dangerous places,” Story said.

“Shells exploding, bullets flying. So, men like George Hincks and Marshall McDougall were constantly exposed to the threat of wounding and death. “

Despite their disabilities, the pair decided to walk across Canada as a way to prove their physical capabilities and advocate for the disabled community.

It all began with a bet

Hincks and McDougall’s quest began in early spring of 1923 at a local military hospital in Calgary, Alta. The story goes that one of their fellow patients issued a wager that no one in the hospital ward who had lost a leg would be able to walk from Calgary to Ottawa, Ont.

Hincks and McDougall decided they were up to the task and began to walk across the country in April 1923.

During their travels, the pair went through several smaller cities, including Saskatchewan’s Swift Current and Maple Creek. By June, they made it to Winnipeg and continued heading east.

However, the pair ultimately had to cut their journey short due to complications related to exhaustion and pain. McDougall stopped in Kenora, Ont., while Hincks ended his walk further east in the Thunder Bay area.

Their message of justice

Story, who is also a post-doctorate fellow in the department of history at Western University, explained that one of the conditions of the wager was that the two veterans had to self-finance the journey. To do this, McDougall played piano for the communities they stopped in and Hincks gave lectures to the audiences.

“They were basically a two-man travelling troupe—one playing piano, the other giving public lectures,” Story said.

“It was in those lectures that you really got a sense of what these two men were hoping to tackle.”

Story noted that during Hincks’ lectures he touched on various topics, including the challenges and pain related to prosthetic limbs, the problems disabled veterans were dealing with in finding work, as well as pensions and the need for the government to recognize the struggles faced by veterans with amputations.

Hincks also highlighted the topic of visible disability and the challenges that come with it.

“What he meant by the problem of visible disability is that in the early 20th century, people with disabilities at large were viewed as unproductive members of society and that they were lazy, they were weak, and they were ultimately incapable of contributing to the economy and supporting a family,” Story said.

Through Hincks and McDougall’s cross-Canada trek, Story notes they were trying to dispel that ingrained bias against people with disabilities and prove that they were very much productive members of society.

The Winnipeg connection

Though neither Hincks nor McDougall had a personal connection to Winnipeg, it was an important stop on their journey.

According to Story, it was in Winnipeg where Hincks gave one of his most memorable speeches at the Fort Garry Hotel.

“They arrived in Winnipeg on the hottest day of their hike. It was a blistering late spring day,” he said.

“That was when George Hincks, for the first time, at least that I could see in the newspaper coverage, talked about the issue of visible disability.”

Story noted this speech was one of the most interesting parts of Hincks’ activism, as it shifted the onus from disabled people needing to overcome their struggles to Canadian society needing to confront its inherent bias.

Have things changed?

Debbie Lowther, CEO and co-founder of the non-profit VETS Canada, said present-day veterans still face many challenges, including homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, and a loss of identity.

“Being in the military is tough. The divorce rate is high,” she said.

“Then when you get out and add all of the stress that you’re already experiencing and not being able to provide for your family as you would like to, families break down and you end up in crisis.”

She added that some people continue to make assumptions about veterans. Despite some improvements, the type of discrimination Hincks and McDougall faced still exists today.

“We see it sometimes when we’re working with a veteran to try to get them into housing,” she told CTV News.

“Sometimes we’ll be talking to landlords, and it can go both ways. Sometimes people will say, ‘Oh, a veteran. They’ll be a great, reliable tenant.’ And then other people…they make assumptions that they all have PTSD; therefore, they’re all violent.”

Story said he thinks the message of disability rights that Hincks and McDougall were trying to spread is still relevant today, noting the Canadian Disability Benefit that was passed this past summer. The federal program provides monthly financial support for low-income Canadians living with disabilities.

“I think the fight that George Hincks and Marshall McDougall were fighting when they went on that protest hike in 1923 continues to resonate all the way up to the present.”

Remembering those who lived

With Remembrance Day coming up next week, Story said it’s important to honour not only those who died serving our country, but also those who survived.

“Just a remembrance that veterans, soldiers who served in the military, are not just the people who have died, but people who have survived and continue to lead lives today – both in the past and the present.”

He added the story of Hincks and McDougall highlights the long history of disability rights activism, which many believe originated after the Second World War.

“The story of George Hincks and Marshall McDougall speaks to a much earlier history of disability rights activism that dates back to the era of the First World War,” he said.

“It’s a history that’s been overlooked. I think their story should remind us that disability rights activism in Canada has a much longer history than we have often attributed to it.”