#Story
The Halifax 100
A small collective group of Haligonians (someone from Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada), signed up to serve in the British Army prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Two such men were killed in action in May 1940 and are buried here at the cemetery. So how and why they came to England to join the army?
The story of the men from Halifax, known as the ‘Halifax 100’, dates to the late 1930s. A British army officer Colonel R. B. Willis Distinguished Service Order, former officer of the Manchester Regiment, was in Canada assigned to the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was a veteran of the Boar War (South Africa) and the First World War. Groups of young Haligonians had met the Colonel around 1937. After finishing their educations, they lacked jobs and wished for adventure. With the assistance of the Colonel, they travelled to England, to the Ladysmith Barracks, Preston. Here they signed up and joined the Manchester Regiment, British Army.
The men were split between the 1st and 2nd Battalions. Those assigned to the 1st Battalion travelled to the the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, while those in the 2nd Battalion remained in England. At the outbreak of war in 1939, the 2nd Battalion was mobilised and sent to France. They landed in Cherbourg on 23 September 1939 as part of the British 2nd Infantry Division. They went to the French-Belgian border where they camped between Orchies and Saint-Amand, France.
On 10 May 1940, German forces launched a three-pronged attack westwards into the Netherlands. The British deployed to the ‘Dyle Line’ to prevent German advances. However, a fatal blow through the Ardennes saw the German forces exploit a weak area in the western Allied defensive lines. The 2nd Manchester’s were redeployed to counter this on 27 May and moved to the Canal de la Lys. The 2nd Manchester’s alongside other battalions in the area were quickly overcome by superior German forces. On 28 May the order was given for those remaining to withdraw to Dunkirk for evacuation. The battalion suffered significant losses with 223 killed, wounded or missing.
During these battles, Private William ‘Bill’ Douglas Adams was killed. He was reported missing in action on 10 May, his body found and buried on 29 May. His exact date of death cannot be ascertained, his date of death on the headstone is 10 to 29 May 1940. He was initially buried in the town cemetery of Locon, 17km west of the start of the Canal de la Lys, but was reinterned to Dunkirk Town Cemetery on 26 May 1948. Private Thomas McCarthy was killed on 21 May 1940, he was originally buried in a field grave before being reinterned here on 7 April 1948. Thomas was from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Both men were from the ‘Halifax 100’.