From a Stretcher Handle: The World War I Journal and Poems of Pte Frank Walker

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

From a Stretcher Handle is both a soldier’s personal account of the
Great War and a fond homage to him by his daughter, who edited his
diaries. Several of Walker’s poems are also included in the volume.

Four days after the outbreak of war, Walker volunteered for service
overseas with the Canadian Field Ambulance. After only one month of
training, he and his comrades of the First Canadian Contingent sailed
for England. Within weeks, the green troops were in France, fighting on
the frontline. Walker served as a stretcher bearer, struggling through
cloying mud, often under heavy fire, while carrying wounded men to
first-aid stations.

The terse daily entries show how quickly men adjusted to the horrific
conditions of trench warfare—constant shellfire, rain, mud, filth, and
everywhere the imploring screams of wounded men. Time and again,
Walker’s journal matter-of-factly describes grisly sights and valiant
attempts to save lives amid mass slaughter. One of his poems conveys the
full horror: “By up-torn trees and crater rims / Along the rim they
lie, / Sprawled in the mud, with out-spread limbs, / Wide staring at the
sky, / Why to the sky do they always stare, / Questioning heaven in dumb
despair? / Why don’t they moan, or sigh?”

One finishes this slim book wishing there had been more journal
accounts to provide even greater understanding of a brave and modest
soldier’s battlefield experiences.