Oscar Lancelot Nicholls - Christmas Tragedy

World War One officially ended on November 11th 1918. However, the Great War continued on past that date for many Canadian soldiers. One such soldier was Oscar Lancelot Nicholls, cousin of my partner's paternal grandmother Adeline Lucinda Nicholls. 

Lance was born on February 6th 1894 in Bolsover Ontario, the son Robert Andrew Nicholls and Hannah Marie Dunn. He was the 2nd of 5 children. The family was listed in the 1911 Canadian Census:

Bolsover was a small town and Lance appeared to have ambitions beyond life on the farm. 

By 1913 he was living in Toronto working as a clerk at the Imperial Bank. 

His career in banking was cut short by the war  

Lance had transferred to Montreal and enlisted there on August 22nd 1917 at the age of 23. His C.E.F. is much slimmer than some others that I have reviewed as he he quickly transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on November 6th 1917.

Like many young men at the time he developed an interest in the new field of aviation. Canada did not have their own air force so aspiring Canadian pilots joined the British service. Lance was quickly sent to Hicks Field in Texas for training. According to Wikipedia Hicks Field operated as a training school from October 1917 through April 2018 for American and Canadian pilots. It was turned over to the Americans in 2018 for their exclusive use. 

His RAF file lists Lance's skills:

The Curtiss JN-4 was nicknamed the "Jenny". The Jenny was built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company and used to train pilots at Hicks Field. Here's what she looked like:

Lewis Machine guns were designed in the US and manufactured in the UK and used extensively by the British army in World War One. It was the first gun fired from an aeroplane. Here is a Lewis gun mounted at the front of a plane.

And a Vickers gun was a British machine gun that was also used from planes as in this picture.

Duly trained, Lance was dispatched to England where he was posted to the Central Flying School in Upavon, Wiltshire for advanced training. Upon arrival he and his fellow cadets were granted commission as a 2nd Lieutenant as noted in the June 14th 2018 London Gazette.

Lance was still posted at the Central Flying School when the war ended on November 11th 2018. Despite that, he was still considered to be on active duty. This clipping from the Toronto Star tells the sad story of what happened next:

Lance's family were no doubt excited and happy that he would be returning to them in 1919. What a sad truth for them. According to the death register cause of death was a fractured skull. His RAF file was also slim and gave no further details of the maneuver that led to his death. Many young men died at the Central Flying School before and after the Armistice - flying was a danger endeavour in those days. 

Lance was buried in Upavon. His heartbroken family erected a memorial to him in the Bolsover Cemetery.

Lance is listed in the Canadian Book of Remembrance. Today is December 22nd and that is the day that his page is displayed for public viewing. He is one of 1,388 Canadians who died while serving in the British Flying Services, 100 years ago.

Elizabeth Cowie Nicholls - exhaustion from melancholia

Mental health has become a popular topic lately.  People suffering from depression and other issues are becoming less stigmatized that they used to be. But this is a fairly recent phenomenon. One hundred years ago things were very different.

Elizabeth Jane Cowie was born on 24 September 1869 to John Cowie and Lucinda Dixon in Mara Township Ontario.  She was the second youngest of nine children. On 4 January 1893 she married Albert Nicholls in Thorah Ontario. Albert was a farmer and the couple settled on his section of the family property, Lot 22 on South Portage Road just outside Bolsover Ontario. The couple had 6 children – 5 daughters (Bertha, Gertrude, Adeline, Ruth and Alberta) and finally one son Carl. 

1911 Canadian Census, Library and Archives Canada

   

I don’t know a lot about their life but this map shows where they farmed in Eldon Township, Lot 22, south of Portage Road.

Township of Eldon 1916, Drawn & Published by A. E. Guidal

When Albert’s father John died in 1909 he left the property to Albert.

Tragically, Albert died young, passing away on 14 August 1913 due to Primary Lateral Sclerosis, a rare disease similar to what we know as Lou Gehrig’s disease today. This neuromuscular disease would have been a disastrous illness for a farmer. He and his family suffered for 17 months before he passed away. 

Archives of Ontario RG22-279, MS-1519

Albert died intestate but according to probate records he left his property to his widow Elizabeth to care for her minor children. 


From there, things went horribly wrong for the family. Imagine how difficult this situation was for a young widow, with no grown sons to help farm.

A handwritten note on the initial probate note that it was revoked. Elizabeth had intermeddled in the estate (acted as executor) but it appears that she was overwhelmed. The property was subsequently turned over to Willard Walton Dunlop, Inspector of Prisons and Public Charities for the Province of Ontario.

There was a reason for this - on 17 March 1914 Elizabeth was admitted to the Mimico Hospital for the Insane. Unfortunately, the records for this Hospital were not preserved so I have very little information about Elizabeth’s stay besides what was found in the admission register. She was patient #3161 and the 1526^th female admitted. She was a 44-year-old widow with her occupation noted as House Keeper.

Archives of Ontario RG 10-299

Contemporary postcard, picture taken at the Lakeshore Grounds

The Mimico Hospital was abandoned after it closed in 1979. Recently Humber College took over the property and restored the buildings and grounds for use as an educational facility. I had the opportunity to tour the grounds last summer. I don’t know which cottage Elizabeth was assigned to but it would have been a building such as this.

Picture taken by the writer 2017

Elizabeth was diagnosed with manic depression mixed -  this syndrome had features unique to both depression and mania – despair, fatigue, morbid or suicidal ideation, racing thoughts, pressure of activity and heightened irritability. In other words, she was bipolar.  This appeared to be a common diagnosis – most of the entries in the death register are some form of manic depression. Treatment was not what we would expect today. It could include immersing the patient in an ice-cold bath or electroshock therapy.

Electroshock machine. Picture taken by the writer 2017

I reviewed some case files at the Archives of Ontario that documented other cases of female patients. In most files there is mention that they are loud and abrasive and excited, with swearing being mentioned. Being quiet and submissive is obviously a good thing. The cause of their admissions varies, from being jealous of a 15 year old daughter having been impregnated by her own father (jealousy is not the way I’d describe this) to not recovering from the birth of a first child.

Archives of Ontario RG 10-299

Ancestry, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1936

On December 31^st 1918 Elizabeth died in the Mimico Hospital. Her admission had lasted 4 years, 9 months and 14 days. The cause of death was noted as exhaustion of melancholia. We know melancholia now as depression. It’s hard to imagine dying from depression. Without Elizabeth’s file we can’t know if she had an underlying health issue that caused her death. Perhaps she was so overwhelmed by her issues she simply lost the will to live. 

The death register notes that she was buried by friends. She was lucky. Many residents of the hospital were abandoned by their families and were buried in the hospital cemetery. There are many unmarked graves in this cemetery. It is a sad and poignant place.

Picture taken by writer 2017

Elizabeth was brought home and buried next to her husband in Bolsover.

Bolsover Cemetery, picture taken by writer 2016

All of the Nicholls children eventually moved to Toronto. In 1915 Adeline was the first when she arrived in the city at the age of 17. The 1916 City Directory shows her rooming on Jarvis Street. She was joined the next year by her sister Gertrude; both girls worked at Eaton’s. 

Toronto City Directory, Toronto Public Library

I wonder if they ever visited their mother and if that was the motivation to move to Toronto? Cabbagetown was a long way from Mimico and the trip by streetcar would have taken a long time. 

I also wonder who looked after the children when Elizabeth was admitted to the hospital. The eldest Bertha was 20, the youngest Carl was 7. Both Elizabeth and Albert came from large families so no doubt their siblings stepped in. 

Elizabeth Jane Cowie Nicholls was my spouse’s great-grand mother and we honour her struggles. Life was difficult for our ancestors and sometimes unbearable.