In the long row behind "wait for me, daddy"
We all know the famous photo of the long row of men going to war; "Wait for me, daddy". Some are identified, but it's always interesting to know who are the others on that photo.
Well, a while ago we got in contact with Ron Heffernan and he told us that David Bayne was one of the soldiers in the long row of men. He is the soldier with the red arrow above his head. Ron told us the story of his wife's family and that there were five Bayne brothers who served in the Canadian Army. A very interesting story, so who were they?
The Bayne family were a large family who came from Fife in Scotland and lived in North Grant, Nova Scotia. There were nine sons and four sisters in this family.
At the outbreak of the Second World War five brothers enlisted in the Canadian Army.
Private David Thompson Bayne was born on 14 January 1919 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. He served with the Westminster Regiment and was killed in action on the 19th of February 1944 near Ortona. He is buried at Moro River Canadian War Cemetery.
David was part of a recce patrol under Lieutenant Edward Marlatt Mackenzie. In the vicinity of a house in the outskirts of Crecchio one of the patrol set off a booby trap. Private Jakel, who was with David and Lt Mackenzie, saw that David was unable to get on his feet due to wounds or concussion. The enemy was approaching from a nearby house and Jakel had to get away to avoid being captured. Lieutenant Mackenzie was also missing and it turned out that both David and him were killed in action.
David lived in New Westminster with his wife Lilian. His family lived on the East coast of Canada in North Grant, Nova Scotia.
David enlisted on the 25th of September 1939 in Mission, British Columbia.
Private Thomas Mitchell “Tom” Bayne was born on 12 September 1921 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. He joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and was transferred to the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment in 1944. He was killed on the 13th of December 1944 near Ravenna and is buried at Villanova Canadian War Cemetery.
According to the Lanarks war diary they were near Naviglio Osteria in the area around Prati, Ravenna. Here the B-Company came under a heavy counter attack at 07.30 hrs in the morning causing many casualties. An hour later the counter attack didn't make any progress and appeared to be dying out. Casualties were coming in all day. It is most likely that Thomas was one of the casualties
Tom's twin brother Wallace also enlisted but got lost during his basic training. He was lost for days and together with his subsequent illness he suffered a nervous breakdown. Back on duty this nervousness stayed and he was eventually discharged from the army.
George had also served overseas and got wounded in action and lost a part of his leg. He had many surgeries to remove the shrapnel in his body. George passed away in 2003.
Robert was the fourth brother serving. He served in Belgium in 1944 and survived the war.
The tragic story about Tom is that there was a written request on the 8th of December 1944 if he could go back to Canada for 30 days because of the serious illness of his father. His father had to be operated and there was a big chance he wouldn't survive this. Before this written request could even be looked at Tom was killed in action 5 days later. Their father passed away in 1967…
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