Far From Home: More Tales of Migrant Soldiers at Tyne Cot

Join CWGF Guide Alex Carter for the second part of his blog series sharing the stories of migrant soldiers commemorated at Tyne Cot.

Tyne Cot Casualty Stories

Soldiers of Canada

Image: Two Canadian soldiers wearing trench waders walk along a muddy road during the Battle of the Ancre Heights, November 1916 (© IWM (CO 1018))

Welcome to part two of this blog series investigating stories of migrant soldiers commemorated at Tyne Cot. In the following paragraphs, I will continue to investigate the topic by discussing the lives of two exceptional migrant soldiers fighting for the Canadian army.

If you want a general introduction to migration and the First World War, check out part one first, which provides the essential context of the topic.

A diverse army

Image: Officers of the Canadian 19th Infantry Battalion, circa May 1918 (© IWM (CO 2680))

The Canadian contribution to the Great War was significant and unique. 

Canadians turned out in great numbers to support the war effort. 430,000 Canadians served overseas over the 4 years of the war, out of a population of just 8 million. Over 66,000 of these men were killed.

These hundreds of thousands of troops that constituted the 4 division-strong Canadian Corps were considered some of the best on the Western Front. 

Consistently capable leadership and tough soldiers meant that they had earned a reputation as an elite fighting force by the end of the war. 

Amongst the most famed efforts was the fighting at 2nd Ypres, Passchendaele, and, of course, the much-mythologised battle of Vimy Ridge, which historians 
have subsequently classified as one of the single most important moments for Canadian national identity.

However, despite the events at Vimy Ridge fomenting nationalism at home, the Canadian contingent was also very well known for its international character. 

At the outbreak of war, the Canadian state was less than 40 years old and was experiencing uniquely high levels of migration from all over the world. Of the 38 known nationalities commemorated at Tyne Cot, a high proportion of them can be found buried under the maple leaf.

Much like in New Zealand (discussed in part 1 of this series), the vast majority of these emigrants came from the British Isles, particularly Ireland. Irish men, women and children of both Protestant and Catholic creeds had been emigrating to the Canadian cities and countryside for centuries, in the process building and leading local and national communities that shaped, and still shape, the Canada we know today.

One of these families was mine. My great-grandfather Thomas White, a second-generation Irish emigrant, fought with the Canadian Railway Troops at Passchendaele and lived to see another day. 

His cousin, Edward Sanderson White, was not so lucky. He fell in October 1918 near Cambrai and is buried there in Sains-les-Marquions British Cemetery. 

‘Splendid man and soldier’ – Private Robert Waring

Image: Robert (front row, second from left) with his award-winning Battalion football team (Canadian Virtual War Memorial)

At Tyne Cot, another such Irish soldier is buried under the maple leaf – Private Robert Waring. 

I stumbled across Robert’s story when I noticed that a group of visitors had planted the flag of Ulster at his grave. After witnessing several observant Northern Irish tourists puzzled at this, I decided to investigate Robert’s story myself.

Belfast origins

Robert was born in 1885 in Dunmurry, near Belfast, one of nine siblings. It is unclear exactly when or why, but at some point, he made the decision to cross the Atlantic to Edmonton, Alberta, where he lived at the time of his enlistment with his wife Isabella. 

It is likely that Robert moved to find work, like the majority of emigrants to Canada at the time. 

He enlisted into the 49th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in January 1915, at the age of 29. 

Interestingly, papers show his wife Isabella as having addresses listed in both Belfast and Edmonton, suggesting both that Robert enlisted soon after settling in the country and that he met and married Isabella in Belfast.

From shipbuilder to passenger

On June 4th 1915, Robert left his family and trade as a shipbuilder to sail with his battalion for England, and after his training landed in Boulogne in October 1915, ready to be dispatched to the Front. 

It seems that he quickly made a name for himself within his unit as a popular and active soldier. The Fortyniner – the official magazine of the 49th Battalion - chronicled his exploits as a member of the ‘unbeatable’ battalion football team. 

Similarly, the small text of a picture of his platoon at the fairgrounds lauded him as a ‘splendid man and soldier’, evidently held in high esteem by his comrades. It is often said that the depth of friendships forged in war far transcend those of peacetime, and it seems that Robert’s case was no exception.

Mount Sorrel – the 3rd Division’s baptism of fire

Fast-forward to 2nd June 1916, and Robert found himself involved in the chaotic fighting at Mount Sorrell, near Zillebeke. 

In this infamous Canadian defensive effort, the 1st and 3rd Canadian Divisions absorbed a destructive localised German assault on their position designed to distract allied efforts from the buildup at the Somme. 

Counted amongst the casualties was Major-General Malcolm Mercer (commander of the 3rd Division), the most senior Canadian officer to be killed during the war.

A chaotic end

Image: Robert's Grave in Tyne Cot with Ulster Flag and Wreath laid by the Brantwood Military Heritage Association, Belfast (Picture: Alex Carter)

Although Robert’s exact date of death is unknown, he was most likely killed during the poorly coordinated Canadian counterattack on the 3rd June.

Poor communication led to units attacking at 7am in broad daylight, causing heavy casualties. 

The overall absence of stable leadership after General Mercer’s death meant the men paid dearly, with 3750 casualties in the two days of 2-4 June alone.

Robert was later found by recovery units in an unmarked graved, recognised by his identity disc, and now lies in Plot 64, Row A, Grave 5 at Tyne Cot.

He was one of thousands of Irishmen who served and paid the ultimate price for Canada. 

From Moravia to Manitoba (via Houston): Pioneer Dominick Naplava

Image: Pioneer Dominick Naplava (Canadian Virtual 

Despite the established importance of emigrants from the English-speaking world to the Canadian (and the broader dominions’) war effort, dozens of other migration routes were exploited by those eager to enlist. 

I will now spotlight one that was surely only trodden once,  as part of an altogether more far-flung life story.

This story is that of the three-stage migration journey of Dominick Naplava. Dominick’s life and military service was a series of ‘firsts’. This is because he was a man of three nations – Czechia, Texas, USA and Canada.

It is therefore highly likely that Dominick holds the distinction of being the only Czech-born Texan buried under the maple leaf in any Commonwealth cemetery. He is also widely thought to be the first Texan resident killed in the Great War. Let’s look at his incredible story in more detail.

Born in ‘enemy territory’

Dominick’s life began in 1892 in the village of Zadovice, Moravia. In the modern day, the village lies in southeastern Czechia, near the borders with Austria and Slovakia. 

However, at the time it lay within the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany’s strongest ally, meaning Dominick was only ‘Czech-born’ in the loosest sense.

A region with a distinct culture and history, Moravia had been subject to Habsburg rule for centuries before it was incorporated into the new nation state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. 

A Houston newspaper article claims that Dominick’s wish to avenge his community for their mistreatment by the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the main driver for his enlistment.

A move to Texas 

It is unclear exactly why or when Dominick decided to move to America, but the same newspaper article claims he had been living in the US for 6 years prior to his death. He had reportedly been employed as a cook in a Houston Country Club for less than a year before resigning his position to enlist.

However, his attestation papers show that he enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, rather than in the US. Whilst this may seem highly unusual, it was a surprisingly common phenomenon. 

Because the US didn’t join the allied war effort until April 1917, nearly 40,000 eager American citizens moved across the porous border to enlist with the Canadian Army over the duration of the war. 

‘Avenging his country’ in Flanders

Naplava was one of these men. He enlisted in February 1917 at 25 years old, embarking from Halifax to Liverpool in March and arriving in France in September. Just before his arrival there, he transferred to the 107th Battalion, Canadian Pioneers. 

Known as the ‘Timber Wolf’ battalion, it was one of many units responsible for trench and transport infrastructure on the front.

Dominick’s time in Belgium was fleeting. Just over a month after his arrival in Europe, he was killed by a bomb from a German airplane that fell onto his working party, engaged in digging a trench near Wieltje, St.Jan. 

His tragically short service life was barely befitting of the long and arduous journey he made to enlist.

Remembered in three nations

Image: Dominick headstone at Tyne Cot, with his personal inscription in Czech (Photo: Alex Carter)

Dominick is now commemorated at Tyne Cot as part of the Special Memorial for several men who were buried at three smaller cemeteries and their graves later destroyed. 

Astoundingly, despite the tragically short nature of Dominick’s service, his life of ‘firsts’ didn’t end with his death.

This is because his name is commemorated in not just two, but three countries. 

It is carved not only at Tyne Cot and on the Houston WWI Memorial, but is also remembered in his home country, where his old headstone (replaced in 2013) stands in the Military Museum in Prague. 

This act of symbolic repatriation is highly unusual, as CWGC regulations state that retired headstones must be destroyed to preserve the principle that every soldier is commemorated once. 

Perhaps, in this case, an exception was made for an exceptional individual.

A pioneer in more than just rank, Dominick’s story may have been singular, but also perfectly encapsulates the tenacity, steel and devotion to service - transcending national boundaries - demonstrated by migrant soldiers across the Great War. 

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