Volume 20 www.legionnl.com 17 Herbert John Vokey was the son of Philip and Emily Vokey of Little Harbour, a small fishing community near British Harbour, Trinity Bay, both now abandoned. At 19 years of age Herbert travelled to the CLB Armoury in St. John’s and enlisted in the Newfoundland Regiment. He was sworn in on 27 April 1916 for “the duration of the war, but for no more than one year”, no one expecting the war to last any longer than that. He was issued Regimental Number 2614, and his pay would be $1.10 per day, of which he allotted 50 cents to his mother, Emily. Herbert completed his training at Pleasantville and sailed from St. John’s with the 9th Draft on 19 July on board HMT Sicilian. The ship had left Montreal on the 16th with soldiers of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, also destined for Liverpool, England. Upon completion of further training at the Regimental Depot in Ayr, Scotland, Private Vokey left for the Western Front as part of the 12th Reinforcement Draft to the 1st Newfoundland Battalion, departing Southampton on 11 October 1916. The 12th Draft would spend a few days at the British Expeditionary Force Base Depot in Rouen, France, receiving final training before joining the Regiment. Private Vokey’s contingent of one officer and 226 other ranks joined the 1st Battalion near Gueudecourt on October 22nd. The Regiment had been active in the front line attack of Hilt Trench, Gueudecourt, on the 12th of October and had remained in the area of the Somme since. Although they were regularly in and out of the front line, they had not directly engaged the enemy, but did incur many casualties due to the relentless bombings. The Battalion was withdrawn from active service around the middle of December and would spend the next six weeks well back from the front lines resting and no doubt enjoying their Christmas break. On 23 January 1917 they were shown in records as “returned to active duty”, although they were already back in the trenches and by that time had incurred casualties. By February 23rd Private Vokey and his comrades were involved fighting at Sailly-Saillisel, in the Somme District of France. Herbert John Vokey continued....
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