Note 10 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
The 4th Canadian Battalion was under continuous fire at Festubert through ten days and eleven nights. On the morning of May 27th all communication wires between the fire-trench and the Battalion and Brigade Headquarters were cut by enemy fire, and at nine o'clock Pte. (now Lieutenant) W. E. F. Hart volunteered to mend the wires. Hart was with Major (now Lieut.-Colonel) M. J. Colquhoun at the time, and they had together twice been partially buried by shell fire earlier in the morning. Pte. Hart mended eleven breaks in the wires, and re-established communication with both Battalion and Brigade Headquarters. He was at work in the Orchard, under shrapnel, machine-gun, and rifle fire, without any cover, for an hour and thirty minutes. Hart, who is now signalling officer of the 4th Battalion, is a young man, and the owner of a farm near Brantford, Ontario. He has been with the Battalion since August, 1914.