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JONES 2 * 45 029 0010

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Pre-WWI Member of the Legislative Assembly representing the Islands 1913-1916; Deputy Minister of Public Works to 1913; Commanded BC Regiment 1922 - 1947; Former Vancouver City Chief of Police; Past Dominion Command President of the Canadian Legion; Vice President of the Canadian Legion during the time of the 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage which he attended; Final rank Major-General; Former ADC to the Governor-General of Canada; Director - Canadian Geographical Society; Life Member The Alpine Club (England) and American Alpine Club [A well known early mountain climber in BC]; Past President of the Alpine Club of Canada; Former Head of BC Power Commission.

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The only Canadian soldier to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Two Bars during the First World War. His awards are not recorded on his headstone. He served with the 72nd Battalion CEF, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. He later became a Constable with the British Columbia Provincial Police Force.

George Soles was the son of Richard Hilton Soles and Elizabeth Storie. He was born April 7, 1894 at Fort Stewart, Hastings County, Ontario and died July 26, 1945. His parents moved from Ontario to the Columbia Valley (Parson) around the turn of the century. His mother, Elizabeth, was a 1st cousin to my grandfather William J. Storie, late of Arnprior, ON. As well as to my aunt, Sarah (Store) O’Neill, mother to Percy, younger sister to William.

George attended school in Carlow Twp, Ontario with other members of the Storie and Soles families. The entire Soles family left Carlow Township (the were loggers and settled in the Columbia Basin (East Kootenay Region of British Columbia) to continue their trade. He enlisted into the Canadian Army in March 1915. At the time of his physical he stood 5' 8" tall, was of dark complexion with grey eyes and brown hair with a 38" chest when expanded. He was initially assigned to the 48th Battalion.

Narrative regarding his war experiences:

The original medal was awarded for an action at Cambri (France): in George’s own words, “There was a little village; I forget the name that we had taken. There were two trenches, a kid of a pincher like affair, skirting the village with a main trench in the centre of the village. I had been wounded in the head, and figured the best I could do was to make for a dressing station. I started back, threw away all my equipment, and was well into the village trench when I suddenly saw a German sentry. He was standing guard at the entrance of a deep dug-out. I had to pass him, but I didn’t have a rifle. I scouted back a few yards, found an abandoned German rifle, and sneaked back, put it against the German’s back, and said “Hands up”. He couldn’t understand English, but he knew the feel of cold steel. He dropped his rifle, and elevated. There was a pile of hand grenades near the sentry, and I could see the entrance to the dug-out. “How many”?” I signaled, holding up my hand fingers spread, and pointing to the dug-out with the rifle. Fritzie wasn’t dull. He put up eight fingers and two thumbs, four times, closed both hands, and then held up two fingers. “Forty-three, including the sentries. I thought well I might as well take them along, because if I don’t Fritizie will get me after I pass. So I pointed to a box of hand grenades standing near the sentry, and then motioned for him to tell his comrades to come up, or else. And he understood. He yelled something in German; I guess it meant come up and give up. Any, way, up came forty-two Germans, unarmed and with their hands reaching………I took them along and later was awarded the C.C.M. That’s all there was to it.”

From an article in a BCPP magazine. “Corporal Soles was awarded a bar to his medal by exposing himself to heavy fire from a British Tank. The latter, owing to mist and smoke, had by mistake opened fire on British troops, and Corporal Soles went out with his tin hat hoisted on his bayonet signaled the tank gunners, and re-directed their fire.”

“The third occasion on which Corporal Soles was decorated was when he was acting as Sergeant-Major of “A” Company. He had 120 men with him when he staged a brilliant counter attack on the Germans coming out victorious, but with only seventeen men and himself left to tell how it was done.”

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