Buckam Singh's combat days were now over and he would have to fight his battle now on the hospital bed and in isolation. On May 5th he was discharged from the Hastings hospital and preparations were made to return him home along along with other TB patients in quarantine. On May 11, 1917 Buckam Singh made the voyage home across the atlantic aboard the hospital ship HMHS Letitia which docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Letitia was a handsome medium sized 8991 tons gross liner. She began sailing as a passenger ship, serving the North Atlantic from Glasgow to Québec and Montréal. With the outbreak of the First World War, she was commandeered by the British Admiralty and designated a hospital ship. She was placed under the command of the Royal Canadian Naval Medical Services and she earned the prefix HMHS, for His Majesty's Hospital Ship. Letitia's main job was to carry wounded soldiers from Europe to Canada, so she was retrofitted to provide the latest in medical care and comfort for her patients. She had a full complement of medical and nursing staff with access to all of the equipment available in a state-of-the-art hospital. Over her three years of service prior to running aground in Halifax, HMHS Letitia sailed with distinction, making five voyages and transporting over 2,600 wounded soldiers to Halifax. Hospital ships were distinctively painted and had special lighting to differentiate these 'non-combatant' vessels from other shipping. Yet even these non-combatants sometimes became targets of enemy submarines.

Initially constructed between 1913-1916 as Waterloo County's first tuberculosis sanatorium in Kitchener it was taken over by the Military Hospitals Commission in 1916 to serve as a treatment facility for soldiers. The Military Hospitals Commission had been established by the government of Canada to take care of all soldiers invalided home from active duty, and of all soldiers who took sick while in the service but before leaving for overseas. The Commission looked after the soldiers health, made sure they received their pay from the government, and attempted to develop future work areas for convalescent patients by offering vocational trade classes. The Freeport hospital was expanded by the Military Commission to house 60 to 70 patients.

With the need for isolation from the general public and the fact that most military patients likely had their families living in various distant parts of the country, the soldiers and staff of the Freeport hospital formed their own extended family and provided moral support for each other.

My father, Dr. A.D. Proctor, was superintendent of the Freeport Sanitorium from 1916 until 1921. It was a military hospital in those days, and since my father was in the army then, he was still in uniform and known as Captain Proctor. My father had a suite in the hospital, but I lived with my governess in a big old stone building at the bottom of the road, by the street car tracks.

I remember a big apple orchard by the river. The apples were given to the patients. There were cows to give fresh milk, and hens whose eggs were also for the hospital. There were huts where patients received occupational therapy. They were taught to make gifts such as bedroom slippers, purses, etc. One of the patients gave me a lovely pair of beaded moccasins he had made. The patients were soldiers suffering from tuberculosis. The worst cases were those whose lungs were burned from mustard gas. Some patients recovered well and often sat on the many chairs placed outside in front of the hospital. My father often drove in to Kitchener to shop for supplies and usually took several of the patients in the car with him - just for the ride.

One very clear memory I have is of the Armistice. I remember waking up at night to the sounds of yelling and cheering, and I got up to look and could see a huge bonfire burning in front of the hospital. I was told that the war was over, and that the soldiers were burning the Kaiser. They were - in effigy.

We eventually had a small bungalow built up on the hill beside the hospital. I remember that there were several huts beside us. Made of wood, they had four walls and no roof, and could accommodate two beds. Patients were often pushed into these huts in their beds, and while having protection from any wind, could lie in the sun. The only treatment in those days for tuberculosis was fresh air and sunshine. The hospital had several large sleeping porches with large windows that enabled the patients to sleep day and night in the fresh air. The hospital had a very military atmosphere in those days. The "up patients" were still in their uniforms, as were the two doctors, and the nurses wore the medical corps dresses, and the becoming white veils.

After nearly two and a half years since contracting TB and after having spent over a year in Freeport hospital giving his best fight, Buckam Singh at age 25 finally succumbed to his TB and died on August 27, 1919. This Sikh Canadian hero may have died alone with no family or Sikhs in Ontario but he was buried with honour and respect by the Canadian military in a soldiers grave at Mount Hope Cemetery in Kitchener, Ontario where he rests to this day. Private Buckam Singh's grave is the only known Sikh Canadian WWI soldiers grave in Canada.

Next Chapter: A New Beginning