My great-great grandfather, from Ontario Canada, was pulled out of the Montana state prison in 1916 for accessory to murder. The prison only had running water, electricity and concrete buildings for about 5 years at that point. He was sentenced in 1908 at 18 years old. He enlisted in return for amnesty, with the 113th Lethbridge Highlander battalion in Alberta April 1916. Took a machine gun bullet above his left elbow through the inside of his wrist on a night raid June 1917 at Avion, with the 85th Nova Scotia Highlander battalion, only weeks before Passchendaele opened up. Which resulted in the loss of use of his pinky and ring finger (beats life in prison, plus that cushy $1/day pay).

He trained in England with the 14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment) before sailing to France in March 1917. His original unit, the 113th, had sailed out in October 1917. Some, like him, went to England to train. Others went to the front, such as the 300 seasoned soldiers the battalion sent to replace men for the 16th Canadian Scottish battalion after they took heavy losses at Somme. (UPDATE: he was assigned to the 17th Battalion in England, not the 14th). He was assigned to the 85th battalion in March 1917 just before Vimy Ridge took place in April. Of the 6000 that joined the 85th, three-quarters were casualties, and over half had suffered serious wounds by the end of the war. He likely fought at Vimy and Arras in April 1917. The 85th was assigned to the 12th Canadian Brigade, under the 4th Canadian Division, during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. In Canada, he received 5 of the 10 months of training that his original unit was given. I won't lie, he had a laundry list of infractions that put him in the brig a few times. He had a tendency to go AWOL. With at least one incident earning him 42 days in the brig. And he had a few stays in the hospital for STD's. Prison life had likely hardened him to the point where he didn't care about getting into trouble.

He recovered from his injury in England where he met my great-great grandmother. He became a Red Cross representative for soldiers in his military hospital in London. I have a photo somewhere of him meeting with some politicos at the hospital. He and great-great grandma married at the end of the war. He was 28, she was a month away from being 18 and already pregnant with my great grandmother. They met in the café that her father, a Swiss widower, owned across the road from the military hospital. Apparently, according to their 60th wedding anniversary article in a newspaper, her father would have her "draw in" the soldiers from the street. Thankfully enough she found my great-great grandfather and stuck with him. Different times. They shipped back to his home in Ontario and settled down. My family knew he was in the war, no one knew he went to prison. He signed his occupation on his enlistment papers as "stonecutter", as he would have likely helped with work on the 48,000+ square foot wall around the Montana State Prison. But he signed his occupation on his marriage certificate as "rancher". Which, to my knowledge, he never was. So I suspect that great-great grandma never knew he was in prison, or that she took the secret to her grave.

To my knowledge he was fairly stable after the war. He couldn't hold down a job, I was told due to his hand injury. He drove delivery trucks around and great-great grandma owned a bakery, but he was the patriarch of the family from what I've heard, gentle soul. He taught the boys how to fish and hunt when their dads weren't around. Would sneak candies to the girls in the kitchen despite his wife's anger. Would read the girls bed time stories and make silly sounds along with the stories. Rather timid and quiet, but gentle and kind. Not the type of guy you would picture to have fought in one of the most horrific wars and spent 8 years in prison with murderers, rapists, disease, death. The local war memorial has his name on it, which I didn't know until I found this all out a couple years ago. Always remember, anything is possible! Everyone deserves a second chance. If anything about his story changed by even a fraction, then I wouldn't be here right now.

I'm writing a book based on his life. Originally it was a feature film script but a novel format works better. I could definitely see his story being made into a miniseries, if not a movie. I've had interest in the story from short film companies, a local video editor that has done work in Hollywood, and at least one person from Netflix. Plus there has been a ton of film industry work in Montana lately. Lots of Western shows being based in or filmed there. They built a brand new Western-genre filming ranch recently in northern Montana. I really just want to honor my ancestors life and give people an amazing story of hope and redemption for them to take from. I think that's all I could really want to do.

I can't find a damn thing online or in museums for research on amnesty given to criminal prisoners by the Entente during WW1. The winners write the history books. The Montana Historical Society asked me for an article on this, but I have to source absolutely everything. And I don't feel that I can do that until I have concrete evidence of amnesty provided to criminal prisoners by the British government or Canadian administration. If you have any information of this topic, please send it my way. Thank you!

Here are some pictures. One of him in his prison blues during intake. Another of him with his wife and father while in uniform very likely after the war. And lastly one of him with his family in his older years: https://imgur.com/a/7kDHTus

Update: I found documentation of him making requests to transfer from the Montana prison to Canada! The first request in 1910/1911, asking for him to be sent to a Canadian prison. And the second request to enter the Canadian army was made in 1915. I ordered the records, waiting on them to be shipped to me. This means I can finally start writing my article for the Montana Historical Society!