Hugh Cairns was born 4 December 1896 in Ashington, Northumberland, the third of eleven children born to George and Elizabeth Cairns. When the family emigrated to Canada in May 1911, they settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Here, Hugh was a member of the Christ Church Choir and he played for the Christ Church Intermediate Boys Football Club, and the St. Thomas Church Team, where in 1915, they won the Saskatoon League Championship. He became a plumber, still living with his family, before enlisting on 2 August 1915 in Saskatoon, along with his brother, Albert. They both enlisted with the 65th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. Hugh sailed on the S.S. Empress of Britain from Canada on 20 June 1915, and arrived in Liverpool on 29 June.
He transferred to the 46th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment), and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for action during the battle of Hill 70 on 25 August 1917, for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He had led his party forward and supplied covering fire to the flank of an attacking battalion. Recovering two guns, he managed to repel three enemy counter-attacks and covered a subsequent withdrawal. Even though Hugh was wounded, he held on until the ammunition was finished, and then made his way back to the line.
Hugh went on to serve with the 46th through the Battle of Passchendaele in November 1917, and at Amiens in August 1918. He was promoted to Corporal, and then to Sergeant. Albert, Hugh’s brother, died from wounds received whilst taking the Drocourt-Queant Line on 10 September 1918, and was buried at Terlinethun Cemetery, near Valenciennes. A comrade of Hugh’s commented on how close the two brothers had been and that, after Albert’s death, Hugh vowed revenge on the Germans for killing his brother, also saying that he thought Hugh had not planned to ever return home after Albert’s death.
On 1 November 1918, ten days before the armistice, Hugh was with his platoon when the enemy opened fire with their machine guns as they approached Valenciennes. Hugh took a Lewis Gun, something he was said to be a specialist with, and single-handedly rushed the Machine-Gun post, killing the crew of five, and capturing the machine gun. The second time the platoon were held up that day by machine gun fire, Hugh repeated the one-man assault he had previously made, this time killing twelve men, capturing eighteen men and two guns. During this assault, he was wounded in the shoulder. The platoons advance was checked once again by machine gun and artillery fire, and even though he was wounded, Hugh led a small party to outflank the enemy, killing many, and forcing at least fifty men to surrender, whilst also capturing all the guns. After the Canadian position was consolidated, Hugh went with a small patrol to Marly, on the outskirts of Valenciennes. They trapped a group of sixty German soldiers, forcing them to surrender in a yard. Whilst the patrol were forcing the enemy to disarm, a German officer passed in front of his men, and shot Hugh in the abdomen with his revolver. Hugh sank to his knees, yet managed to open up on the enemy with his machine gun. The fighting began again, and Hugh was shot through the wrist, and quickly collapsed from loss of blood.
Some of the platoon held the enemy at bay whilst others dragged Hugh from the enclosed yard. The Germans opened fire on this makeshift stretcher party, killing one Canadian, and wounding Hugh once again. Sergeant Hugh Cairns died the following day, 2 November 1918, and was buried in Auberchicourt Cemetery, near Valenciennes. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on 31 January 1919 for his valiant action on 1 November.
A monument to Hugh stands in City Park, Saskatoon, and depicts him in the outfit of a footballer. This was unveiled in 1921 by Saskatoon footballers. The Hugh Cairns V.C. School was opened in Saskatoon in 1960, and the home of the North Saskatchewan Regiment is called the Sgt. Hugh Cairns V.C. Armoury. Elsewhere, Hugh is remembered in several places. His name is on the Ashington War Memorial, and the plaque in the main entrance of Bothal Middle School, High Market, Ashington – the school he attended before the family emigrated. In France, the Rue de Hugh Cairns was named after him in Valenciennes itself in 1936; the only street in France ever named after a non-officer of a foreign army. His parents were awarded the Freedom of the City of Valenciennes in 1936, the same year Hugh was posthumously awarded the Legion d’honneur by the French.
In a letter sent to Hugh’s mother, Elizabeth, Chaplain F.H. Buck wrote,
Your son was by all odds one of the outstanding men in the battalion. He simply did not know what fear was and his skill with a machine gun could not be surpassed.[1]
[1] Hugh Cairns, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, accessed 31.7.2013