Stunning Devon park's tribute to forgotten army of ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’ who cut down Devon forests

Take a trip to the wonderful and beautiful award-winning Stover Country Park, and if you go off the beaten trail of walking around the lake and head into the countryside, there is a secret waiting for you. The incredible tribute honours some of the forgotten efforts to win World War One that you might not even know about - the Canadian Sawdust Fusiliers.

Because in 1916, in the midst of the war, the British Government faced a crisis. Huge quantities of wood were needed on the Western Front to shore up trench walls and line muddy trench floors, to make stakes for barbed wire fences, to construct corduroy roads over muddy terrain and to build shelters, hangars, military buildings.

But there were two problems. Firstly traditionally timber had been obtained from either North America, Scandinavia or Russia, but attacks from German U-boats in the Atlantic, plus the more critical need for food and ammunition to be carried on the cargo ships made it virtually impossible to import the timber. And secondly, while Britain had plenty of suitable trees, all the experienced lumbermen were already required to supply the fighting force on the front lines in France and Belguim.

Canada, with its plentiful forests, though had plenty of experienced men who knew how to cut down the forests and could provide a solution and some help. So on February 16, 1916, Andrew Bonar Law, the British Colonial Secretary, formally asked the Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada, if they would provide the manpower necessary to cut and process timber in England.

By March 1, 1916, the Canadian Government had responded by creating the 224th Battalion, dedicated to harvesting and processing timber resources overseas. Initially, the British Government requested 1,000 men, but another 2,000 were requested in May, and a further 2,000 in November.

The Sawdust Fusiliers’ were summoned from the Canadian Forestry Corp and a battalion of men came over to undertake the vital war work of harvest the country’s ancient forests to supply the Western Front. The first group of 250 “Sawdust Fusiliers”, as they came to be called, to be sent anywhere in Britain were sent to Stover Park in Newton Abbot. The ancient estate was full of fine old trees which were soon providing timber of all kinds for the front.

The Canadian Forestry Corps arrived at Stover in 1916 and by October 1917, when they left Stover, the 250 skilled foresters and sawyers based there had felled 700 acres of the estate, producing over 650,000 cubic feet of timber for the British Army. It was sent to the battlefields in France and Belgium to be used for constructing trenches, dug-outs and roads and to make railway sleepers, huts, planking, posts and ammunition boxes as well as for fuel.

When the ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’ arrived, local people were very curious about the Canadians. They enjoyed fetes and sports days where the visitors demonstrated their skills in logging, baseball, canoeing and First Nations’ ceremonies. After the initial draft, the Timber Supply Department identified several other locations in Devon, and in June 1917 new camps were built at Mamhead and Starcross. They were supported by satellite camps at Chudleigh, Ashcombe, and Kenton. A smaller site was opened at Torrington in early December 1917, with camps at Chulmleigh, Brookland and Bratton Fleming, and operations at Plymbridge near Plymouth started in January 1918.

After the war, Stover’s woodland slowly recovered, helped by Land Girls from nearby Seale-Hayne Agricultural College who planted thousands of saplings. The government established the Forestry Commission in 1919 to coordinate a national strategy of reforestation, land management and woodland security to manage Britain’s timber supply in the future.

As part of the “Devon Remembers Heritage Project”, a sculpture to commemorate the role of the ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’ based in Devon during the First World War was unveiled in 2018 by Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Ridgway, representing HM Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, in the Stover Country Park Estate,

The life-size wooden carving at Stover School, beside the Stover Heritage Trail near Newton Abbot, depicts two members of the Canadian Forestry Corps with one of the horses they relied on to work the forest. It was commissioned by ‘Devon Remembers’, a partnership project co-ordinated by Devon County Council, and created by sculptor Andrew Frost as part of a range of projects to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Speaking before he unveiled the sculpture, Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Ridgway said: “At the time I suspect they [the Canadian Fusiliers] felt they were a long way from the front line. But the contribution they made to a whole range of battles was absolutely crucial. Indeed, the defining battles of the 100 days offensive could not have been undertaken without the skilled effort of the Canadian Corps.

“So I think it’s entirely proper to gather here today to unveil this memorial sculpture and to pay tribute to the young men who served during World War One, and to recognise the vital contribution they made to frontline efforts all those miles away.”

Cllr Caroline Chugg, the then chairman of Devon County Council, also received an oak chair on behalf of the people of Devon, carved by the ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’ during their posting and first presented to Stover House in 1919. The chair was taken abroad after the war, and later to Canada, and is now being returned by Sergeant Charles King of the Royal Canadian Regiment as a gift to Devon to be kept at Stover Country Park.

The chair was made by officers of the No.104 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps from English Oak from Stover’s forests. After the end of the war, it was taken to Kenya, before being purchased at auction in 1968 by Canadian husband and wife team Don and Geneva King, who immediately recognised its roots in England and significance to Canada.

The inscription on the back of the chair states it was presented to the Canadian soldiers to Mrs. Harold St. Maur as a mark of appreciation. At the time, the St. Maurs owned Stover Park.