An “Enemy Alien” at Vimy Ridge

By Lubomyr Luciuk

There were two of them and both were liars. The younger man was Stephen, aged 25. His older brother, George, was 33. Until August 17, 1914 they lived near Edmonton. Within two weeks of World War I being declared, they had volunteered to join the Canadian Over Seas Expeditionary Force. Sent east to the Valcartier Militia Camp, just outside Quebec City, they completed their Attestation Papers on September 4 and 19. Both swore they had been born in Russia, an allied power in the War. Mr. E. Pascoe witnessed their statements, presumably believing they were honest lads. They weren’t. It took just over 90 years for the truth, and me, to catch up with them.

Stephen became Private No. 19388 with the 9^th Infantry Battalion. George was also a Private, No.19361, in the 1^st Infantry Battalion. We know a bit more – but not much – about each of them.

Stephen was short, standing around 5’ 3” or perhaps a bit taller as some of his documents record a height of 5’ 5”. He had a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair but no other distinguishing marks. The War soon changed that. He picked up a venereal disease behind the lines, “not severe” according to the entry on March 2, 1915 in his medical record. Worse would come. In May, an exploding shell rendered him completely and permanently deaf in his left ear, partly so in the right. Returned to duty, he was badly injured on June 13, 1916 with gunshot wounds to the face and neck. Nonetheless, his frontline military service continued until October 8, 1917 when he suffered contusions to his hip, head and hand. Repatriated to England, he was eventually shipped home, arriving in Halifax aboard the Empress of Britain on January 21, 1919. Discharged as “medically unfit” on February 19, Stephen was officially declared to have a 15% disability as a direct result of military service. Now 30, he was disabled and an unskilled labourer, with no home other than the YMCA’s Red Triangle Club in Toronto, where he died in 1934.

Stephen endured another loss. His brother George, who also stood 5’ 3,” but with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion, was killed in action May 24, 1915 during the Battle of Festubert. He fell somewhere in the vicinity of Le Quinque Road, described in Lieutenant Edmund Blunden’s haunting war poem of the same name as a “cemeterial fen,” sunk into a “foul-gorged” landscape. It was not possible to dig deep trenches in the area. “Grouse butts” and stacked islands of sandbags provided the only shelter. Our troops had poor protection against the intensity of artillery bombardments as recorded in the 1^st Battalion’s War Diary for May 23 and 24, 1915. No identifiable trace of George’s body was ever found and, along with thousands of other soldiers with similar fate in the War, a memorial cross was erected in their collective honour.

And therein lies a tale. Neither George nor Stephen should have been anywhere near the Western Front. They were not born in Russia but came from a village in Western Ukraine, Beremiany. It still exists and on the date the Great War was declared, the brothers’ hamlet was within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Technically, by Ottawa’s definition, the brothers were both “enemy aliens.” If that had been discovered they would have been interned, along with thousands of their fellow Ukrainian Canadians and others in one of the 24 concentration camps set aside for that purpose, forced to labour for the profit of their gaolers and subjected to other state-sanctioned indignities. The Dividenko Brothers avoided that fate by lying about whom they were and where they had come from. We already know the price they paid for “fibbing”.

George was not entirely lost to history. His name, along with that of the 11,284 other Canadian soldiers who went “missing, presumed dead” in France during WWI, and whose bodies were never recovered, is inscribed on the Vimy Ridge Memorial’s ramparts. On April 9, our Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, will be at the rededication of the Memorial, to honour the memory of all those fighters who died for Canada. Having spoken in Parliament of the need to address the historical injustices done to Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada’s first national internment operations, I trust that Mr. Harper will pause, if only for a few seconds, to look upon the name “G. Dividenko.”  Where George lies may forever be known only unto God but who he was – an “enemy alien” who died for Canada – is now known to us all.

Lubomyr Luciuk, PhD, is a professor of political geography at The Royal Military College of Canada

 N.P. After extensive refurbishing, the official rededication of the Canadian Vimy Ridge War Memorial takes place on April 9, 2007. The Canadian victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, fought 90 years ago, April 9-12, 1917, with losses  at 3600 soldiers, is considered by many as a defining moment for Canada.