CLC Centenary – November – Labour Corps Commander appointed

I blogged on November 1 about the commencement of recruitment of men in Weihaiwei for service in the British Chinese Labour Corps in 1916. The next step was taken  tbis week a hundred years ago, on November 15th 1916, with the official announcement that Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Clarke “B.C.” Fairfax of the Liverpool Regiment had been appointed to the command of the CLC. Though they were to change over the duration of the War and the CLC’s existance a Major Purdon was appointed as Fairfax’s second in command.

Fairfax had experience  of the trenches. He had fought at the Somme commanding the 17st “Comrades” Batallion King’s and gone over the top in the second wave in conjunction with the French charged with the capture of the French town of Montauban (or “Montybong” to the Brits). He had been recalled to the army in 1914 when war broke out, initially to the Royal Flying Corps and then the Liverpool Batallion. On the 29th July 1916 he was gassed near Trones Wood and invalided home.

Fairfax also had experience of China. Born in 1873 he had already served in China during the Boxer Uprising as well as in South Africa during the Boer War. Now he was tasked with getting the Chinese from Weihaiwei to Europe and then establishing a main camp for them at Noyelles sur Mer, in the Somme (Picardie).

I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of Fairfax, but there appears to be one of him on this monument in France (click here)