Later this year, a plaque honouring Lt.-Col. Samuel Sharpe is coming to The Royal, where it will stay for the next decade during renovations to Parliament’s Centre Block. The Royal has a strong connection with the Canadian Forces and its veterans, serving their mental health needs through its Operational Stress Injury (OSI) Clinic and leading the recently announced Centre of Excellence on PTSD and other related mental health conditions.
Sharpe was one of two sitting Canadian Members of Parliament who died in the First World War. Lt.-Col. George Baker died during the Battle of Mount Sorrel in June 1916. Sharpe died by suicide in 1918 following his service as a battalion commander in some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. While Baker was commemorated with a statue in Centre Block in 1924, Lt.-Col. Samuel Sharpe has only recently been recognized, signalling the changing tides in how we view mental illness, especially in the military.
“The recognition of Sam Sharpe is a recognition from the Canadian government of the remarkable service, dedication, and sacrifice of our veterans and Canadian Forces members - sacrifice that extends not only to the physical toll of service but also to the mental toll it can take. This is especially meaningful to the clientele we treat in The Royal’s OSI Clinic,” says Dr. Raj Bhatla, The Royal’s psychiatrist-in-chief and chief of staff, who works as a psychiatrist in the OSI Clinic.
“We know more now, as clinicians and as a society, about mental illness. People struggling with operational stress injuries can get appropriate, effective help now – help that just wasn’t there for Sam Sharpe. Seeing Sam Sharpe’s legacy represented at The Royal will be an important reminder to our patients that the work they did matters, that they matter and they deserve support and healing.”
Sharpe became an MP in 1909, and served until his death in 1918. In 1915, he raised the 116th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, doing much of the recruitment himself. He commanded it through some of the most challenging battles of the war, including the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Passchendaele, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry.
"Seeing Sam Sharpe’s legacy represented at The Royal will be an important reminder to our patients that the work they did matters, that they matter and they deserve support and healing."He served bravely, but from the accounts of those around him and the letters he wrote, his wellbeing was deteriorating. He had personally recruited many of the young men under his command from his hometown of Uxbridge, Ont. and the surrounding area, and described feeling a deep responsibility to them. Casualty rates were high, and conditions were miserable. At Passchendaele, more than 16,000 Canadians were killed or wounded, and among the dead was one of Sharpe’s closest friends.
In early 1918, Sharpe was hospitalized in Europe for “nervous shock.” On his way home, Sharpe was hospitalized at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital, where he died by suicide days later.
The Royal’s OSI Clinic is part of a network of clinics funded by Veterans Affairs Canada to care for the mental health of the people who, in the course of their service, have developed concerns such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use disorders, and other conditions. The Royal opened its first OSI Clinic in Ottawa in 2008. Since then, it has grown to include satellite clinics in Arnprior and Kingston, plus telemedicine outreach across eastern Ontario and northern Quebec. It has a 98 per cent satisfaction rating from its patients.