Rare World War One Photos and Diary Transcription of Major Charles Fairbank

Photo Gallery: Major Charles Fairbank will appear here on the public site.

Major Charles Fairbank of Petrolia chronicled the trench warfare in Ypres and the Somme. The rare World War One photos and a copy of his diary written overseas in 1916 were donated to the Lambton County Archives collection in 2017 by his grandson Charlie Fairbank of Oil Springs.

“My family has kept the diaries and photos of my grandfather, C.O. Fairbank, a major of the 70th Battalion and later joined the 18th Battalion at Ypres and the Somme,” said Fairbank. “By donating these items to the Lambton County Archives, historians and the public will gain new insights into the shelling, the horror of the trenches, and my grandfather’s incredible sense of duty. At the age of 58, he volunteered to go overseas on this dangerous mission, leaving behind a wife and his four young sons.”

On August 24th, 1916, in Steenvorde, France, a series of three photos feature Major Fairbank and five other officers. In one photo, the officers are in their regular uniforms, in another they wear their helmets and in a third, the same group are posed wearing their gas masks. The troops had been billeted and were all sleeping on hay in a barn.

Two of the men in the photos, Major S.M. Loghrin and Lieutenant R.B. Barnes were killed less than a month later, on Sept. 15, in the Battle of Courcelette and Lieutenant G.V. Nelson was killed in 1917.

Major Fairbank, who was 58 when he went overseas, returned to his family in 1916 and continued to live in the Fairbank mansion in Petrolia until his death in 1925. Earlier, he was the mayor of Petrolia, and the county warden. He was also a medical doctor, owned Vaughn and Fairbank bank, as well as VanTuyl and Fairbank Hardware, and was an active oil producer.

To learn more, visit the Lambton Heritage Museum's page on Major Fairbank.