Sam Robert James Harnett was born in Alsask, Saskatchewan to William and Mary Harnett. The family of three boys and four girls moved to Fort Frances, Ontario when Sam was young. Sam grew up on the family farm and attended school but like many other young men during the Great Depression, he left before finishing high school to find work.
After leaving the farm, Sam worked for seven years at Robertson’s Transport as a truck driver. He enrolled in Fort Francis in the 17th Company, Canadian Forestry Corps on 24 August 1940. He worked and trained in the woods of northwestern Ontario until the following year when arrived in Scotland where 30 companies of the Canadian Forestry Corps would eventually be located. After a short leave during which he visited London, he reported to the Company HQ in Rosehall, a small town in the Scottish Highlands where both Number 17 and Number 5 Companies were working. He qualified as a Forester Class III and added other specialties including driver and mechanic as time went on.
In February 1944, married a Scottish woman, Mary Keegan, in Edinburgh who he named as his next of kin. That same month, he was transferred from the Forestry Corps to the Royal Canadian Engineers. He was and was taken on strength of the Engineer Reinforcement Unit is southern England. He retained his ‘private’ rank unto April when he was officially transferred to the Royal Canadian Engineers. Sapper Harnett was initially attached to the 5th Field Company as an Operator, Special Engineer Equipment, Group ‘B’. Sam arrived in France shortly after D-Day as a reinforcement and on 20 June 1944, he joined the 3rd Field Park Company as an Operator, Special Engineer Equipment, Group ‘C’.
The 3rd Field Park Company tasks varied with the needs of the 3rd Division’s leading field companies. Primarily, they provided workshop services, heavy equipment, bridging stores, assault boats and construction supplies. Sam may well have been one of those equipment operators present in almost every crossing site and route clearance tasks assigned, meaning he was in almost constant contact with the enemy and the 3rd Division fought through the Battle of Normandy, crosses the Seine, cleared the Channel ports and moved into Belgium with the monumental task of clearing the Breskens Pocket.
On the morning of 23 October, Sapper Sam Harness was forward with a section of the Bridge Platoon in support of the 18th Field Company near the town of Schoondyjke. The War Diary of the 3rd Field Park Company mentions he was killed by shell fragments but does not say whether they were from the enemy or from the same friendly fire ‘stonk’ that killed three and wounded nine men of the 18th Field Company that same day.
Sapper Sam Robert James Harnett is buried in the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery in Belgium, near the place where he died. There are 847 other Canadian soldiers buried there, the majority of whom were killed during the Battle of the Scheldt.
Sam had two brothers, William and Thomas who both served overseas during the war and returned home safely. His wife, Mary came to Canada after the war and settled in Fort Francis.
Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt