The Monroe journal., 1921-05-27
YOUNG CANADIAN, GASSFD
And SHELL-SHOCKED, HERE
He l. Dr. Charles Brcnmef. Who Has
i-ucated IN Monrne lor the
Practice of Chiropractcy.
HE MAS IN FIRST GAS ATTACK
HE MAS ~ FIRST GAS ATTACK

b4Nt Adl At.u fion tht Aandula n
army hopeless wreck from shell
shock. gas and shrapnel wounds. yet
restored to health through ehiroprac-
tic treatments. and then 10 take up
the practice himself, is The unusual
experience OF Dr. Charles Bremner,
who has located in Monroe.
A native of Ottawa. Canada. Dr.
Bremner enlisted in 1914. few days
after Two arrogant knayes at Potts
dam and Vienna. relics of an an
elent. autocratic day, whose pedisrees
run back TO times most successful
robbers. demand blood money and
more than honor's de for the muir
der OF ne'er-do-well at Sarajeyo. -
and was attached 10 the Twenty
First Canadian Battalion. In Sep
tember, 1914. little over month
after the commencement of hostili-
ties, DR.. Bremner's regiment was
over in France, but il was not until
the early part of 1915 that he went
into the trenches.
Ypres was his first engagement,
and II was there that the Germans
introduced gas warfare. and it's a
horrible picture that the young Ca
madam paints of the suffering OF
himself and his brave comrades as
they met the German onslaught with
out gas masks. Men lay on all sides
writing with pain from the effects
OF the cruel chemical. nauseated, and
many deathly sick. But dipping their
handkerchiefs in mud, they applied
them 10 their noses, and were able
to Illustrate. after much loss, the
attack.
Kimmel Hill. the Somne. st. Elois
and Festoburt we're some of the
other engagements in which he par
ticipated until in December, 1917.
when he was discharged with a dis
ability rating of fifty per cent.
Dr. Bremner was gassed at the
battle of Somme. He regained con-
sciousness in hospital. where he
laid for weeks. at times lingering on
the brink of death. Before he re-
covered. however. the call for men
became SO urgent that he was sent
back into the lines with a tempera-
ture Of 1903.
His shell-shocked condition came
upon him by degrees. His nerves first
began to give away in a mammoth
German cement dug-out when a shell
fell into the opening. blowing an Of
ficer to atoms, nothing but his leg
being found, and severing the top of
his best chum's head off, killing him
instantly. The three were at lis
tening post. keeping brigade head
quarters in touch with the front lines
through the medium of a telephone.
DR.. Bremner was at the instrument
when call came to the effect that
the Germans had ceased firing. Turn
ing over the telephone to his chum,
he went down into the dug-out to cut
some wood with which to keep fire
burning during the night, and he
was engaged In this task when the
shell fell through the opening, ex-
ploding its shrapnel over his two
comrades.
II was few days later, as he
was going over the top that an
other shell fell at his feet, so close
that his life was spared, but his
nerves We're so badly shocked that he
sank into Inconsistencies. He was
a full-fedged shell shocked soldier
now, incapacitated for further duty
He was sent back, a hopeless case.
After all other methods had fail
ed. said DR.. Bremner. Il tried chiro-
practic, and so noticeable was my i'm
provement that | decided to go to
Davenport, Iowa, and not only take
the treatments but study the profess
sion. That was three years ago, and
now | believe am fully recovered.
Following his graduation. DR..
Bremner relieved a chiropracter at
Raleigh for three months. then he
went to Charlotte. After an investi-
cation of Monroe, and finding that
the field was crowded in Charlotte.
he decided to locate here. He is
member of the local post of the
American Legion