Jamie Sims - One of our Blyth Heroes

James Sims was known as "Jamie" since his father was also James and was called "Jim".

Jamie's grandfather, William Sims brought his family to Blyth around 1874 and went into business with Robert Slater. Slater built fine quality carriages, and Sims who was a blacksmith, ironed them up. Their business, Slater and Sims Carriage Works, was located where the municipal parking lot is in 2010, on the south east corner of Queen and Drummond.

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Jamie's father had a general store on Queen Street, the fifth store south of the Dinsley Street corner. Jamie worked with his father there before he enlisted in the Canadian Army for World War 2.

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When he returned from the war, severely injured, he worked for a time with Harvey McCallum, a Blyth butcher. He spent the remainder of his life in London, Ontario, but often visited Blyth. He often brought a display of many types of horseshoe his father had made while learning the blacksmith trade. Jamie showed this display many times at the huge annual Threshers' Reunion and Hobby Show at Blyth. This display can now be seen at the Huron County Museum in Goderich, Ontario.

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Jamie had a beautiful voice and served as soloist in his London church and often returned to Blyth to sing on special occasions.

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Problems related to his war injuries followed him throughout his life. He is buried in Blyth Union Cemetery with his wife, Vivian McElroy, also from Blyth.

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Jamie left us with another treasure. While resting in a hay barn in Belgium, during the war, he wrote a beautiful poem which poignantly expressed his feelings about the ravages of the conflict and the hope for a better tomorrow. Here is that Poem:

THE PLAINS OF NORMANDY

We trod the Plains of Normandy

With pack and shovel and gun.

We trod the Plains of Normandy

From dawn to the set of sun.

We know not what the darkness held

Nor the morrow would unfold

While plodding wearily along

Among the fields of gold.

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Far fertile fields of Normandy,

Made rich by man's honest toil,

Your God has blessed the sowers,

And made bounteous the soil.

But men came by in anger

With chariot, flame, and gun,

And left in trampled ruin

The work that they had done.

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Caan, that ancient city

Of William the Conqueror's fame,

Stood guard o'er the pilgrims of Normandy

As vanquished and victor came.

She stood as a war torn hero,

Rent by the strife of man.

Alone, she stood in her majesty,

As all great heroes can.

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We left that ancient city,

Brandishing high the sword,

Fighting our way to victory,

Subduing a murderous horde.

But some remained in Normandy,

Memorials 'neath the sod,

To show that with pack and shovel and gun

Those historic plains were trod.

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Oh! We who are left with a memory

Bestowed on us by God,

May we never forget the sacrifice,

Of those comrades 'neath the sod.

May we carry the torch they threw us

To win the peace on earth.

May our conscience never let us fail

To remember them for their worth.

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We trod the fields of Normandy

With pack and shovel and gun.

We trod the Plains of Normandy

From dawn to the set of sun.

We know not what the darkness held

Nor the morrow would unfold,

While plodding wearily along

Among the fields of gold.

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J. James Sims

Belgium 1944

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We thank Jamie's daughter, Linda, for giving us permission to share this poem and also for the information about her father and his family.

The Repository of Blyth History (Janis and Brock Vodden)