On a fine spring afternoon in 1915, a new weapon of war was unleashed near the town of Ypres, Belgium.
The First World War was well underway when — on April 22, 1915 — the German army released more than 136 tonnes of chlorine gas. A greenish-yellow toxic cloud blew toward the unsuspecting French lines.
It was the globe’s first large-scale poison gas attack, and it stunned the world.
“The chemical gas was terrifying,” said Tim Cook, chief historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. “Soldiers had died on the battlefield. They were retching, their eyes were bulging out. They were vomiting up liquid. They were dying in horrendous ways.”
The response to this new type of warfare, which left unknown numbers of soldiers dead or incapacitated, was swift. In a moment, the terms of engagement had changed. New gear would be needed to counter the deadly gas attacks.
Among those who found a path first was Dr. Cluny Macpherson, a Newfoundland doctor who devised an early gas mask — known as the hypo helmet — that would go on to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Masks that built on his innovations would save millions.
The invention earned Macpherson considerable acclaim, and he was well known through his lifetime in military, medical and local circles. Gradually, though, since his death in 1966, his story has faded from view.
To find it, you need to dig into archives and history books, where a rich narrative is waiting to be told.
