 At the age of fifteen and a half, Babcock was impressed at Perth Road by two recruiting officers, one a lieutenant and one a sergeant, who quoted from the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade".He was also enticed by the offered salary, which was $1.10 per day, as opposed to the 50 cents he could have made through physical labour.Babcock was recruited in Sydenham, Ontario and joined the 146th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.