 During the Battle of the Somme, fighting at Courcelette on 14 September 1916, Pipe Major Dunbar was seriously wounded in the stomach and left leg by shrapnel.After many months of recuperation in England, he returned to Hamilton on 4 July 1917, and immediately rejoined the 91st Canadian Highlanders.While he had been stationed in at Salisbury Plains in England, on 6 January 1915, Charles Dunbar had been recommended for an officer's commission.