The Churchville War Memorial

Lieutenant Colonel Dr. James Johnson Fraser was born July 24th, 1879 to John Fraser and Jane McGill, who are both buried in Churchville Cemetery. He went to school to become a physician and had a practice in Walkerton, Ontario, where he was referred to as Dr. Jim Fraser. In September 1914, very early on in the war, he signed up to leave his practice, friends and family behind so that he could work with the Field Ambulances overseas. He listed his brother, William J. Fraser of Huttonville as his next of kin. 

Dr. Fraser returned safely home from the war, and died March 30th, 1939. He received a Distinguished Service Order.

Sergeant Clarence Merton Alexander Hutton, born June 13 1891, was a son from the Hutton pioneer family that settled in Chinguacousy Township in 1829 on the Third Line West (now Creditview Rd.) north of the Base Line (now Steeles Ave.). They cleared the land and started a dairy farm called Bonnie Braes. Today Bonnie Braes Drive runs through the middle of the original farm. Clarence’s mother was organist at Churchville Methodist church (later United Church) and his father was superintendent of the Sunday School. Churchville was then an easy place to travel to since there was no Steeles Ave. to cross. The Base Line (Steeles Ave.) did not cross the Credit River until the 1950’s and only had a T intersection at the Third Line. Clarence enlisted with the 126 Overseas (Peel) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on December 18, 1915, when he was 24 years old. He trained at the Brampton Armoury, Niagara Camp and at Camp Borden. On the 14th of August ,1916, the Battalion embarked from Halifax on the S.S. Empress of Britain and arrived in England on August 24, 1916. 

     Due to severe casualties suffered by the Canadians during the Battle of the Somme it was required that the 126 Peel Battalion be broken up for reinforcements into the 109th Battalion and the 116th Battalion. Clarence became part of the 116th Battalion on October 16th, 1916. The 116th Battalion sailed to France in February 1917. On March 6th the 116 Battalion was split up into A-D Companies and in mid-March 1917 the Companies were moved into the trenches around the Vimy area of France. The Battalion remained on active duty until July 27th , being exposed regularly to gas, sniping and shelling. Clarence was wounded in action and in Aug. 1917 he was treated at the Etaples Army Base Camp in France. He did not improve and was sent to England for convalescing. In September 1917 he was reposted back to the Front. 

       After the war ended Clarence stayed on in England to help with the demobilization and he was promoted to Sergeant. He sailed home on July 2nd, 1919. When Clarence came back to Canada he took over the land the family had acquired across the road from Bonnie Braes, and operated a market garden farm. He also continued his involvement with the Lorne Scots, receiving a commission as Captain for the next 20 years. Clarence took an active part in community affairs, serving on the School Board, chairman of the Brampton Fair Board and various agricultural organizations. One of his sons (John) represented the western area of Brampton (Ward 6) as City Councillor for 29 years. Clarence died in 1957 and is buried in Churchville Cemetery along with most of the Hutton ancestors. One of his descendants still lives on the family farm that he established.

Private Charles Carpenter was born in Patrixbourne, Canterbury, Kent, England on April 21st, 1892. (Source: Library & Archives Canada) He was a member of the 123rd Pioneer Batallion. The 123rd Battalion served with front line troops, and also in front of the front line troops, to install barbed wire, improve roads, and establish battlements, fortification and dugouts for the front-line infantry troops to use and occupy. They suffered many casualties. Among their principal roles was to install bridge works and build plank roads to facilitate movement of troops, artillery pieces, and supply columns. More often than not,  the Germans would subsequently shell the roads, requiring immense efforts to get Canadians to and from the front. Many soldiers were wounded or died while serving with the 123rd Battalion (source: Wikipedia). 

      One of these unfortunate soldiers was our Private Charles Carpenter. Carpenter served in both France and Belgium, and he suffered serious shrapnel wounds at Vimy RIdge. Carpenter was carried to a field hospital where he spent one night before being transferred to a local General Hospital where he was placed on the “Dangerously Ill List”. He spent two weeks at this hospital, undergoing two separate operations to remove shrapnel . He had three major lacerations to his left leg - 8 inches long, 5 inches long, and 2 inches long, and doctors seem to have had a great deal of difficulty in healing these injuries. 

       After spending another month in a different hospital, Carpenter was discharged to Canada with a long road to recovery ahead of him. In his medical papers it is written that he had seriously damaged calf muscles in his left leg, a great deal of scarring, and complained of terrible headaches and weakness (Source: Library & Archives Canada). I have not been able to find anything about him after his return to Canada, and strangely, I also haven’t been able to find out what his connection is to Churchville that led to him being honoured on the village’s war memorial plaques. The only clues I have been able to find are that on his official Attestation Paper from when he registered to join the 123rd Battalion, the spot for Home Address is typed  as “Brampton”, but then that is crossed out and replaced with #5 Fielding Ave., Toronto; and his name is listed in the Peel War Records.

Private Robert Ernest Cowling was born on January 25th, 1885, to parents Joseph Cowling and Betsy Jael Gibbs Cowling. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force roughly two years into the war, on June 26th, 1916, at 31 years of age. Before signing up for service, he had worked as a stone mason in his home village of Churchville (Source: Library & Archives Canada). Private Cowling was part of the 239th Battalion, CEF. This battalion was based in Camp Valcartier, Quebec, and began recruiting in the Spring of 1916, seeking experienced railway men (Source: Wikipedia).

         Private Cowling never made it overseas and never saw any battle. When Cowling was about 8 years old he had a severe case of diphtheria, and ever since then he had been afflicted by epilepsy. Apparently he suffered one of his resulting ‘fits’ as they are referred to in his discharge papers, during his training at Valcartier, and was left behind in the hospital as the rest of the battalion set sail for Europe. Cowling was discharged as “Medically Unfit” for service and sent home. It is also noted in his discharge papers that he had “several scars on his tongue - the result of these fits”.

        Private R. Cowling died in 1927 at the age of 41 or 42 (Source: Library & Archives Canada).  His gravestone is at Churchville Cemetery, accompanied by the names of his parents, and his brother William, who was apparently buried in B.C.

Private Ronald Reeve Crawford was born in the town of Brampton on February 24th, 1897, to parents George William Crawford and Sophia Emily Reeve. When he registered for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force he was a 20 year old student living in Toronto. Ronald was 5 ft. 2 inches tall (a couple of his documents say he was 5 ft. 7, but with a given weight of 117 lbs, the 5 ft 2 height seems more likely) with a fair complexion, blue grey eyes and brown hair. At the time Ronald signed up, he was a student at the University of Toronto and also his mother’s sole support, as he was an only child and his father had died 9 years earlier. Ronald was sending her money ‘periodically’ as a student, and as a recruit requested that his mother be paid a ‘separation allowance’ while he was away; she went on to receive his entire $20 pay each month.  
    Private Crawford was accepted into the Canadian Army Medical Corps and sailed from Halifax on the S.S. Grampian to Europe where he spent his entire service in France (Source: Library & Archives Canada). Being a member of the CAMC, Ronald was presumably a medical student at U of T, but there is nothing to confirm this in his files. The CAMC was founded in 1904, and during WW1 casualties among Canadian troops in France and Belgium were so heavy that more than half of all Canadian physicians served overseas to treat them (source: Canadian War Museum).  Ronald stayed behind to assist after the war ended, but in December 1918, for an unknown reason, he marched for six days with ‘full pack’, at an average of 21km per day, and in February 1919 he spent 10 days in hospital being treated for influenza. He was subsequently sent home to Toronto with ‘some signs of chronic bronchitis’. Once home, Crawford went on to marry Grace Stanley with whom he spent a long life - eventually passing away at 89 years old and being buried in Brampton Cemetery with his wife, father and mother. 

Private Gwilt was born on September 30th, 1897 in West Bromwich, England to Harriet and John Gwilt. He and his parents  were farming in Churchville, Ontario at the time that he left for the war at age 18. Gwilt had a fair complexion, blue eyes and light coloured hair. He joined the 126th Battalion and was later transferred to the 116th Overseas Battalion. According to his files, it seems Private Gwilt had a tough time while overseas.  In October  1916, one year into his service, William was diagnosed with Hallux Rigidus (source: Library & Archives Canada). Hallux Rigidus is an affliction where the big toe becomes stiff and unable to move up and down; as a result walking becomes more and more difficult and increasingly painful as time goes on (source: Official History of The Canadian Forces in the Great War: The Medical Services). Due to this painful disability, Gwilt was placed on Permanent Base Duty with the Canadian Army Service Corps. The C.A.S.C. was responsible for transporting and supplying food, ammunition, clothing, equipment and engineering materials to the Canadian Army, and sometimes drove and repaired motor vehicles and ambulances (source: Guide to Sources Relating to Units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force).
      In March 1918, Private Gwilt was sentenced to five days discipline for playing a card game called Piequet when he was supposed to be looking after the ‘horse lines’. Two months later, on May 30th, he was sentenced to 10 days discipline for neglecting to have his ‘box respirator on during practise hour’. Interestingly, according to his medical records,  on January 7th and January 9th, 1919, William was being treated in hospital for lombago (acute lower back pain), then on January 18th, 19th, 26th and 28th, he was in again being treated for tonsillitis, then from February 5th to March 17th he was again being treated for tonsillitis as well as general weakness. Finally, on May 27th, 1919, Private Gwilt was discharged from the military and returned to Churchville (source: Library & Archives Canada). He went on to marry Olive Priscilla Mills, and possibly lived in the house that used to stand behind the Churchville Radial Railway station. Gwilt passed away on January 28th, 1973, at 75 years of age, and was buried in Churchville Cemetery.

Private Robert Lormer Craig McClure was born in Norval, Ontario on January 5th, 1896 to John & Sarah McClure. He attended Huttonville Public School and  was a lifelong member of Norval Presbyterian Church. Unlike most of the other men on the Churchville Memorial plaques, Private McClure was drafted on May 9th 1918 under the Military Service Act of 1917.  According to his service file, Robert’s year of military service was remarkably uneventful. There are no hospital records, no transfers, nothing of note at all (source: Library & Archives Canada). He was discharged back to Norval at the end of the war and continued working and living on his family farm on Mississauga Road (now near William’s Parkway, where the Huttonville Cemetery is).
      Back at home, Private McClure joined the Huttonville Orange Lodge, became a Church Elder at Norval Presbyterian, and joined Ionic Lodge No. 229 GRC in downtown Brampton. He married Esther Giffen on May 17th, 1922 and went on to have two sons and two daughters, as well as 15 grandchildren (source: The Georgetown Herald, March 30, 1967). McClure died on March 11th, 1967 at the age of 71 at Peel Memorial Hospital in Brampton (source: findagrave.com).

Bombardier Percy R. Musson was born in Toronto on December 18th, 1893 to Samuel Musson and Rachel Adelaide M. (Addie) Stewart. When Percy was 5 years old, his mother Addie died in childbirth. His father later remarried a widow, Wilhelmina Burns, whose first husband was buried in Churchville Cemetery: Mr. George Bye. George, Samuel and Wilhelmina are all memorialized together in Churchville Cemetery on one of the most unique monuments on the grounds - the tree stump stone.

     Percy was an electrician by trade before he enlisted on January 14th, 1915. He was sent to France a short while after that. Musson participated in all four attacks on the Regina Trench at The Somme, but was very seriously injured during the fourth, finally successful, attack. On October 22nd, 1916, he was taken to the No. 1 Canadian Hospital in Etaples in very grave condition due to gunshot wounds to the head and neck. He remained on the “Seriously Ill” list with a badly fractured skull until November 12th, 1916, and remained in hospital for many months, undergoing an operation to remove the depressed piece of bone from his head, and another operation to reopen and clean his head wound a month later, removing more damaged bone. On June 11th, 1917, Bombardier Musson was declared physically unfit for service, suffering from vertigo, considerable nervous tremors of the hands and head, headaches and dizziness when bending over, partial blindness, and the obvious serious wounds.  He was discharged back to Canada via a hospital ship and once home, he spent a number of months in a convalescent hospital in Toronto. Percy was honoured with a Military Medal for his efforts at the Somme “for his splendid work in assisting the observation officer of the battery to which he was attached.” A Military Medal is awarded for Bravery in Battle on Land (source: Library & Archives Canada).

     Percy did eventually return to his work as an electrician in Toronto, and some time after that he bought a farm in Richmond Hill, married, and raised a family. The pain from his war injuries unfortunately never left him (source: Article in the Durham News, Nov. 8th, 2018: Battle of the Somme earns soldier military medal, by Bryan Buttigieg),and he passed away on January 14th, 1949 at 56 years old, exactly 34 years to the day after his enlistment (source: Library & Archives Canada).

Private Robert Porteous was born on November 2nd, 1885 in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. When war broke out he was living and working as a blacksmith in Churchville, and on Dec. 11th, 1915 at the age of 30 he joined the 126th Battalion. Porteous was one of the very few villagers to have any previous military experience leading up to WW1, having spent 3.5 years with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. Private Porteous had a number of tattoos on his arms, including  one showing hands across the sea, an anchor, a stag, and the word Unitas (Latin for Unity) on his right arm, and Buffalo Bill, and a heart on his left arm; he had grey eyes and black hair. Robert listed his parents as both deceased, and his next of kin was his sister, Mrs. Mary Croll back in Alloa Scotland.
        Porteous had quite the start to his time with the 126th Battalion, being docked what looks in his records to be 168 hours pay for the offense of drunkenness before the battalion even set sail from Canada. During his time at war, Private Porteous’ home address changes from Churchville to Cochrane, Ontario, and then to Mulvihill, Manitoba. Porteous also seems to have gotten married during the war, as his enlistment documents refer to him as single, but on August 1st, 1916 his pay starts being sent to Mrs. Sarah A. Porteous, Wife, in Brampton, Ontario (and soon after that to her in Cochrane, Ontario). And at the end of the war, he filled out a will saying he bequeaths everything to Mrs. R. Porteous in Cochrane, Ontario (oddly, he also wrote across the top of the will that he didn’t actually want to make a will). Robert was repeatedly treated in hospitals and field ambulances for what appears to be issues with his digestive system and possibly his eyes.
        After all this though, he was awarded a “Good Conduct Badge” from the 1st Canadian General Hospital in August of 1918.  On his discharge in May 1919, he was also given a Class A badge for Service at the Front (source: Library & Archives Canada). 

Private Thomas Warren Reeve was born on June 26th, 1893 in Meadowvale, Ontario to Sigsworth Simpson Reeve and Sarah Esther McClure - two of the founding families of the area. At the time he signed up for the war, Reeve’s next of kin was his father, who still lived in Meadowvale, but he himself had moved to Gerard Street in Toronto. Under “What is your Trade or Calling”, Private Reeve originally wrote Labourer, but crossed that out and wrote Salesman instead. He had some military experience, being a member of the Corps of Guides(source: Library and Archives Canada). The Corps of Guides was a mounted corps of non-permanent active militia. The members were spread across Canada, and were directed to carry out intelligence duties. In the case that war ever broke out on Canadian soil, these Guides would be expected to have detailed and accurate data about their appointed jurisdictions. Thomas Reeve must have been an impressive person, as the General Officer commanding the Corps of Guides said, “There is much competition among the best men in the country for admission to the Corps of Guides.”
        When he signed up for WW1, Thomas was 22 years old with black eyes and black hair. Like Privates Porteous and Gwilt and Sgt. Hutton, Reeve joined the 126th Peel Battalion. In early February, 1917, Thomas became extremely ill with pleural pneumonia. He went on to stay in hospital (first in France, then in Glasgow, Scotland) until May 16th when he was finally declared well enough to leave. That would not be Thomas’ only hospital stay overseas unfortunately. On April 4th, 1918 he was hospitalized for gunshot wounds to the right arm; then on August 29th, he was put in hospital again for ‘multiple gunshot wounds’, including in his head and shoulder, and he wasn’t discharged from the hospital until January 31st, 1919. An x-ray showed that this second shooting event left him with shrapnel in his right mandible (jaw) and shoulder, as well as limited movement and general weakness in that arm. The doctor in charge advised against trying to remove this shrapnel, however later medical documents state that Reeve experienced considerable pain when eating or moving his arm due to the shrapnel (source: Library & Archives Canada).
        Thomas returned to Meadowvale after the war, where he married Beatrice MacIntosh. He passed away on April 18th, 1973, aged 88 and was buried in Churchville Cemetery. 

Private William Stanley Smaller was born on January 27th, 1896 in Hull, England. Private Smaller enlisted during the summer of 1915, at 20 years of age. Upon enlistment he declared his sister, Grace, in Streetsville, Ontario as his next of kin, recorded his current job as ‘labourer’, and it was noted that his eyes were blue and his hair was dark.
    Private Smaller was sent to France and seems to have had a difficult time health-wise. He spent months in and out of hospital during his service years, being treated for Inflammation of the connective tissue in his legs, Chronic Gastritis, Tonsillitis, Urethritis, and Catarrhal Jaundice (viral hepatitis A). Things went from bad to worse for Private Smaller when he “illegally absented himself without leave” on April 13th, 1918 only to be “apprehended as an absentee and returned to his unit” two days later. Private Smaller traveled back to Canada on a steamship in May 1919 (source: Library & Archives Canada).

Private William Vast was born in Hampshire, England on May 13th, 1895 to Edith and Albert Alexander Vast. Edith was named as William’s next of kin, and still resided in Hampshire. Before the war, William lived and worked as a labourer in Churchville on the Wilson farm; Butler Wilson was designated as someone to be notified with any important information about his status while at war. In January, 1916 at the age of 20 he registered to go overseas with the 126th Battalion. Vast was stationed in France, and on April 9th, 1917 he was wounded by an exploding shrapnel shell at Vimy Ridge. He was admitted to hospital with serious injuries to the right thigh and foot and was not discharged until October 19th, more than six months later. When William was discharged from the hospital, the doctor filling out his forms wrote that he still could not move his big toe on the right foot, and his foot would swell up whenever he walked. During his time in hospital, Private Vast was given morphine to help with the  pain, but still complained of ‘severe pain’ in his foot. He had an operation under anesthesia on his foot and thigh the day after he arrived to remove shrapnel from the wounds, but it wasn’t for another 16 days that he was able to sit in a wheelchair for the first time. Nine days after that he was finally able to use crutches. His diet in hospital at the start of his stay consisted of lemonade, water, tea, pudding, and bread.
      On his discharge from the army, William had a dental screening, and was given a form entitling him to ‘porcelains’ at no cost, paid for by ‘the public’. He was discharged from the army in early 1918 as ‘physically unfit for service’, and arrived back in Canada on March 15th, 1918, the remainder of his pay to be forwarded to Mr. Butler Wilson of Churchville. In April of 1918, Vast was examined by a Dr. McKay in Brampton who commented that he ‘walks with a cane, walks with a limp, has pain in foot, can only walk up to two miles, dull aching pain in legs after standing for ten minutes, no feeling in great toe, second toe overrides great toe due to pressure from wearing tight boots’. Dr. McKay did state that Vast should be able to resume his farm labourer job though (source: Library & Archives Canada).
      William went on to marry Grace A. Adams, and passed away in 1977 aged 81 or 82. He and his wife are buried in Brampton Cemetery. Below is a photo of Private Vast taken from a group photo of 126th Battalion.

Private James Floyd Varey was born in Churchville to George and Sarah Varey on December 23rd, 1896. He was one of ten children. His brother, Garnet Joseph Varey also served in WW1 and has his name honoured on the Churchville Memorial plaque too. At the time of enlistment, James Floyd was living in Glen Williams and working apparently as a labourer, although on one of his medical forms he answered “Coating Mills employee” in the space for trade or occupation.  He enlisted on Valentines Day, 1916 at the age of 19 years old; he was 5 ft. 5, had grey eyes and brown hair (source: Library & Archives Canada). Floyd wrote on his original registration forms that he was single, but at some point very shortly after that he was married to 17 year old Pearl Elizabeth Norton of Glen Williams. Tragically, Pearl died in childbirth that June giving birth to Varey’s daughter, Pearl Lillian Varey, and in an incredibly sad turn of events, Pearl LIllian only lived to be just over one month old before she also passed away (source: Find a Grave website). At that time, Floyd changed his status to windower and requested that his next of kin be changed from his own mother in Churchville to his “mother-in-law Mrs. Lillian Norton of Glen Williams, Ont.”
    Varey was in the 21st Battalion Canadian Infantry and was stationed in France for the duration of his service. He spent two days in hospital in July 1916 for tonsillitis, and was given a Good Conduct Chevron Badge on March 6th, 1918. On October 16th, 1918 he was admitted to hospital with gun shot wounds to the left elbow; he remained in hospital until December 9th when his records state his elbow had fully healed with no lasting disability. On February 19th, 1919 Private Varey was sent home to Glen Williams. In July 1924 Floyd married Lillian Alcott of Georgetown (Source: Georgetown Herald, June 17th, 1925). He continued working at Provincial Paper Ltd., and he and Lillian had a son named Bud who, like his father pre-war, played hockey as a winger.  Floyd left the mill for a time to work for the Toronto Suburban Railway, but later returned to work for the mill until his retirement in 1962. Sadly, one month after his retirement, Floyd collapsed and died suddenly of a heart attack after returning home from checking his trapping lines. He was 65 years old and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Georgetown (Source: Georgetown Herald Feb. 8th, 1962). 

 Private Joseph Garnet Varey was born on August 28th, 1894. He was two years older than his brother James Floyd whose name also appears on the War Memorial.  Unlike Floyd, Garnet was drafted into the war under the Military Service Act of 1917, which is interesting as the posters for the act specifically state that it includes unmarried men born on or after October 13th, 1897; Garnet was born 3 years before 1897 and was indeed married. Regardless, he was called up  on February 18th, 1918 and arrived in Liverpool, England on May 27th, 1918. Garnet was then sent to France that September, and finally joined his unit there on October 5th, 1918. Shortly after being called up for the draft, Private Varey filled out an official will leaving everything to his wife, Mrs. Myrtle May Varey (maiden name Burton) of Brampton. At the time of his registration, Garnet was described as being 23 years old, having dark brown eyes and black hair, and having a distinctive scar on his right leg above his ankle from a previous accident. He also states that he had a serious case of pneumonia in 1912 when he was 18 years old, but he fully recovered from that. 
      Garnet’s time serving in the war seems to have been very unremarkable. There are no records of transfers, no hospital records, no records of discipline, no medals or badges, etc. He arrived back home on April 15th, 1919, less than a year after leaving for England (source: Library & Archives Canada). Joseph and Myrtle carried on living in Churchville after the war in a little white house  up Creditview Road beside the Gruenwald’s. Myrtle died the same year as Floyd - 1962, at the age of 61 or 62, and Garnet passed away 11 years later at 78 or 79 years old. They are buried together in Churchville Cemetery.

Private George William Williams was born December 16th, 1873 in Norfolk, England to James and Eliza Rosanna Williams (Ancestry.ca). His sister, who for reasons yet to be discovered, seems to have gone by the name Mrs. Ethel Beatrice Kett on census papers, by Mrs. Ivy Margaret Kett on George’s next of kin documents, and by Mrs. Ivy Ethel Kett on her gravestone, apparently came to Canada first, and was followed by George shortly thereafter. Both Ivy/Ethel and George ended up living in Churchville; Ivy/Ethel was married to Peter Kett and they had two daughters: Thelma and Betty (source: findagrave.com). George was single and worked as a “Bushman”.
        Back in England Williams had served for two years as a private with the 8th Norfolk Regiment, and when Canada declared war, he quickly volunteered his service with the 109th Battalion out of Victoria and Haliburton, but was rejected on the grounds of being legally blind in his left eye. On April 30th, 1917, however, at age 43, George was drafted into the Canadian Forestry Corps through the Toronto Forestry Draft (source: Library & Archives Canada). The Canadian Forestry Unit was created at the request of Britain in early 1916. Britain was experiencing an extreme shortage of timber, building supplies, etc. and the CFC was their answer. More than 25 000 people served in the Canadian Forestry Corps, and thousands of these were people who had previously been rejected from service due to physical disabilities like Private Williams (source: Yeoman of the Woods by Cameron Bartlett). Williams was stationed in France where he was likely supplying timber for the construction of trenches, shelters, hospitals, etc. He did this until the end of the war, and went home to Canada in July of 1919.  Once Williams returned home, his paper trail seems to have completely dried up. There seem to be no records of address changes, census mentions, no newspaper articles, no details on his death or where he was buried. 

Private Ellery George Wilson was born October 26th, 1894 to George Wilson and Catherine McClure Wilson. He was born in Churchville and lived and worked on his family’s farm on Creditview Road South of Steeles (7886 Creditview Road). Ellery was another villager who was drafted into the military during WW1 under the Military Service Act of 1917. He was called up on May 10th 1918 at 22 years of age, and at the time was described as having brown eyes and black hair.  Private WIlson was sent to the Niagara Training Camp to prepare for overseas service, however, six days into his training he ended up in the camp’s hospital feeling generally ill. Ellery spent 16 days in hospital being treated for pain in chest, weakness, loss of appetite, headache, cough, flushed face, cold-sores on mouth, and fever. Eventually he was diagnosed with bronchitis and once recovered was sent back to training with a recommendation of light duties for five days. On July 23rd, just over a month after he left the hospital, Ellery was discharged from service and sent back home from Niagara to Churchville for reasons not stated in his service files (source: Library & Archives Canada).
      Wilson continued to live and farm in Churchville, and died in 1979 aged 84 or 85. He is buried in Churchville Cemetery.

Private Roy Burnett Winter was born in Britannia (Mississauga) on December 14th, 1894 to Mrs. Rose Winter. His parents were married in Churchville, and it appears they attended Church in the village. Private Winter was drafted in May of 1918 under the Military Service Act. He had been a farmer before his draft, but once in the military was quickly transferred into the #3 Machine Gun Corps with whom he fought in France. In August of 1918 Roy was admitted into the Aldershott Military Isolation Hospital with a severe case of the mumps. He remained in isolation for 22 days as he recovered. Private Winter received the War Service Badge Class A for “seeing military service at the front, and being honourably discharged”, and was sent home on September 22nd, 1919, where he returned to working on his family’s farm in RR#6 Brampton - possibly the north side of Steeles (source: Ancestrylibrary.ca). 

       Private Winter married Daisy Dyer in 1925 and they had a son named Cameron Roy Leon Winter in 1926. He died on April 26th, 1979 and is buried in the Britannia United Church cemetery in Mississauga (source: Findagrave.com). 

Lieutenant Louis Burney McMurtry was born on March 13th, 1898, according to his birth records, census  documents, and school records at Upper Canada College, making his age upon enlistment in August 1915 only 17. On his military service files however, Burney reported that he was born in March of 1896 and was 19 years old. This makes Burney one of the estimated 20 000 underage soldiers enlisted in the Canadian Military in WW1, about 2000 of whom were killed overseas (source: TheCanadianEncyclopedia.ca). Previous to enlisting, Burney seems to have had a fairly well-to-do childhood. He was born in Toronto, but started high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In September 1913, aged 15, he started at Upper Canada College; continuing there until December 1914, aged 16 (source: Upper Canada College). Five months after leaving Upper Canada College, Burney’s father died in the sinking of the Lusitania, and his reasoning for enlisting despite being underage was likely a direct response to this. Burney’s father, Frederick, was a successful salesman and buyer when the Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland in May of 1915, leaving Burney, his sister Vedda, and mother Gertrude on their own. 

      When he enlisted, Burney was assigned to the 3rd Division Cyclists (later the Canadian Cyclists Battalion), and was stationed in France (source: Library & Archives Canada). Shortly into WW1 Canada saw the potential in creating a bicycle mounted army battalion. Bicycles could cover the same ground as a horse, but were quieter, stealthier, and required far less care and attention. At the time cyclists were thought to be of higher than average intelligence, and many were teetotallers, so it was thought they would make particularly good soldiers. As a cyclist, Burney would have received training in musketry, bombing, the bayonet, and the Lewis machine gun, and his bicycle would have been outfitted much like a cavalry horse. Cyclists carried out traffic control, and acted as trench guides, ambulance carriers and gravediggers. They were expected to be able to transport men and heavy equipment up to 60 km through rough terrain and deep mud in a single day. There were over 1200 cyclists in the Canadian army in WW1, and casualty rates were so high amongst them that they were commonly called the “Suicide Squad” (source: Canadian Cycling Magazine). 

        After dealing with some recurring health issues, Burney was transferred to the Canadian Corps of Military Police briefly in the summer of 1917, then promoted to Acting Corporal at the end of that summer (source: Library and Archives Canada). According to his write up on the Upper Canada College memorials, on November 21st, 1917, Burney was injured after being buried alive, but there is no mention of this anywhere in his official military files; in fact, three days after that date he is reported as being in the process of transferring to the Royal Flying Corps as a Flight Cadet. Unfortunately, the RAF has not digitized their WW1 files, and so information on Burney’s last few months is very sparse, but it appears he was made Lieutenant with the R.A.F, and then on October 14th, 1918, while fighting "17 enemy machines", his plane was shot down and he was killed in action. 

        Lieutenant McMurtry was originally buried at Oostroosebeke Communal Cemetery in Belgium as an Unknown Soldier; this is not a military cemetery and actually only contains the graves of two soldiers: McMurtry and another pilot who was KIA the year before. In November 1920 his grave was exhumed for identification purposes, and in the report it is written that locals had put a cross on his grave saying (in French), “English Pilot, died for our country”, with a date and plane ID number. At the bottom of the report someone has written, “Dame Adelaide Livingstone informed”. Dame Livingstone was a celebrated peace acitivist in England during war times, but it is a mystery why they would need to inform her of these findings. Eventually the investigation resulted in McMurtry getting a proper Canadian Military gravestone with his name on it.

Private Robert Oscar Andrews was born on November 4th, 1896 to Sarah Elizabeth Puckering Andrews and Thomas Andrews. He was born in the area of RR#6 in Brampton, which is around Chinguacousy Road north of Steeles. Andrews was 20 years old and working on a farm in the same area in October 1917 when he became part of the earliest wave of soldiers conscripted through the Military Service Act of 1917.  Robert had blue eyes and brown hair, was 5 ft. 7, and had a scar on his right wrist. In April he was sent for training at Exhibition Camp and while there developed tonsillitis for which he was admitted to the camp hospital for 8 days.
      In June, 1918 Private Andrews arrived in England, and joined the 75th Battalion, with whom he traveled to France on October 22nd (source: Library & Archives Canada). When they arrived in France, Robert’s battalion was sent right into the Battle of Valenciennes - a minor battle that was part of the 100 Days Offensive. Tragically, during the capture of Marchipont (a town right on the border of Belgium and France) Private Andrews was killed in action (source: HeritageMississauga.com). Andrews died on November 6th, 1918; two days after his 22nd birthday, and 5 days before the Treaty of Versailles was signed putting an end to the war. According to Heritage Mississauga, he was the last person from the area to be killed in action during WW1.  In his official military will he left everything he had to his mother.
      Private Andrews was buried by his comrades at Aulnoy Communal Cemetery in France. This cemetery holds the graves of over 150 Commonwealth casualties of WW1, all of whom died in late October or early November 1918. He is also featured on his parents’ grave stone at Dixon’s Union Cemetery on Kennedy Road, just south of Old School Road (source: Findagrave.com). Andrews was awarded the British War Medal for service to the Empire, and the Victory Medal for serving in a theatre of war during WW1. 

Private Cyril B. Dickson was born in Toronto on June 21st, 1891. His mother, who is listed as his next of kin in his military files, was named as Mrs. E. C. Jarvis and her address was in Chicago Illinois (source: Library & Archives Canada). Jarvis attended Ridley College, a prestigious boarding school in St. Catharine’s, Ontario from the age of 11 to 15. He then went on to train as an electrician before enlisting with the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles in 1915 at age 24. More than 400 of Ridley College’s graduates were in active service during WW1, and 61 of them died there, including Private Dickson (source: Ridleycollege.com).  Dickson was killed in action while his battalion was trapped in the Ypres Salient on August 18th, 1916; a salient is a bulge in the enemy lines which the Allies controlled; a very dangerous place to be. According to the Ridley College website, Dickson was killed just before he was due to head back to England for a commission (paying money to the British Army to be made an officer of a cavalry or infantry regiment). Private Cyril Dickson is buried at Bedford House Cemetery in Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium (source: findagrave.com). 

*Please note: we haven't been able to establish Private Dickson's connection to the village yet, though he must have had one to have appeared on the original memorial plaques. Updates to come, hopefully.

Private Ernest Fairhurst was born on May 6th, 1888 to Annie & Henry Fairhurst in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. In England Ernest trained as a butcher, but in 1909, at the age of 21 and on his own, he emigrated to Canada. Eventually, according to the 1911 census, he found himself working and lodging at Levi & Matilda Hall’s farm in Churchville. Interestingly, while the other farm workers featured so far listed their trade as ‘Labourer’, Ernest listed his as ‘Farmer’. 

      On December 6th, 1915, at the age of 27, Fairhurst volunteered to serve in the war and was assigned to the 123rd Battalion C.E.F Royal Grenadiers. He arrived in England 8 months later in August 1916, and by early December he was with his battalion in France. During his first couple of months in France, Fairhurst suffered repeatedly from gastritis, but in mid-February seems to have recovered and rejoined his unit. Sadly, Fairhurst’s unit was at Vimy Ridge on April 11th, 1917 (source: Library & Archives Canada): a day that lives on in infamy as being a particularly terrible one, even for World War 1. On the allies side, 3 193 people lost their lives that day, one of those being Private Ernest Fairhurst (source: Blog - On This Day World War One). Ernest was killed in action and was buried at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery in Vimy. He had written a full will the previous September, appointing Jacob Wismer Hall, son of Levi and Matilda Hall, as the executor of his estate, and asking that all of his possessions be divided equally between his two sisters: Jennie, a “spinster nurse”, and Lilly, the wife of a butcher in England. Jennie was presented with the Memorial Cross in honour of her brother losing his life to the cause (source: Library & Archives Canada). 

*Thank you to Pte. Letty’s great-niece, Linda Wilson, for this write-up*

      Howard Radford Letty, my paternal great-uncle, was the only son of Cyrus Letty, (1863-1955), and Mary Fleming, (1872-1934). He was born on January 28, 1896 in Brampton where he resided for most of his short life. Private H. R. Letty was killed in the early hours of October 8, 1916 at Regina Trench in the Battle of the Somme.

      Cy and Mary Letty had had three older children all of whom later married: Kathryn (Letty) Campbell, Della Blossom (Letty) Wilson and Ruth Elizabeth (Letty) Wallwork.

      The 1901 and 1911 censuses recorded this Letty family as continuing to live in Brampton, latterly on West Street. The family was Methodist and of Irish origin. In 1911 Howard was apprenticing locally as a shoe cutter. Interestingly, his paternal grandfather, Edward Letty, (1838-1912) had been a shoemaker when he emigrated about 1854 from County Antrim and settled subsequently in Churchville.

      On February 19, 1916 Howard to a trip to New York State to visit a friend, Frank MacDonald in Buffalo. The American immigration manifest and entry card showed that Howard was twenty-one years of age, single, literate and employed as a shoe finisher in Toronto. His next trip, three months later, would be overseas as a soldier.

      On February 28 Howard reported to the Toronto Recruiting Depot for voluntary enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His attestation paper described him as being five feet four inches with blue eyes and fair hair and complexion. Further, his occupation was listed as that of a shoemaker and his residence as being at 465 Roncesvalles Avenue. He affirmed that he had had no experience in any military force or active militia. It appears that he had back-dated his date of birth to April 28, 1895 to remove the age barrier for enlistment.

     Private Letty, #862748, was originally assigned to the 180th Battalion. Then he was transferred to the 95th Battalion which departed Canada on May 15, 1916 aboard the RMS Olympic.

    On October 1, 1916 Private Letty was transferred a final time to the 3rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, Central Ontario Regimentwhich was immediately deployed to France.

    On October 8, 1916 Private Letty was hit by mortar fire while scaling an embankment. A friend reported that he had been standing next to Howard as they climbed the crest of a trench. He related that they had been side by side on the battlefield when Howard took a direct hit following which there was no sign of him. Initially, Howard was reported as missing and later was confirmed killed in action.

    The broken remains of this Canadian soldier would lie mired on the barren battlefield until discovered after the war. This also was the tragic fate of thousands of other war casualties loved, lost and mourned by parents and siblings; spouses and children; and, sweethearts, relatives and friends.

     Private Letty was interred eventually in the Adanac Military Cemetery in Miraumont, France. (Adanac being the reverse spelling of Canada). He is commemorated in the 1916 Book of Remembrance in Ottawa and on the headstone of his parents' graves in Churchville cemetery.

On the second anniversary of Private Letty's death, his family published this memoriam in The Toronto Daily Star:

"LETTY, In sad and loving memory of our only son and brother, Pte. Howard R. Letty, 862748, 3rd Battalion, formerly of the 95th Battalion, killed in action at the Battle of Regina Trench, Oct. 8th, 1916.

We miss his face, his voice, his hand

He who in vain regret repine

What nobler offering could he give

Than give his life for yours and mine?

Sadly missed by Mother, Father and Sisters."

Private John Norman McBride was born on June 16th, 1883 in the Village of Churchville to John and Elsie McBride. His career before the war was as a Motorman, which is someone who operates an electric vehicle such as a Tram, Streetcar or Subway Train. He enlisted on April 24th, 1916 at the age of 22 and was assigned to the 4th Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park (source: Library & Archives Canada). An Ammunition Sub-Park was basically a fleet of lorries / delivery trucks used to transport munitions and supplies, along with a workshop for maintaining them (source: longlongroad.co.uk).
        Upon enlistment, a note was made about McBride having had two recent operations resulting in large scars on his back and abdomen, but he was listed as ‘fit’ and given the green light to go overseas. Looking through his service records however, this was clearly not a good idea; McBride’s health quickly began failing once he arrived overseas. Private McBride got to England via steamship on May 29th, 1916, eventually landing in France in August of that year. That September, he was sentenced to ‘stoppage of pay’ for two days to repay the cost of a government issued tent bag that he had ‘willfully destroyed while on active duty’. That same month, Private McBride began suffering greatly from what seems to be chronic and severe kidney issues; it turned out the scars mentioned in his enlistment papers were from operations to remove kidney stones the previous year. He took sick that month while serving at Ypres, with stabbing pains on the left side of his back near the scar from his previous operation.

      By January 1917, McBride was sent back to England and admitted to hospital there due to severe pains in his back - the doctor reported that he looked very well, and that all tests and an x-ray came out normal. This doctor also wrote that McBride said he had noticed the back pain gets particularly bad one hour after eating candy or anything acidic, that he cannot sleep on his right side, and he has pain whenever he walks. He was diagnosed with myalgia (muscle and joint aches and pains) and treated with mustard leaf. At the end of February McBride was deemed fit for duty and returned to service, but by mid-March he was back in hospital and an x-ray showed he had a stone in his kidney “the size of a shrapnel bullet” (about 7.5 cm). Through May there was no improvement and he was sent home to Canada for further medical treatment. At the end of May 1917, McBride saw a vocational counselor who recommended he take some business courses out of the necessity of a new career due to his ‘permanent illness’, and in July of 1917 he underwent another operation to remove the 7.5 cm stone at Toronto General Hospital. McBride’s health seems to have taken a steep decline after this operation - the wound where they went in to remove the stone never properly healed, and in October, 1917 he was transferred to the Toronto Base Hospital with severe pain in the left kidney and hip region, a fever, and an extremely infected post-operation wound. Despite doctors trying everything they had available at the time, Private McBride’s wound continued to get worse and his health continued to decline rapidly. 

      By January 1918 he was suffering from paralysis of his limbs, a ‘very troublesome stomach’, continual fevers, and ongoing extreme pain. In February none of this was improved and he was declared ‘extremely toxic’, and on March 11th at 10:35am, after being treated with his daily dose of whiskey mixed in egg nog, Private McBride died. He was awarded the Memorial Cross, the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal, and was buried at Toronto’s Prospect Cemetery (source: Library & Archives Canada). 

Private Samuel James Angus McClure was born on April 27th, 1887 in Churchville to Elizabeth Ann Shields McClure and Samuel McClure. He grew up with five siblings. According to the 1911 census, the family had moved to Edmonton, Alberta, and at some point between then and when Angus enlisted in 1915, Samuel Senior died and the family moved to Kerrisdale, Vancouver, B.C (source: Ancestry.ca). At the time of his enlistment in March of 1915, Angus was a 28 year old carpenter in British Columbia. He belonged to the active militia group known as the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles in B.C.
      Private McClure was 5 ft. 10 with blue eyes and grey hair; he was assigned to the 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry who fought in France. Interestingly, Angus’ much younger brother, Lawson, enlisted one month after him, stating on his enlistment papers that he, also, was born in 1887 and was 28 years old, despite the fact that he was actually born in 1899 and was only 15 years old. Lawson did manage to train in Vancouver with a regiment for seven months before being docked four days pay for an unknown issue, and immediately afterwards being discharged from the army as, “Not likely to become an efficient soldier”. Meanwhile, Angus McClure transferred units three times over a span of three months, joining his final unit in France on September 4th, 1915, and being killed in action three weeks later on September 27th (source: Library & Archives Canada). Angus was originally buried in the Rosenburg Chateau Military Cemetery, but transferred to nearby Berks Cemetery Extension with the entire rest of the Rosenburg cemetery in the 1930s when it was established that Rosenburg could not be used in perpetuity (source: www.findagrave.com). According to the cemetery website, the vast majority of those buried at Berks were killed not in major offensives like Ypres, but in day to day trench warfare and small scale attacks on the enemy (source: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission).
      Private McClure was posthumously awarded the Memorial Cross, the 1914/1915 Star (for those who saw frontline battle during those years), the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal (source: Library & Archives Canada).