Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 26, 1898
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMr. John Wesley Loyst (father), Chase, British Columbia
Trade / CallingBookkeeper
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2557428
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion3rd Brigade
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentVancouver, British Columbia
Address at EnlistmentChase, British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentDecember 8, 1917
Age at Enlistment19
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 4, 1992
Age at Death94
Buried AtOcean View Burial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia

Loyst, Joseph Andrew

Gunner Joseph Andrew Loyst enlisted at age 19 and served in France with the 3rd Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. He was seriously wounded in September 1918 during the Hundred Days Offensive and he spent the next year recovering in hospitals.

Andrew was the son of John Wesley Loyst Sr. and his wife Mary Sinclair. John grew up in Addington County, Ontario and Mary was born in Port Kent, Maine. They were married in October 1888 in the town of Fort Frances, in northwestern Ontario. Their first child, Alma Mary, was born in Fort Frances in 1890. A year or two later the family moved to Keewatin where John found work in the lumber industry. Four children were born there: John Wesley Jr. (1893), Robert (1896), Joseph Andrew (26 May 1898) and Ethel (1900). From Keewatin John and Mary moved to the Lake Francis area in the RM of Woodlands, Manitoba. Donald Cameron (1904) and Isabel (1907) were born in Manitoba. Around 1909 the Loyst family moved west to British Columbia and settled in the town of Chase. The youngest son, Archie, was born in Chase in 1910. John worked there as a carpenter and later as a contractor.

Andrew turned 19 years old in the spring of 1917 and he enlisted later that year, signing up in Vancouver on 11 December 1917. He was a farmer but he was working as a bookkeeper when he enlisted, and living with his family in Chase. He joined the 68th Depot Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. Two months later he was sent overseas in a draft, embarking from Halifax on 10 February 1918 on the SS Lapland and landing at Glasgow, Scotland. He was assigned to the Reserve Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, and he trained with them for six months. The Canadians were heavily involved in the final period of the war, starting with the Battle of Amiens in early August, and Andrew arrived in France as a reinforcement that month. He was transferred to the 3rd Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, and he joined them in the field on 1 September.

After their success at Amiens the Canadians moved north to the Arras area and by the third week in September plans were in place to cross the Canal du Nord. The offensive began on 27 September and the 4th Canadian Division took part in the assault the first day, supported by several artillery brigades including Andrew’s unit. Andrew was riding on the limber of a howitzer on 27 September when a large shell exploded nearby. He was blown off the limber onto the road then run over. He suffered injuries to his thigh, left hip and pelvis. He was taken to a British field ambulance and evacuated to No. 38 Casualty Clearing Station. From there he was moved to No. 55 General Hospital in Boulogne and by early October he was in England.

Andrew spent two and a half months at Cambridge Military Hospital, from 2 October to 19 December. From there he was transferred to Granville Special Canadian Hospital in Buxton. In February 1919 he became ill with influenza and while recovering he developed chronic severe gastritis. He was a patient at No. 9 Canadian General Hospital at Kinmel Park from March until May. After spending a further two weeks at a hospital in Liverpool he was on his way back to Canada. He was invalided home on the HS Essequibo on 10 June, arriving on 21 June via Portland, Maine. A week later he was admitted to Shaughnessy Military Hospital in Vancouver.

In August Andrew had surgery at the Annex in Vancouver and he recovered from 25 September to 7 November at Esquimalt Hospital on Vancouver Island. A medical exam recommended that he be released from the hospital and receive further treatment as an outpatient. He was discharged from the army on 7 November 1919 in Victoria, listed as medically unfit for further service. His older brother John Wesley had enlisted in Kamloops in 1916. He was wounded at Vimy Ridge but he returned to France after recovering and served until June 1919.

Andrew stayed in BC after the war, moving to Vancouver around 1935 and getting married about five years later. His wife, Ena Zulekia Brown, was born in 1902 in Sussex, New Brunswick, the daughter of Albert and Augusta Brown. Her family had moved to BC around 1909 and settled in the town of Chase. Andrew and his wife lived in Vancouver where he worked for many years for the Canadian White Pine Co. Ltd. He was a member of the Tuberculous Veterans’ Section of the Canadian Legion, Vancouver Branch. After Ena’s father died they lived with Augusta at her home on 39th Avenue East. Ena died in St. Paul’s Hospital in June 1967, at age 64. Andrew passed away in Shaughnessy Veterans Hospital on 4 September 1992, at age 94. They are both buried in Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby.

By Becky Johnson

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