Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 4, 1896
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinClifford Beaton, brother, 2044 Rose Street, Regina, Saskatchewan
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number3352911
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion Saskatchewan Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentRegina, Saskatchewan
Address at EnlistmentSummerberry PO, Saskatchewan
Date of EnlistmentJune 20, 1918
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathMarch 27, 1974
Age at Death78
Buried AtOcean View Burial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia
PlotBalsam Lot 621 Space 6

Beaton, William Albert

The son of Duncan Beaton and Matilda Mullen, William Albert Beaton was born on 4 June 1896 in Keewatin, Ontario. His father had come to the Keewatin area with his first wife Sarah Carmedy and their daughter Mable by the late 1870’s, giving birth to another child, Florence, in 1880. However tragedy struck the family in 1883 with the death of Sarah in August and their baby Sarah Agnes in October. Sadly, Florence died in 1886 of scarlet fever. Duncan and Matilda had three children, Clifford George (1887), Mazie Matilda (1890), and William. Although Duncan worked off and on for the local mills, listed as a teamster at the time of William’s birth, the 1901 Canada census found the family farming in Keewatin. By 1906 William and his brother Clifford were living in a railway camp in the Qu’Appelle valley in Saskatchewan where their mother was working as a cook. In August of 1914, Matilda died in Saskatchewan.

William signed his recruitment papers on 20 June 1918 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He gave his occupation as farmer, address as the Summerberry PO, and his brother Clifford in Regina as next of kin. He served in Canada with the 1st Depot Battalion Saskatchewan Regiment, discharged in January of 1919 with rank of Private.

By the 1921 Canada census William was living in Deer Park, British Columbia where he was listed as working at odd jobs. On 2 January 1929, in nearby Nelson, William married Elsie Long. The daughter of Henry and Sarah (née Edgington) Long, Elsie was born in 1898 in Leytonstone, Essex, England. Along with her parents and brother Walter, Elsie had arrived in Halifax aboard the Barvarian in March of 1903. By the 1921 Canada census she was living in Deer Park with her widowed father and brother.

William worked as a steam engineer, making Nelson their home. He and Elsie had at least two children, Betty and Larry. William died on 27 March 1974 as a result of a single vehicle car accident on Highway No 3 near Hope, British Columbia. Also killed in the accident were his daughter Betty Boyar and granddaughter Lisa Boyar. He was predeceased by his father Duncan in 1926 in Deer Park, his brother Clifford in 1933 in Regina, and his sister Mazie Matilda in 1968 in Vernon, British Columbia. Elsie, who had been living with her son in Coquitlam, died in New Westminster in 1984. William and Elsie are interred in the Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby.

by Judy Stockham

Grave marker photographs provided by Vic Gibson, findagrave.com.


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