Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | December 10, 1888 |
Place of Birth | Portland,, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Ruth Byington, mother, Kenora, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Carpenter |
Religion | Church of England |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 2383492 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 52nd Battalion |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Conscripted |
Address at Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | January 14, 1918 |
Age at Enlistment | 29 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | January 1, 1970 |
Buried At | Emmanuel Anglican Cemetery, Portland, Ontario |
Napoleon Byington was born on 10 December 1888 in Portland, Leeds, Ontario. His parents were Napoleon and Ruth (Dunn) Byington who had married in 1871 in South Crosby, Leeds and who farmed in the Portland area. Napoleon and Ruth’s children were David (1872), George (1875-1942), Milton (1877), Charlotte (1880-1973), Johanna (1881-1960), Melbourn (1882-1962), and Napoleon. The couple also raised Charlotte’s son Charles Floyd as their own. At some point after the 1911 Canada census, Napoleon, along with his mother Ruth, and brothers Melbourn and Floyd, moved to Kenora where Napoleon had found work as a carpenter.
Following his medical examination in Kenora in late November of 1917, Napoleon signed his recruitment papers on 14 January 1918 in Port Arthur, Ontario. His occupation was given as carpenter and his next of kin as his mother Ruth in Kenora. As a Private with the 4th Draft of the 1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment, he embarked from Halifax aboard the Tunisian on 8 April 1918.
Once in England Napoleon was transferred to the 18th Reserve Battalion and then on to the 52nd Battalion on August 14th, joining the unit in the field in France on the 19th. Just over a week later, on the 27th, Napoleon was admitted to the No 8 Canadian Field Ambulance, having sustained a through and through gunshot wound to the arm. From there he was transferred to the 4th General Hospital in Camiers before being invalided to the 3rd West General Hospital in Cardiff.
After recuperating at the Woodcote Park Convalescent Hospital at Epsom, Napoleon was posted to the 18th Reserve Battalion before being struck off strength to the 52nd Battalion on 16th of November, arriving at the unit in the field back in France on the 24th of December. Returning to England in mid February of 1919, Napoleon was discharged in Port Arthur on the 28th of May.
Napoleon returned to Kenora after the war, found on the Kenora 1921 Canada census living with his mother and working as a carpenter. In October of 1925 he was listed on a border crossing record at Detroit as living in Windsor and crossing to Detroit where he intended to reside. He eventually made his way back to Portland, listed on the 1935 Voter’s List for Portland as a carpenter. Napoleon died in 1970 and is interred in the Emmanuel Anglican Cemetery in Portland along with his father Napoleon and sister Charlotte.
by Judy Stockham
grave marker photograph by Ronald Welch