Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | March 3, 1896 |
Place of Birth | Thessalon, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Elizabeth Hagen, mother, Thessalon, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Banker |
Religion | Presbyterian |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 3110540 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 1st Depot Battalion, 2nd Central Ontario Regiment |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Conscripted |
Address at Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | June 10, 1918 |
Age at Enlistment | 22 |
Theatre of Service | Canada |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | March 3, 1919 |
Age at Death | 23 |
Buried At | Forest Lawn Cemetery, Thessalon, Ontario |
Harold Linton Hagen was born on 3 March 1896 in Thessalon, Ontario. His father George Sanderson Hagen was from Ashfield Township and had married his first wife Mary Jane Fitzgerald in Thessalon in 1888. George and Mary Jane gave birth to three children, Pearl (1890), Elizabeth Frances (1891-1891), and Raymond (1893). Mary Jane died in 1895 and George remarried later that year. His second wife Elizabeth McCaig was also from Ashfield Township. Harold was their first born followed by Norman (1897), Warner (1899), Olive (1902), Lilian (1904), a stillborn baby in 1905, Hazel (1907), George (1910), and Mary Margaret (1912). Over the years George’s occupation was given as farmer, labourer, and bus driver. Sadly he died in 1912 in Sault Saint Marie due to complications from appendicitis surgery.
Harold had been living in Kenora, Ontario and working as a banker/accountant at the Imperial Bank when he signed his recruitment papers in Niagara on the Lake on 10 June 1918 with the 1st Depot Battalion 2nd Central Ontario Regiment. He had had his medical examination the previous November in Kenora, classified as A2, impaired vision in his right eye noted. He listed his mother Elizabeth in Thessalon as next of kin. Harold was to serve in Canada, discharged due to demobilization on 20 January 1919 in Toronto. Harold’s stepbrother Ray and brothers Norman and Warner all served overseas during the war.
After the war Harold was posted to the Imperial Bank in Port Arthur, Ontario. Sadly, on his 23rd birthday, Harold died on 3 March 1919 in St Joseph’s Hospital in Port Arthur of Spanish influenza. He was predeceased by his father and sister Hazel who died in 1915 of diphtheria. Along with his mother Elizabeth who died in 1938, Harold is interred in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Thessalon.
by Judy Stockham
Grave marker photo courtesy of Canadian Gravemarker Gallery
Obituary provided by the Thunder Bay Public Library