Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | June 28, 1890 |
Place of Birth | Brandon, Manitoba |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Thomas Myles, father, PO Indian Head, Saskatchewan |
Trade / Calling | Boiler Maker |
Religion | Church of England |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 199305 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 46th Battalion |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Date of Enlistment | April 15, 1916 |
Age at Enlistment | 25 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | June 20, 1963 |
Age at Death | 73 |
Buried At | Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario |
Plot | 9E-9-1 |
William Thomas Myles was born on 28 June 1890 in Brandon, Manitoba. His father Thomas Myles (Miles) was from Lydney, Gloucestershire while his mother Selina Price was from nearby Shorncote. The couple married on 21 June 1888, marriage registered in the District of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Later that year they immigrated to Canada and were living in Montreal when they gave birth to daughter Sarah Jane. By 1890 the family had moved west to Brandon, Manitoba where William was born and from there on to Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Children born in Saskatchewan were Myrtle Aileen (1892), Bertha Fanny (1893), Mary Ann Ethel (1895), George Henry (1897), Walter James (1900), Levina May (1902), Violet Irene (1905), Harold Edward (1907), Dorothy Maud (1911), Alferd Eli (1914-1914), and John Stewart (1916). Father Thomas was employed as a farmer and janitor.
By 1912 William had moved to Kenora, Ontario where he found work with the Canadian Pacific Railway, first in the roundhouse and later as a boilermaker and electric welder. William signed his attestation papers on 15 April 1916 in Fort William, Ontario, giving his father Thomas back in Indian Head as next of kin. He embarked with the 94th Battalion from Halifax aboard the Olympic on 28 June 1916.
Once in England William was transferred to the 32nd Reserve Battalion and then on to the 46th Battalion, taken on strength in the field 7 September 1916. On 10 April 1917, at Vimy Ridge, William suffered severe shrapnel wounds to the face, jaw, and neck. The next day he was invalided to England to the East Leeds War Hospital in Harehills, Leeds. In June he was transferred to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital at Woodcote Park, Epsom and then on to the Granville Canadian Specialty Hospital in Ramsgate for a few days. From there he was moved to the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent in August. He was eventually discharged as a patient from the No 10 Canadian General Hospital in April of 1918, was awarded a Good Conduct Badge, and was attached to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. By the end of March of 1919, William was on his way back to Canada.
Once back, William resumed working for the Canadian Pacific Railway, for a while in Ignace, Ontario and then in Kenora. On 2 April 1920, William married Mary Isabel Mansfield, daughter of John and Isabella (née Tweedley) Mansfield. Mary’s father had died in 1902 and Isabella later married Tip Holland in Kenora. Although living in Ignace at the time, William and Mary married in Kenora. The couple had at least one child, a daughter Bernice born in 1921 in Ignace.
William retired from the CPR in 1955 and was a member of the Goldhill Lodge IOOF, the No 261 International Order of Boilermakers, the Lake of the Woods Masonic Lodge, and the Canadian Legion. Predeceased by daughter Bernice in 1945, he died on 20 June 1963 in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Mary, his mother Selina (who lived to just days shy of her 109th birthday), and three brothers and six sisters. His father had died in 1918 in Indian Head. Mary later married John V Campbell and died in 1972 in Kenora. She is interred beside William.
William’s brother George signed recruitment papers with the 1st Depot Battalion Saskatchewan Regiment in June of 1918 in Regina and was discharged due to demobilization on 25 November 1918.
by Judy Stockham
photograph courtesy of G Stamford