Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | November 3, 1897 |
Place of Birth | Kenora, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Eliza Wynne (mother) 718 Banning Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba |
Trade / Calling | Grain business |
Religion | Church of England |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 234329 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 8th Battalion |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Place of Enlistment | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
Address at Enlistment | 718 Banning Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba |
Date of Enlistment | March 17, 1916 |
Age at Enlistment | 18 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | August 13, 1953 |
Age at Death | 55 |
Buried At | Park Lawn Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario |
Plot | Section S, Grave 3 |
Lance Corporal Harold Everett Wynne enlisted in Winnipeg in March 1916, at age 18. He suffered a bayonet wound in September 1917 while training in France and he was invalided back to Canada about four months later.
Harold was the only son of John Everett Wynne and Eliza Fowler. John and his wife were both born in Ontario, John in Toronto and Eliza (aka Lizzie/Lila) in the town of Mitchell. They were married in Toronto in 1896. John was a manufacturer and salesman and he and his family moved a number of times. Harold was born in the town of Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), in northwestern Ontario, on 3 November 1897. When the 1901 census was taken John and Eliza were living in Toronto. By 1906 they had moved to Killarney in southwest Manitoba and a daughter, Phillipa Lila Irene, was born there in October 1906.
By 1911 the family had settled in Winnipeg and John was employed as a boot and shoe salesman, his career for the next ten years or more. Harold lived with his parents and by early 1916 he was working as a clerk/accountant for a grain company. He enlisted in Winnipeg on 17 March 1916, signing up with the 203rd Battalion. The recruits trained at Camp Hughes that summer. Harold was appointed Acting Corporal in March and promoted to Sergeant in April. The battalion headed overseas in the fall, embarking from Halifax on the SS Grampian on 26 October and arriving in Liverpool about nine days later.
In January 1917 Harold was assigned to the 18th Reserve Battalion and he trained with them for four months. On 28 May he was transferred to the 8th Battalion and sent to France. After some time with an entrenching battalion he joined his new unit in the field near the end of June. From 1 July until mid-August he was an instructor at the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade School. He had reverted to the rank of Private but was appointed Lance Corporal on 15 August, the first day of the Battle of Hill 70. The battle ended on 25 August and afterwards the Canadians stayed in the Lens area for almost two months.
Harold was accidentally wounded during training on 24 September near Lens. He suffered a bayonet wound to his abdomen and he was taken to a field ambulance then to a casualty clearing station. On 3 October he was moved to No. 30 General Hospital in Calais. He was evacuated to England on 14 October and admitted to the military hospital in Colchester. At the end of October he was transferred to Bearwood convalescent hospital where he recovered for about seven weeks. He was discharged to duty on 18 December. After a further medical exam it was decided that Harold would be invalided to Canada. He sailed from Liverpool on 31 January 1918 on the SS Olympic, arriving in Halifax via New York two weeks later. He was discharged in Winnipeg on 14 March, due to being medically unfit for further war service.
Harold stayed in Winnipeg after his discharge, living with his parents and working as a clerk/accountant for an insurance company. His sister Irene was married in Toronto in 1928 to Walter Kenneth Hansford, a news agent. Harold’s father passed away in Winnipeg in 1951, at age 86, and he’s buried in Brookside Cemetery. Harold died at the Ontario Hospital in Whitby, Ontario on 13 August 1953, at age 55. Next of kin was his mother Eliza Wynne in Toronto. Harold is buried in Park Lawn Cemetery in Etobicoke, now part of the city of Toronto.
By Becky Johnson
Photo of Eliza courtesy of Fowler public tree on ancestry.com.