Merritt War Memorial, British Columbia
Merritt War Memorial, British Columbia
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Robert Clifton Singleton was born on 4th October 1887 in Sunderland; he was the middle child of Lancashire born Robert Singleton, superintendent of the George Hudson Charity, and his Sunderland born wife Isabella Hardy. When Robert was three years old he was living in Peel Street in Bishopwearmouth with his parents, his paternal grandmother, an uncle, two older sisters, Ellen and Susannah, and two younger brothers, John and Cecil. After his father died in 1895 his mother remarried in 1900, and the 1901 census shows only Robert living with his mother and new husband, Robert Lamb, in William Street, Tunstall; the other four siblings had travelled to Lancashire to live with their father’s family.
At some point Robert attended Sunderland Orphan Asylum.
December 1908 saw Robert leaving Southampton on board the mail ship Sabor bound for Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the following March he was crossing the Mexican/US border bound for Laredo, Texas. From Texas he made his way to California and from San Jose in July 1909 he crossed into Canada making for Hosmer a small town near Fernie, British Columbia. Three years later on 24th April 1912 Robert was still in Hosmer working as a hoistman and he married Felling girl Eleanor Watt in Christ Church, Fernie. They set up home in Hosmer and moved later to Merritt, British Columbia where their son Robert was born in 1914.
At the start of the new year of 1916 Robert Clifton Singleton enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Merritt where they were recruiting miners for the newly formed Tunnelling Companies. Posted to No. 2 Company as Sapper 503409 he almost immediately travelled to Halifax where they embarked for England on board the SS Missanabie on 22nd January arriving eight days later. After some initial army training they arrived in France in April 1916 as part of the 2nd Canadian Division, marched into Belgium, and almost immediately started work on some dugouts at Armagh Woods. May saw them in billets at Reningheist and working around Ypres, and in June they were again working at Armagh Woods, digging shallow defensive galleries and listening posts in front of the trenches. On the night of 1st/2nd June the Germans attacked and captured the area in which they were working and over 90 men were reported missing one of whom was Sapper 503409 Singleton.
Robert Clifton Singleton is remembered in Sunderland on S140.048 part 9 page 202, S140.097 and S140.116
He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, and on the War Memorial in Merritt, British Columbia.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sapper Singleton