Gravenhurst War Memorial, Ontario, Canada

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

William was one of the ten living children born to Darlington watchmaker Arthur Middleton and his wife Margaret (nee Alderson), who at the start of their married life was a weaver in the worsted mills of Darlington. He was their third child and second son, after Lily and Thomas, born in January 1892 and baptised at St. Paul’s Church a month later. William spent three years as a member of the Northumberland Hussars and as he is not living with his parents at the time of the 1911 census it could be assumed that he was with the army at that time.

July 1912 saw him sailing from Liverpool to Quebec on board the SS Virginian, making for Toronto where he found work as a chauffeur cum mechanic and served in the active militia cavalry regiment, the Governor General’s Bodyguard. On 28th November 1914 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Toronto, becoming Private 4015 attached to the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles, and giving his mother in Darlington as his next of kin. William underwent his initial training but at his medical examination before sailing for England William was found to have pulmonary tuberculosis and was admitted to Muskoka Sanatorium in Gravenhurst, Ontario on 9th August 1915.

The Circumstances of Casualty report reads 'he was getting along nicely, but then had several setbacks such as a small haemorrhage'. He died on 18th December 1915 and is buried in a soldier’s plot in St. James’ Anglican Cemetery, Gravenhurst.

His name does not appear on any local war memorial.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, and on the Gravenhurst War Memorial, Ontario.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Middleton