William Tinlin gravestone, Calgary, Canada

George and Isabella Tinlin gravestone, Kirk Yethol

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born at Kelso in the Scottish Borders on 9th June 1893 William Purves Tinlin was the son of farm labourer George Tinlin and his Northumberland born wife Isabella (nee Purves). George, his oldest brother was born in Ford, Northumberland in 1875, but all his other siblings, Benjamin, Gideon, Margaret, and his younger brother and sister, James and Isabella were born in Scotland. The 1911 census shows that the family had moved to live at Akeld Steads, Wooler, where both William and his father worked with horses.

At the end of March 1912 William, along with his older brothers Benjamin and Gideon sailed on the SS Scotian from Glasgow to Canada, with the intention of making for Saskatchewan to find work as farm labourers, but in fact they settled near Drumheller, Alberta and applied for Homestead Grants to establish their own farm.

Farmers were originally exempt from the army draft and William’s brother Ben successfully appealed his call-up, but on 9th July 1918 William was conscripted as Private 3213968 and reported to the 1st Depot Battalion, Alberta Regiment. Based at Sarcee Camp in Calgary, on 18th October William was taken ill with influenza and admitted to the camp isolation hospital, but he suffered a relapse and died from severe pneumonia on 13th November 1918.

William Tinlin is remembered in Wooler on W68.01 and on his parents’ gravestone in Kirk Yetholm, Scotland.

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

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