Born in Dudley, Northumberland on 1st April 1881, William was the oldest of three brothers who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His parents were railwayman William Baty from Waskerley and his wife Sarah (nee Giles) of Blackhill, and the year after young William’s birth the family moved to live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa where father William worked as the station master, and Robert the youngest son was born there. The family returned to Northumberland in 1891 and in 1893 father William sailed for Canada to be joined in September 1894 by Sarah and the three boys in Portage de la Prairie, Manitoba where their daughter Violet Grace was born in 1896.

William joined a local militia group the 90th Winnipeg Rifles Regiment and found work as a bank clerk. Aged 21 on 11th December 1901 he enlisted with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles as Private 337 of “A” Squadron and four weeks later he sailed with the, on the SS Manhattan to Durban, South Africa, arriving some four weeks later. After training in Natal he served in action for three months in the Boer War being awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with three clasps. Returning to Canada in early August on board the SS Winnefridian he was discharged on disbandment of the regiment.

By 1904 William was working for the Hudson’s Bay Company in Winnipeg then moving to live in Edmonton, Alberta where he was commissioned as a Lieutenant with the 19th Alberta Dragoons, a local militia group, having previously served with the 101st Edmonton Fusiliers Regiment. On 3rd August 1911 he married Marjory Howland in Edmonton (her sister Dorothy went on to marry William’s brother Edward two years later), and their daughter Joan Madeline was born in 1913.

Enlisting at the end of 1914 with 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles in Lethbridge, William, who listed his occupation as that of gentleman, was appointed Captain with HQ Company, Adjutant in February and was promoted to Major in March 1915. In mid June 3CMR sailed on board SS Megantic from Montreal to Plymouth and a posting to East Sandling Camp, Hampshire. Proceeding to France in late September, in December Major Baty took command of “D” Company 2CMR Battalion, part of 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division.

Then posted to the Canadian Training Division in Shorncliffe, Kent where he qualified as Distinguished from a Machine Gun and Musketry Course, in May he returned to Canada where he was posted to Military District 1 in London, Ontario, where he was appointed OC Recruiting and Organization.

In August 1917 Major Baty was posted to the Adjutant General’s Office in Ottawa, and he remained a member of the permanent force, living at Stanley Barracks, Toronto, until his retirement in 1936 from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, having been presented with the Colonial Auxiliary Long Service Medal. William and Marjory then moved to England, the 1939 Register shows them living in Sidmouth, Devon, returning to Canada in 1944 when they settled in Victoria, British Columbia where William died in the Royal Jubilee Hospital on 10th April 1963 from heart failure, and was cremated three days later.

Thanks to William’s great niece Jeanna for her help with family history.

William Baty’s name does not appear on any local war memorial.