Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
The only son and second born of the three children of Newcastle born draper’s assistant John James Oliver and his Jarrow born wife Margaret (nee Hall), Wilfrid was born on 18th January 1899 in Jarrow where the family had their home in Suffolk Street. His older sister Eleanor was born in 1897, and Emma Elizabeth in Tynemouth in 1911. In 1909 the family emigrated to Canada where John carried on working in a draper’s shop and Wilfred and Eleanor attended school in Toronto. Summer 1911 saw mother Margaret along with Wilfred and Eleanor return to England to await the birth of Emma, staying with relatives in Monkseaton, and not returning to Canada until June 1912. When Wilfred was old enough he joined the local militia group the 12th York Rangers and also found work as a stock-keeper, a job that was not hindered by his slight speech impediment.
Aged 17 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 9th May 1916 and became Private 285283 of the 220th Battalion and sailed with them to England at the end of April the following year, where, on arrival they were absorbed into the 3rd Reserve Battalion. A month later, in early June, Private 285283 was transferred to the 134th Battalion based at Witley Camp, Surrey, and whilst there he wrote out his paybook will in favour of his mother. This battalion was subsequently absorbed in to the 12th Reserve Battalion the following year and on 14th June 1918 a draft of men joined the 3rd Battalion in billets at Caucourt, near Lens.
The beginning of September 1918 saw the Battalion with instructions to join an attack on the Drocourt-Queant Line, and it was here on 2nd September that Private Wilfred Oliver, aged 19, was killed “whilst taking part in an advance on enemy positions on the right of Cagnicourt where he was hit in the chest and instantly killed by a bullet from an enemy machine gun”.
Wilfred Oliver is remembered in Whitley Bay on W84.01 and W84.30
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 Oliver
