Photo: Brian Chandler

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

William Henry Lewis was born in Brimstage, Cheshire on 1st February 1864, his father Joseph was an assurance agent and his mother, Mary (nee Carter), a shopkeeper. He had older siblings Josephine, Joseph and John, a younger sister Amy and a baby brother George.

William arrived in Canada on 4th January 1911, having sailed from Bristol aboard the SS Royal George, and he travelled west to live in British Columbia, and found work as a commercial traveller and as a miner.

On 20th July 1916 he enlisted with the 238th Forestry Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force in Victoria, British Columbia, giving first his brother George in South Africa as his next of kin and later changing it to his older sister Josephine still living in Cheshire. He gave his date of birth as 1871, putting himself just within the upper age limit for enlistment, and became Private 1037129. Arriving in Liverpool at the end of September, the battalion became part of the Canadian Forestry Corps. Before a Medical Board at Bramshott in November William’s age was listed as 52 and apart from varicose veins he was noted to be very fit for his age.

He was transferred to the CFC depot in Windsor Great Park and on 15th December 1916 was attached to 12 Company based at Whittingham, one of three forestry camps in Northumberland.

On the morning of 14th May 1917 William Henry Lewis was found dead in bed in the hut he shared with about 30 other men. At an inquest held the following day at Whittingham three of the men who shared his hut told how they had found his unconscious body on the floor at about 11.30pm and returned him to his bed before calling the Medical Corps Sergeant, who found him to be dead.

The death was reported to the police surgeon at Alnwick at 2pm and he examined the body shortly after 9am. His report concluded “there was no bleeding, apart from a superficial abrasion on the forehead. I favour the theory that the deceased had probably got up out of bed and when on his feet had fallen forward when probably dying. I think if he had fallen from his bunk direct onto the floor there would have been a wound. I think the cause of his death was a natural cause”.

The Newcastle Journal of 18th May reports on the interment at Whittingham Churchyard with full military honours. A procession of over 200 fellow Canadians followed the coffin which was “conveyed on a wagon by a team of four black horses, and was covered with the Union Jack and many floral tributes. A band of the Northumberland Fusiliers was in attendance … the firing party fired three volleys over the grave … and the Last Post was sounded”.

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 Lewis