Canadian Badge

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

The youngest of the seven children of Scottish born dental surgeon William Bonallo and his wife Mary (nee Bell), Harry was born on 24th August 1893, fifteen years after his oldest brother William. His other siblings were Thomas Kier, Gordon, Hebert, Mary and Margery and the family lived at Cramlington Hall.

In March 1910 Harry with Kier, Gordon and Herbert, emigrated to Canada, bound for Calgary, Alberta with £125 in their pockets intending to be farmers, and a year after their arrival Harry applied for a Homestead Grant in Alberta for land near Wiste.

The only one of the brothers to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Harry enlisted with the 175th Battalion at Youngstown, Alberta on 24th February 1916. His mother having died in 1912 he gave his father as his next of kin, possibly not knowing that he was serving a prison sentence, and became Private 496465. Harry arrived back in Liverpool on 13th October having sailed with the Battalion aboard the SS Saxonia from Nova Scotia, and was posted to Seaford Camp, Sussex.

The start of March 1917 saw him posted to 50th (Alberta) Battalion, part of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division and travel with them to France. At his medical on arrival at Le Havre he was found to have an STD and it was three months before he rejoined the 50th at Chateau de la Haie.

On the night of 25th August 1917, the 50th Battalion raided the enemy lines near Lens. The war diary reported only seven men wounded during the raid but 18 men missing and one KIA. Private Bonallo was one of those reported as missing, a report changed to “killed in action” in April 1919.

Harry Bonallo is remembered in Cramlington on C60.01 and C60.03

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 Bonallo