Dennis Bertrand 469765 Private 64th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Forces March 24, 1885 Wedgeport, Yarmouth Co., NS September 2, 1915 Sussex, NB Wedgeport, NS 30 5 feet, 6 inches Dark Brown Black Single at Enlistment Fisherman Roman Catholic Lizzie Bertrand (Stepmother) December 20, 1918 33 Kingston (St Mary’s) Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario Plan 4, Grave 8 Commemorated on Page 368 of the First World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on August 12 Not Listed on the Yarmouth War Memorial Dennis Bertrand was the son of Francois ‘Frank’ Bertrand (1836-1915) and Francoise (Surette) Bertrand. Dennis’ mother died eight days after his birth on June 1, 1885. Dennis’ father remarried – Dennis’ stepmother was Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ (Boutier) Bertrand (1847-1922) of Wedgeport, Nova Scotia. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Felix Boutier and Agnes Sophie Muise. Dennis enlisted in the fall of 1915 and arrived in England in April 1916. By the summer of 1916, he was in hospital in at the Moore Barracks Canadian Hospital at Shorncliffe in Folkestone, England. He tested positive for tuberculosis in August. Doctors noted he had winter colds and coughs for 5 years, had been admitted to hospital 4 years prior for 5 weeks with chest symptoms, and again in hospital in Halifax in 1915 for 21 days with pneumonia. He was not returned to duty due his condition, and he sailed for Canada September 15, 1916 aboard the SS Missanabie. He was admitted to the Sir Oliver Mowat Memorial Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Portsmouth (near Kingston), Frontenac Co., Ontario, on November 24, 1916. He was discharged July 31, 1918, in Kingston, as medically unfit for further service, and in order that further treatment be carried out by the ISC (Invalided Soldier's Commission). Dennis Bertrand remained at the Mowat Sanitorium and died less than five months later of pulmonary tuberculosis on December 20, 1918, with the record noting he died due to military service. He was buried in St Mary’s Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario. Private Dennis Bertrand Heis also memorialised on his stepmother’s headstone in the St Michel Cemetery in Wedgeport (his date of death is incorrectly recorded as January 19, 1918). Dennis married Catherine (Finn) Bertrand (1877- 1951), of Kingston, Ontario, some time between 1916 and 1918 while in Kingston and they had one daughter, Marie, born in 1919. Marie married Ernest Quentin Monnin of Pennsylvania, in Cleveland, Ohio. Sergeant Quentin Monnin served in WWII and died July 28, 1943, while stationed at Camp Philips, Kansas. He served with the 94th Battalion of the 301st Infantry Regiment, US Army.

Sources: Library and Archives Canada Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave

Mowat Sanitorium