Remembering World War II

Wilfred Angus McDaniel

Wilfred Angus McDaniel Technician 5th Grade 31233476 3850th Quartermaster Truck Company, 73rd Quartermaster Battalion, Mobile, Quartermaster Corps, US Army March 23, 1902 Margaree Forks, Inverness Co., NS November 16, 1942 Boston, Massachusetts Middlesex Co., Mass. 40 5 feet, 9 ½ inches Dark Hazel Black Fireman August 14, 1944 41 National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii Section B, Grave 903 Wilfred Angus McDaniel was the son of Moses McDaniel (1844–1906) and Elizabeth (MacLellan) McDaniel (1860-1933). Wilfred’s brother Gunner Daniel John (Service Number 326935) served Canada in First World War with the 14th Brigade, Royal Canadian Artillery, Canadian Expeditionary Force, and died 5 km North West of Arras, France, at La Targette on April 9, 1918. He is buried in the Écoivres Military Cemetery. A second brother, Private Peter Ambrose McDaniel (Service No.67934), served Canada in WWI as well, with the 25th Battalion and earned the Military Medal December 9, 1917 “For devotion to duty at Passchendaele on November 8, 1917. In company with Private Foley, he carried out a reconnaissance of our forward position under particularly heavy enemy shelling and at a great person danger from the enemy sniping and M.G. [machine gun] fire. The information gained by these men was most valuable, as it was shortly after an attack and enabled us to definitely locate our own and the enemy’s position. Nov 11, 1917.” In addition to these two brothers, Wilfred had seven other siblings, Jessie O, Mary Ann “Molly”, William F “Billie”, James Henry and Catherine McDaniel, and eight half-siblings from his father’s first wife, Jennette McDougall (1844-1883). Wilfred immigrated to the US September 14, 1923, travelling from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Boston, Mass., on the SS Prince Arthur, and completed his declaration of intention and petition to become a US citizen on January 14, 1936. In the 1940 census he was living at 17 Hovey St, Cambridge, Massachusetts as a lodger. When he completed his US Draft card on February 15, 1942, he was living at 30 Baldwin St in Cambridge and working at the Copley Plaza Hotel at Copley Square in Boston. Mass. At that time he listed Alexander McDaniel (1880-1973), his half-brother, at 9 Baker Way in Westboro, Mass. as his next of kin. After enlistment in WWII, Wilfred would be assigned to the 3850th Quartermaster Truck Company. The 3850th was assigned to the Ledo Road. The Ledo Road was an overland connection between India and China, built during the Second World War to enable the Allies to deliver supplies to China, aiding the war effort against Japan. After the Japanese cut off the Burma Road in 1942, an alternative was required, hence the construction of the Ledo Road. Wilfred Angus McDaniel died of malaria while in Burma. Wilfred Angus McDaniel was initially buried at the Kalaikunda Cemetery, in India. The exhumation of the U.S. Military Cemetery at Kalaikunda was conducted in September and October 1947 and these war dead were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii. Records indicate Wilfred was re- interred Feb 7, 1949.

Sources: National Gravesite Locator, National Cemetery Administration, US Department of Veterans Affairs Ledo Road