Name: Joseph Bunker Jeffery Rank: Corporal Service Number: 222979 Battalion/Service: 85th Battalion Date of Birth: July 10, 1893 Place of Birth: Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS Date of Enlistment: October 28, 1915 Place of Enlistment: Halifax, NS Address at Enlistment: Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS Height: 5 Feet 6 Inches Complexion: light Eyes: blue Hair: light Trade: Blacksmith Marital Status: Single Religion: Baptist Next of Kin: Bell Tinkham (Sister), Springhaven, Yarmouth Co., NS Date of Death: October 4, 1918 Age at Death: 25 Cemetery: St. Pol British Cemetery, St. Pol-Sur-Ternoise Pas de Calais, France Grave Reference: III. B. 12. Commemorated on Page 436 of the First World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on September 18 Joseph ‘Job’ Bunker Jeffery was the son of George Dodge Jeffery (1855-1908) and Albina P (Wyman) Jeffery (1853-1897), and the sister of Adelaide Jeffery (b. 1875), Martha Isabelle "Belle" Jeffery Tinkham (1877-1937), Clement Charles Jeffery (1886-1917), Harry Trefry Jeffery (1879-1936), Georgia Albina Jeffery (b. 1881), Israel Jeffrey (b. 1885), Private John William Jeffery (1888-1957), and Hannah Jeffery (1890-1890). His mother was born in Salmon River, Digby Co., NS, and his father was born in Tusket, Yarmouth Co. Having trained in Canada, he embarked Canada at Halifax on October 13, 1916, and disembarked at Liverpool, England on October 19, 1916. He proceeded overseas to France for service with the 85th Battalion on March 11, 1917, and joined his unit in the field on March 31, 1917. On April 12, 1917, at Vimy he suffered a shoulder wound and was hospitalized and rejoined his company on discharge from hospital on November 24th, 1917. He was promoted to Corporal on June 20, 1918. On September 25, 1918, Corporal Jeffery was injured when the enemy dropped a bomb through the roof of the railway station at Arras. On September 26th, he was admitted to hospital suffering from a fractured skull and broncho-pneumonia. He died on October 4, 1918. Joseph is interred at the Saint Pol British Cemetery in St. Pol-sur-Ternoise, Pas de Calais, France. The bronze memorial medallion/plaque (known among soldiers as a Dead Man’s Penny) which was sent to the family of the deceased, is fastened to the reverse side of his sister Martha and her husband Norman Harcourt Tinkham’s headstone at the Highland Plains Cemetery in Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. The medallion is embedded above the name of Joseph’s niece Vera Pearl Tinkham (1908- 2003) and her husband Howard T. Jeffery (1876-1936).

Sources: Library and Archives Canada Veterans Affairs Canada findagrave

Saint Pol British Cemetery