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Vernell Spates
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Name: Service No Rank Battalion/Service Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Date of Enlistment: Place of Enlistment: Address at Enlistment: Age at Enlistment: Height: Complexion: Hair Colour: Eye Colour: Martial Status: Religion: Trade: Next of Kin: Date of Death: Age at Death: Cemetery/Memorial Reference:
Vernell Spates 282651 Private 219th Battalion November 14, 1897 Brooklyn, Yarmouth Co., NS March 13, 1916 Yarmouth, NS Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS 18 5 feet, 3 inches Medium Brown Brown Single Baptist Fireman, Stationary Engine Nelson Spates (Father) Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS April 11, 1917 19 Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, France III. A. 4. Commemorated on Page 330 of the First World War Book of Remembrance This page is displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on July 18 Listed on the Nominal Roll of the 219th Battalion Vernell Spates was the son of Nelson Thomas and Lillian Maude" (Haskell) Spates, of Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS. Vernell Spates enlisted with the 219th Battalion at Yarmouth, NS. He had previously served with the 29th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. During training in Canada he was hospitalized at Aldershot, NS between June 24, 1916, and July 1, 1916 with a mild case of influenza. He embarked Canada at Halifax on October 12, 1916 and disembarked at Liverpool, England on October 18, 1916, sailing on the SS Olympic. While at Witley Camp he was transferred to the 42nd Battalion on December 5, 1916 and proceeded overseas for service with the Battalion in France on December 6, 1916. On April 9, 1917 he was wounded by gun shots to the legs, right hand and face during the battle at Vimy Ridge and hospitalized at No. 18 Canadian Casualty Station. He died of wounds on April 11, 1917.
“... In the action of Easter Monday, April 9, - a day on which many a Canadian hero made the supreme sacrifice - he was wounded in the foot and thigh just as he reached the German front line. Our boys were having a mix-up with the Germans and one of their hand bombs burst quite near your son inflicting the fatal wounds. One of the company stretcher bearers immediately dressed his wounds and shortly after he was carried to the rear. Even then they hoped for the best, but in vain, for on returning from the trenches two days later it was to learn he had died from his wounds ...” R. Willcock, Lieutenant O.C. “C” Company 42nd Battalion Read: Killed In the Trenches of World War I