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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War I
Yarmouth Connections
Vernell Spates
Name:
Service No
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Date of Birth:
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Date of Enlistment:
Place of Enlistment:
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Next of Kin:
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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.
He is interred Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, in 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 Vernell’s parents’ headstone at the
Highland Plains Cemetery in Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth County,
Nova Scotia.
“...
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
