Name: Service No Rank Battalion/Service Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Date of Enlistment: Age at Enlistment: Place of Enlistment: Address at Enlistment: Height: Complexion: Eye Colour: Hair Colour: Previous Military: Martial Status: Trade: Religion Next of Kin: Date of Discharge: Date of Death: Cemetery:

Charles Asa Cunningham 469578/1099596 Private 64th Battalion (enlisted September 1, 1915) 256th Battalion (enlisted February 16, 1917) July 11, 1881 (actual 1863) Cape Sable Island, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia September 1, 1915 (64th Battalion) 34 (actual age 52) Sussex, New Brunswick Yarmouth, Nova Scotia 5 feet, 9 inches fair blue light 29th Battery Canadian Field Artillery, Yarmouth NS Married Fisherman Baptist Laura L Cunningham (Wife) Yarmouth, NS November 3, 1916 (first discharge) February 9, 1918 (second discharge) March 30, 1944 Mountain Cemetery Charles Asa Cunningham had seven siblings, was the son of Stephen Cunningham (1828-1876) and Lydia Cunningham (1834-1876), and the husband of Laura Letitia (Joudrey) Cunningham (1865-1966). Charles was one of the oldest from Yarmouth, NS to enlist in World War I. A fisherman by trade, he was married with five children - Eva Marion Gladys Cunningham (1895-1974), Everett Augustus Cunningham (1896-1977), Clayton Cunningham (1900-1938), Reta ‘Rita’ Maud Cunningham (1905-1926), and Percy Cunningham (1908-1964). Charles’ first enlistment was with the 64th Battalion at Sussex, NB. He arrived in England on the SS Adriatic on April 9, 1916, having departed Halifax on March 31, 1916. He was transferred to the 40th Reserve Battalion at Shorncliffe. He was discharged as overage and medically unfit and returned to Canada in October, 1916, and discharged on November 3, 1916. Charles then re-enlisted at Yarmouth on February 16, 1917, with the 256th Overseas Railway Construction Battalion (Service Number 1099596) and was passed at medically fit. His age was listed as 51 years; however, he was actually 53. Again, he proceeded overseas arriving in England on the SS Northland on April 29, 1917, and embarked for France on June 17, 1917, arriving in the field on June 19, 1917. On August 7, 1917, Charles was admitted to No. 39 Canadian Casualty Station suffering from problems with his right knee, the result of fall in May 1917. He was returned to England and hospitalized on August 16, 1917, until October 24, 1917. Once again determined to be unfit for further military service he was returned to Canada sailing from Liverpool on the SS Metagama on December 23, 1917, and discharged on February 9, 1918. Charles served three months in France. Charles’ sons, Everett Augustus Cunningham and Clayton Wilfred Cunningham also served during World War I: ________________________________________ Everett Augustus Cunningham (Service No. 733567) was born August 25, 1896, in Pleasant Lake, Yarmouth Co., NS, the son of Charles Asa Cunningham and Laura Letitia (Joudrey) Cunningham. He enlisted December 21, 1915, for active service in WWI, and had previously served with the 29th Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. During the war, he served with the 112th Battalion, transferred to the 25th Battalion on November 24, 1917, and subsequently served with the 2nd Canadian Machine Gun Battalion with Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He served in Canada, the United Kingdom, and France, departing Halifax July 23, 1916, on the SS Olympic and arrived in Liverpool, England on July 31, 1916. He was admitted to hospital with serious wounds to his face and abdomen on March 24, 1917, and again with wounds at the end of September 1918, when he suffered an artillery shell wound to the right elbow. Returning to Canada, he was discharged with demobilization on February 15, 1919, at Halifax. Everett married Margaret Helena Guinan (1898-1976) on September 22, 1919, in Yarmouth. Everett died March 12, 1977, in Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, and is interred at the Mount View Cemetery in Cambridge, ON. ________________________________________ Clayton Wilfred Cunningham was born July 29, 1899, in Digby, Nova Scotia, and residing in Yarmouth prior to enlistment. He first enlisted December 3, 1915, in Sussex, New Brunswick (Service No. 817029) but was only 16, with the 104th Battalion and transferred to the 140th Battalion on February 6, 1916, until the summer of 1916. He was transferred to the Special Service Battalion on September 11, 1916, and discharged October 12, 1916, at Valcartier, Quebec as medically unfit (lack of physical development). He was only 17 at the time. Following his discharge, he attested under the Machine Gun Corps draft in New Brunswick on February 1, 1917 (Service No. 200268) but was still only 17, and was struck off strength on May 9, 1917. 4 months later, he arrived in Halifax on September 9, 1917, as a Seaman aboard the SS Carmania with his destination recorded as Yarmouth. He attested again with the 10th Siege Battery in Halifax on September 26, 1917 (Service No. 2100831), but there is no further record of his service. On all three attestations he claimed to be 18 but was not at the time he completed his attestation papers. After the war, he later settled in Sudbury, Ontario, and died of heart failure (cardiac decompensation) and bronchial asthma at the age of 38 on June 12, 1938, in Cochrane, Ontario.

Source: Library and Archives Canada findagrave (Everett Augustus Cunningham)