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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War I
Yarmouth Connections
Herman Leslie Porter
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Herman Leslie Porter
283086
Lieutenant
Canadian Infantry
219th ("D" Company) / 85th Battalion /
YMCA Military Service
November 3, 1891
Arcadia, Yarmouth Co., NS
February 26, 1916
Wolfville NS
Wolfville, NS
24
5 feet, 8 inches
fair
brown
blue
Cadet Corps (4 years)
Single
Baptist
Student
William Porter (Father), Arcadia, Yarmouth Co., NS
June 19, 1935 (aged 43)
Arcadia Cemetery, Yarmouth Co., NS
Lieutenant Porter, the son of William and Harriet May (Saunders) Porter, enlisted with the 219th
Battalion at Wolfville, NS on February 26, 1916. He transferred to stretcher bearer (August 1, 1916)
while in Canada. Arriving in England on the SS Olympic on October 18, 1916 he was transferred from the
219th Battalion to the 85th Battalion at Witley Camp. He proceeded overseas to France on February 10,
1917 and joined the unit in the field serving as a stretcher bearer. On April 2, 1917 he was admitted to
No 1 Canadian General Hospital at Etaples with slight wounds to his foot. He was transferred to the
Military Hospital Fort Pitt, Chatham, Kent on July 9, 1917 and to the Military Convalescent Hospital at
Woodcote Park, Epsom on September 22, 1917. He was discharged on November 28, 1917 to the Nova
Scotia Regiment Depot. He was then assigned to the YMCA Educational Department, London and reported
for duty at the YMCA Headquarters in London on December 28, 1917. Between March 4, 1918 and August
17, 1918 he was posted to District 53, 126th Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps at Ampthill,
Bedfordshire for YMCA duty.
He was appointed Temporary Hon. Lieutenant on September 16, 1918 and attached to Canadian
Forestry Corps Base Depot at Sunningdale, and posted to YMCA Hut, Sunningdale for duty. While there, he
fractured his right wrist, an accidental injury on October 29, 1918.
He retuned to Canada departing Southampton, England on the HMT Aquitania on June 14, 1919 and
disembarking at Halifax on June 20, 1919. He was discharged at Halifax on demobilization June 26, 1919.
On returning to Arcadia he was employed as a teacher.
In 1919, he married Alfreda Evangeline Smith at Woods Harbour, NS on July 31. There were two
children, Barbara (b. 1932) and Doris (b. 1933). In 1935, the family lived in Ontario and Herman was a
Branch Manager for Monarch Life Assurance Company.
On June 19, 1935 the family were riding in a car along the bank of the Welland Canel at St
Catherines. While attempting to turn, the car slipped over into the canal. The four members of the
family died, the result of accidental drowning. The family was buried at Arcadia, NS
While a student at Acadia University, Herman Porter wrote the following poem: