There is a query regarding some trench art that was created or signed by a W. Collier. The description of the trench art is as follows:
On the surface of the matchbook trench art is carved the 18th battalions crest and below is W.Collier, on the back side is Ypres 1915, Somme 1916, Loos 1917 and St.Eloi with no date.
Trench art was often created as a past time to fill the hours in the trenches. If anyone has any information on this piece, or the person, W. Collier, please comment.
There are several W. Collier attestation papers and upon review there are several possibilities:
Name: COLLIER, WILLIAM LA SHERMAN
Regimental Number: 3105354
Date of Birth: 01/05/1887
Reference: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1870 – 15
Item Number: 109926
I will go over the Attestation Papers again but some of the papers have no images and are incomplete. It may be that there was no W. Collier that served in the 18th Battalion and that it was another soldier in the C.E.F. or possible another Allied unit.
There is a reference to a W. Collier in this news article in the Charlottetown Guardian: City welcomes 25 soldiers home from the Great War
Listed is one: W. Collier, 99 Richmond St. city. Could this be our mysterious artist?
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History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 
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