Source: Originally found at the 153rd Wellington Battalion web site in 2015. Subsequent research into an action involving a German trench raid on the 18th Battalion resulted in finding this soldier killed on the date of the raid, July 18, 1918.
Commemorated at the Fergus War Memorial.
This man joined the 153rd Battalion on March 27, 1916, at Fergus, Ontario. He was a single farmer and had 2-year’s service with the 30th Wellington Rifles.
He assigned $20.00 of his pay to his sister, a Miss Jessie Collie.
He arrived in England aboard the SS Olympic on May 7, 1917, and was taken on strength with the 25th Reserve Battalion on the same date. On February 18, 1918, he was SOS to the 4th Reserve Battalion and then posted to the 18th Battalion on March 28, 1918. He arrived in the field on April 12, 1918, after passing through No. 2 CIBD and the CCRC.
On July 19, 1918, he was ‘”Killed in Action” Was one of a party of eleven holding an outpost in front of Tilloy Trench, when the enemy made an attack, and Private Collie was shot through the head and instantly killed.’
War Diary of the 18th Battalion CEF 