Source: “Duty Nobly Done” page 169
Military Medal, London Gazette No. 31512.; Croix de Guerre, London Gazette No. 31275.
Known as Grit. A prolific writer of letters home he was suffering from trench foot and was on the HMHS Anglia when it was sank November 17, 1915. He was able to survive this ordeal and the war. His brother David served with him and survived the war.
“…Grit fell victim to trench foot, a painful condition in which a soldier’s feet rotted because of prolonged immersion in water and mud. He was taken to a base hospital in France, and on Nov. 17 was put aboard HMHS Anglia, a hospital ship that carried wounded and sick soldiers from Calais to Dover. About two kilometres east of Folkestone Gate, the Anglia struck a German mine. The explosion blew a hole in the hull, and the Anglia sank in 15 minutes. A Royal Navy gunboat and a passing freighter arrived on the scene quickly, but 134 of the Anglia’s 390 patients were lost. Grit was one of the survivors.” Butts, E. (2015, June 1). ‘Hometown heroes’ remembered by Guelph newspaper during First World War.”
Retrieved December 13, 2015, from http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/5653682–hometown-heroes-remembered-by-guelph-newspaper-during-first-world-war/
Images relating to the marriage of this soldier to Mabel Pevitt from Annette Fulford’s Facebook post.
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 