Source: 18th Battalion Nominal Roll, April 1915.
Family Search: William John Pollard was born on 6 March 1889, in Middlesex, England, United Kingdom. He married Jessie Ann Stewart on 6 November 1922, in Ontario, Canada. He immigrated to Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States in 1902 and lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1928. He registered for military service in 1914. In 1914, at the age of 25, his occupation is listed as farmer. He died on 7 February 1928, in Wiarton, Bruce, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 38, and was buried in Bayview Cemetery, Wiarton, Bruce, Ontario, Canada.
Death Due to Gassing in Great War — Three Years’ Continuous Service
(Special to The Sun-Times)
WIARTON, Feb. 10—The Great War has claimed another victim in the person of William J. Pollard, who died at his residence on Brown street on Tuesday, Feb. 7. He had been in poor health since the war ended, but was not confined to his bed until about eight weeks ago. The deceased was the first man to enlist from Wiarton, on October 31st, 1914, and joined up with the 18th Batt. London and was in active service in France early in the spring of 1915. He was attached to the first division and spent nineteen months in the trenches in the early stages of the war.
He was gassed at St. Eloi in April, 1916, and later contracted trench fever, and after spending three months in a hospital in England, was transferred to the 160th Batt. and returned to France, where he continued in active service until the armistice was signed in 1918. He returned to Canada in the spring of 1919, after three years of almost continuous service.
Mr. Pollard was born in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, England, where he resided with his parents until thirteen years of age, when he came to Canada and settled in the Township of Amabel, where he was employed with the late Evan Stacy for several years before moving to Wiarton, where he resided until the outbreak of the war.
He was married in Toronto to Miss Jessie Stewart, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Stewart of Wiarton, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 6, 1922, returning to Wiarton the following spring.
The funeral took place on Thursday afternoon and was conducted by Rev. D. H. Currie of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, of which the deceased was a member. About twenty returned soldiers from Wiarton and vicinity attended in a body, thus paying their last tribute of respect to a departed comrade. Interment was made in Bay View Cemetery.
The Sun Times. Fri, Feb 10, 1928 ·Page 3.
