Percy Dillon
At 18 years 9 months old, Percy decided to do his part for King and Country and he enlisted in the 36th Battalion. Little did he know on that April day in 1915 that 29 years later his own son Claude Victor would die in 1944 from injuries suffered during WWII. World War I had not been, as had been hoped, “the war to end all wars”.
Percy was born in St. Catherines, the son of Tom and Isobel, but had spent the majority of his life in Georgetown. He attended Chapel St. Public School.
In 1931, the Canadian Census places Percy, his wife Anna Mae, their 10-year-old daughter Shirley Gertrude, 7-year-old son Claude Victor, 3-year-old daughter Audrey Josephine, 1-year-old son Ross Gordon and his 26-year-old brother-in-law Gordon Hiltz renting a wooden house on Victoria St. in Georgetown (specific address unknown). At that time Percy was employed as a weigher in a papermill but had been unemployed for 14 weeks. He had earned $575 that year. Anna, whom he had married in 1920 after returning home from the fight overseas, would be admitted to the Mountain Sanitorium in 1943, where she would die of tuberculosis in 1946.
Following the death of Anna, Percy married Kathleen Barnes in 1961. The 1962 List of Electors places Percy and Kathleen living at 47 John St. E. Georgetown.
A butcher prior to his enlistment, Percy was also employed by Provincial Paper, York Downs Golf Club, the Legion Branch 120 and up until his death by the Georgetown Hospital.
Percy was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 120.
Percy died on April 27,1964 at the age of 67. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Georgetown.
Truly a Canadian Hero. His story lives on.
*Information taken from Ancestry.ca, Newspapers.com and Findagrave.com
