Private William Alexander Brown

William Brown was born in the Township of Blenheim, Oxford County, on May 3, 1895. In the 1911 Canadian census he was 16 and living at home and working as a salesman in a store. According to a newspaper article after his death, William Alexander Brown “was engaged at the store of Mr. Henry Rehder in Paris for some time prior to his enlistment in 1916.  He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and Bible Class while here and earned the respect and esteem of all he came in contact with by his manly bearing”. When William enlisted in Woodstock, he gave his address as Plattsville, but the article suggests he was working in Paris at the time and had been a part of the community for some time.

Men who enlisted early in the war wanted to go overseas with men they knew and grew up with, and that may be his reason not to enlist in Paris. But for whatever reason, William enlisted in Woodstock with the 168th Battalion, a unit formed in Oxford County. On November 1, 1916, he sailed with his unit from Halifax, disembarking at Liverpool on November 11. On November 17, he was promoted to Acting Corporal. He was transferred to 39th Battalion on December 5, 1916 and to the 6th Canadian Reserve Battalion on January 1, 1917 and was promoted to Acting Sergeant on March 12.

Five days later he requested that he be given a permanent grade of Private, likely because he wanted to be transferred to an active battalion. The next day, March 18th, he was drafted to the 21st Battalion. He was sent to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Base Depot. These were essential military transit and training facilities located behind the lines in France, frequently in major staging areas like Étaples or Le Havre.

From there he left on Oct. 21, 1917 for Canadian Corps Reinforcement. This indicates that the soldier was part of a draft of incoming personnel sent to the depot to be processed, undergo further training, and await deployment to a frontline unit. He was awarded a Good Conduct Badge, on February 9, 1918. On June 1, 1918, however, he was still with his unit. On July 7, he was transferred to 7 Casualty Clearing Station, an essential mobile medical unit in the C.E.F. that provided triage and emergency treatment near the front lines to be treated for Bronchial Pneumonia. On July 22, 1918 he died of his illness.

The records suggest that William used every available option to serve at the front. But despite all his efforts and awards, he died like so many of the soldiers in the First World War, not from enemy fire, but from the mud and cold and disease that came with trench warfare. Private William Alexander Brown is buried at Ligny-St. Flochel British Cemetery approximately 24 kilometres from Arras.