Grand River
Private William Nuttall
Private William Nuttall was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England on March 8, 1891 and immigrated to Canada in 1911. He attended St. James Anglican Church in Paris. He was single when he enlisted on August 1, 1915 with the 76th Battalion. He was a member of the Regimental Band. The battalion recruited across Ontario, including the Brantford and Niagara area.
William sailed for England on the S.S, Empress of Britain on April 23, 1916. But this was a very busy time for William. After he enlisted in August, he had time to marry Bertha Rowe in Paris on January 8, 1916. He said on his marriage registration that he had lived in Paris since November 1, 1915. Clearly, he wanted to get his life sorted before he risked it in war.
Like many later-authorized battalions, the 76th was not sent to the front lines as a standalone combat unit. Instead, once it arrived in England, the battalion was disbanded, and its men were absorbed into existing reserve battalions. From there, soldiers were deployed as crucial replacements for the Canadian units suffering heavy casualties in France and Belgium.
In William’s case, he was transferred to the 31th Battalion on July 11, 1916 and then to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion on July 28 and then to the 1st Battalion where he served in France. On May 4, 1917, he was taken to No. 18 General Hospital in Camiers with gunshot wounds to the left thigh and arms. This was following the victory at Vimy Ridge in April, and the battalion was resting and regrouping on May 4, so William’s wounds would have occurred earlier. # 18 General Hospital was positioned safely behind the front lines, and the hospital camp at Camiers sat adjacent to a main railway line. This enabled ambulance trains to seamlessly transport wounded soldiers directly from the battlefield to the facility or transfer them onward to coastal ports for long-term recovery in Britain.
This is what happened to William because on May 10, he was transferred to Leith War Hospital in Seafield, Scotland. On July 27, he was transferred to Woodcote Park in Epson, which was a Canadian Convalescent Hospital during the war.
At some point during his recovery, William was transferred to the 4th Canadian Reserve Battalion. He was with that battalion when he was transferred to the 126th General Hospital in Bagshott on May 9, 1919. He was discharged to Canada on May 28. He sailed aboard the S.S. Regina from Liverpool on September 12, 1919. Private William Nuttall received his final discharge on September 22, 1919 in Toronto.
After returning to Paris, William and Bertha had a son, Kenneth, by 1921. They resided with Walter Rowe, Bertha’s father, on Grand River Street. William was employed as a painter. He and Bertha had a daughter in 1929, and by 1931, the family had moved to Patterson Street. William was working by this time as a compositor at a printing company. Private William Nuttall died on September 22, 1973, and he is buried beside Bertha in the Paris Cemetery.