Description
Mr. Clemett compares weapons and discusses his deployment in Belgium
Lloyd Clemett
Mr. Clemett was born December 10, 1899, in Toronto, Ontario. Both his parents passed away when he was quite young and he moved to Omemee, Ontario, to be with close relatives. He was the youngest of four brothers that served in the First World War and was a bugle boy when he enlisted in January 1916, at the age of 16. He joined the 93rd Battalion in Peterborough as a private but was soon transferred to the 109 Battalion in nearby Lindsay. By July 1916, he found himself in England and a year later was stationed in Aubin St. Vast, France, working with the Canadian Forestry Corps. He stayed with the Forestry Corps until 1918, when he volunteered for duty on the front lines, however, the armistice was signed before he ever saw action on the front. Upon his return to Canada Mr. Clemett took advantage of courses offered by the army to help him obtain employment as a railway agent. He lost that job during the Depression and went to work for the old village of Leaside (now part of Toronto) and remained there until his retirement. At the time of this interview Mr. Clemett was 106 years old and one of only three remaining First World War Veterans in Canada.
Transcript
Well the unit that I was with and the outfit that I was with, we were building a camp site for future troops on the side of the hill to operate 30,000 troops. So when we quit at 4 o'clock, 4:30 we started to march off back to our billets they were about four or five miles away and somebody announced that the war had ended. But it never meant a thing to us. We just kept marching on, never . . . we didn't fall out or rush here or there and we didn't get all excited about it, the war was over. And I don't suppose that whatever went on at that camp, I don't suppose it was ever finished. Perhaps it all had to be, all had to be torn down. But that's the way it was. And then everyday after that there was no training. There were, there were a lot of jobs everywhere. I was allowed, with another fella, to go up into the hill and sit at a position, which had a lot of bombs and munitions and they had to guard it. So another fella and I had to guard it 24 hours and that's all you had to do.