Military service
Burial/memorial information
During the First World War, William enlisted on 9 March 1915 with the 25th Canadian Battery of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Ottawa, Ontario, service number 89352. He arrived in France on 18 January 1916 and was gassed on 2 November 1917 while serving with the Canadian Army Service Corps. Repatriated to Canada on 9 June 1919, he was demobilized on the 11th.
On 22 January 1942, at 8:45 pm, the Vassilios A. Polemis, which had strayed from convoy ON-53, was torpedoed by U-433 about 300 miles (483 km) south of St. John's, Newfoundland. The ship sank in position 42°32'N/52°38'W. The captain and 20 sailors lost their lives. A dinghy with 17 survivors, five of whom froze to death, drifted for two days before being picked up by the SS Leonida N. Condylis, position 44°04'N/54°28'W. They were landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and hospitalized.
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 195 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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