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Record #18311

Name :: : William WATERSON (1897 - 1918)
Father: :
Mother: :

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: : 5 Mar 1897
Marriage (1): :
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: : 10 Aug 1918 Notes : Killed in Action

Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Norfolk, Norwich

Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialFrance

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : 9 May 1913
Country: : Canada
Ship: : Empress of Britain
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Sailing Alone

NotesAge 21 Son of William Waterson of 19 Union St Cooks Place Norwich Norfolk England, 195236 Private
William Waterson

2nd Btn Cdn Inf (Eastern Ont. Regiment), Army
Date of Death: Died of wounds 10th August 1918
Next of Kin listed as Mrs. E Waterson, 19A Union Street, Crooks Place, Norwich, Norfolk.
Commemorated at:
Crouy British Cemetery Crouy Sur Somme, Somme, France
(information from the Maple Leaf Project)

William enlisted on October 15, 1915 in Peterborough, Ontario.

First World War medals coming home

By Galen Eagle, Peterborough Examiner
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3:10:21 EDT AM

It's 1918 in the midst of the First World War when a young man and his Canadian infantry party were crawling through the dirty banks of a trench taking on enemy fire at close range.

The young man was an English orphan named William Waterson who came to Peterborough as a home boy at 16 to work as a farm labourer. As a member of a Peterborough militia, Mr. Waterson signed his attestation papers to join the war in October 1915 as an 18-year-old.

With his party taking on fire in the trench that day, Mr. Waterson crept within yards of an enemy post and unleashed his Lewis gun, a light Second Word War-era automatic machine gun.

That didn't effectively silence the enemy, so Mr. Waterson joined another man, worked up the trench and charged the station, killing at least 10.

That horrific account of trench warfare was found in several paragraphs in the Nov. 15, 1918 edition of the London Gazette, mere days after the end of the war.

The account was the impetus behind Mr. Waterson's awarding of the prestigious Distinguished Conduct Medal, the second highest commendation for a non-commissioned officer.

By the time that account was published, Mr. Waterson was already dead, having been killed in action Aug. 10, 1918 at the age of 21.

What happened to his medal is unknown, except that it eventually returned to England where it was put up for sale on eBay last week with two more of Mr. Waterson's war medals.

Cue Dave Thomson, a St. George, Ont. man, who has an unusual hobby. For years Thomson has been trawling eBay for Canadian war medals in an attempt to reunite them with descendants or communities. He's reunited some 585 medals across Canada.

On April 2, Thomson contacted The Examiner and local veterans advocate Dave Edgerton and a campaign was launched to purchase the medals and return them to Peterborough.

In less than a week Edgerton, the former Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52 president who spearheaded the campaign to build the Wall of Honour, had $2,900 in donations and pledges.

On Monday night, Thomson successfully convinced the British seller to remove the medals from auction and privately sell them to Edgerton for 2,000 British pounds, the equivalent of about $3,185 Canadian.

"This is a community heirloom," Thomson said. "It is going to be a good feeling for the people of Peterborough to know that they have rallied behind this and they are bringing their hero home."

The seller's grandfather had been close friends with Mr. Waterson, Thomson said, and the man was selling some possessions, having fallen on tough financial times.

"Once I told him that these were going back to Peterborough, this fellow's adopted home, (the seller) was absolutely elated. The medal was something he cherished," Thomson said. "He has had these medals for years."

Edgerton is still looking to raise another $500 to meet the price of the purchase, shipping and framing of the medals.

He is in talks with the city about having the medals mounted in the Memorial Centre, he said.

Edgerton praised Thomson's keen interest and said the medals would never have come to the attention of Peterborough residents without his help.

Thomson said he gets a thrill out of making a successful reunion.

"That's the joy I get out of this, notifying families and communities and bringing back a piece of their hero's history," he said.

Anyone interested in pledging money to the Edgerton's campaign can contact him at 705-745-9083.

Full military file online:
{website}data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cef/10001-11000/10122-11.pdf

Find A Grave Memorial# 56040495

ContributorsCreated : 2012-11-21 08:06:20 / From original database

Last Updated : 2015-09-03 23:25:53 / alanmack

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Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 355 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
3056	ABBOTT, Ernest James	1897	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
3035	ABBOTT, Geoffrey Robinson	1898	ENG, MDX, Paddington	Mar 1912 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Sailing Alone
3095	ABRAHAMS, Lily	1896	ENG,	Aug 1913 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Sailing Alone
3104	ABRAMS, Frederick	1892	ENG, LND, Battersea	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys	Diblet
22986	ABRAMS, Frederick	1893	ENG,	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys	Diblet
3105	ABRAMS, Reginald Edwin	1896	ENG, LND, Battersea	Apr 1909 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys	Diblet
9111	ADDYMAN, Edward Harold	1893	ENG, KEN, Plumstead	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
3619	AGAR, George	1900	ENG,	Apr 1909 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
19518	ALDER, John	1894	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Hurst House Training Home
22771	ALDERS, George	1898	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
23148	ANDREWS, George	1898	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
8858	ANNESS, James Edward	1901	ENG, LDN, London	Jul 1914 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Salvation Army
23091	APPLETON, Alfred	1898	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
22684	ARCHER, Jesse	1892	ENG,	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
22896	ARNOLD, Edward	1889	ENG,	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
19855	ASHMAN, Frederick	1892	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
27617	ATKINS, George Frederick	1905	ENG, ESS, Rochford	Jun 1914 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Salvation Army
27618	ATKINS, Jane Ellen	1900	ENG, ESS, Rochford	Jun 1914 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Salvation Army
17305	ATKINS, William	1894	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
27619	ATKINS, William Richard	1903	ENG, ESS, Rochford	Jun 1914 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Salvation Army
27598	AVERY, Edith Mary	1901	ENG, KEN, Cranbrook, Hawkhurst	Jun 1914 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Salvation Army
23092	AYLES, Frederick Arthur	1896	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
11139	BACON, Edwin J	1896	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
22554	BACON, Ernest P	1901	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
3859	BAILEY, Joseph	1898	ENG, , Hastings	Jul 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Catholic Emigration Society
23032	BAKER, Frederick	1898	ENG,	Apr 1909 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
11129	BALDWIN, Alfred	1896	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
2957	BALDWIN, Colin	1899	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
16574	BALDWIN, Leslie	1900	ENG,	Apr 1911 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
22837	BARBER, Charles	1893	ENG,	May 1906 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 355 Entries

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

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