[NEW!] Lest We Forget – WWI Soldiers from Oxford County
Lest We Forget – WWI Soldiers from Oxford County
Submitted by Archival Staff
Archibald Barrow
Born on October 10, 1899 (although his Attestation Papers say 1898) in Ingersoll. Ontario. He enlisted in B Company of the 168th Battalion on January 20, 1916, when he was just seventeen years old, making him one of the younger members of the battalion. He arrived in England in November, that same year, and was transferred to the 39th Battalion, and then transferred once again to the 21st Battalion in February 1917. He was killed in action at Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, and is buried at the Canadian Grave located at Zivy Crater, Thelus, France. The following month, a Memorial Service was held at St. James Church in memory of Pte. Barrow, as well as William Alcott, Arthur Robert Allen, and Thomas Cussons, who had all recently made the supreme sacrifice in France. These young men were all members of the church as well as the 168th Battalion.
Pte. Barrow
Son of Charles and Mary Barrow and “was well and favorably known and possessed a disposition that readily won him friends. In B Company of the Battalion of which he enlisted he was a favourite with the younger men”. Sadly, he was the first Ingersoll member of the 168th Battalion to give his life for King and County. He is honoured on the Ingersoll Town Hall Honour Roll as well as on the Soldiers’ Memorial at Ingersoll Rural Cemetery.
Attestation Papers for Archibald Barrow
In 1918, the following memoriam was published in the Daily Sentinel-Review by his family:
Somewhere abroad a volley rings
The bugle sounds farewell.
A little cross, a passing flower
Marks where a Canadian soldier fell.
His cheery ways, his smiling face
Are a pleasure to recall
There is nothing else to answer
But his photo on the wall
(Daily Sentinel-Review – 9 April 1918, page 3)
Photograph of Hill Brothers Gravestone in Harrington Cemetery – Archives Staff
Son of William and Mary J. Hill, Edward Robert Hill was born in St. Marys, Ontario on December 16, 1882. He enlisted with the 110th Battalion in St. Marys, on December 4, 1915, and at the time was working as a Miller. In 1917, he was transferred to the 58th Battalion and was killed in action at an attack near Passchendaele on October 26, 1917.
His younger brother, William Lowrie Hill was born on December 21, 1888, in Harrington, Ontario. He had three years previous military experience with the 24th Grey’s Horse, when he enlisted in Edmonton on January 12, 1915. He served with the 49th Battalion and was presumed to have died on or since June 5th, 1916, at Sanctuary Wood. He was originally reported as missing and it took a year for his parents, who had been “hoping against hope that he might be found in some German prison” to receive confirmation of his death.
Both brothers are commemorated on the Embro Cenotaph, as well as on a monument in the Knox Presbyterian Cemetery in Harrington.
The son of H.W. and Sarah E. Oatman, Wilfred Oatman was born in the Township of South Norwich on October 25, 1897. At the time of enlistment, he was a student at the Tillsonburg High School where he was a popular young lad and an excellent athlete” as well as a member of the cadets. He enlisted at Tillsonburg with the 71st Battalion under Lieut. Col. Sutherland on October 28, 1915, and in December that same year, during a social evening at his home, his friends presented him with a wristwatch stating:
"We desire our dear friend, to take advantage of this pleasant and social gathering to express in some measure our appreciation of our friendship,
and to assure you that we are not unmindful of the sacrifice you are making in so nobly responding to our Empire’s call.
We ask you accept this wristwatch as a slight token of the kindly regards of your many friends and schoolmates. Wishing you every success and safe return.”
(Tillsonburg Observer – 9 December 1915, page 8)
Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty) re. Wilfred B. Oatman. – 1916
He arrived overseas in August 1916 and was transferred to the 44th Battalion. The following month, he was admitted to the general hospital at Boulogne, France with a wound to his left leg. After spending six weeks there, he returned to his battalion where in November that same year, was wounded again in the trenches. He would die of shrapnel wounds to his head, legs, and wrist on November 12, 1916, at the No. 9 Casualty Clearing Station. Considered the first Tillsonburg solider to make the supreme sacrifice Pte. Oatman is buried at Contay British Cemetery west of Albert. He is commemorated on the memorials in both, Otterville and Tillsonburg. He was only nineteen years old at the time of his death.
In September 1917, his parents received his kit bag. It is unknown what became of his wristwatch.