Remembering Ernest A. Wilson: Leaside’s World War I overseas fatality
When World War I began in 1914, Leaside was sparsely populated and almost totally rural, so the number of young men who enlisted from the area was relatively small. For example: of the some 45,000 Torontonians who served in the Great War, the names of only 141 are inscribed on the WWI honour roll at Leaside’s only church at the time – St. Cuthbert’s. And many of those names belong to individuals who lived in the Toronto part of the parish.
The number of Leasiders killed in the Great War is even smaller. Aside from a few airmen who tragically lost their lives in training accidents at the Leaside Aerodrome, I know of only one confirmed and documented case of a Leaside resident who was killed in action during WWI.
His name was Ernest Alex Wilson, and his story, like that of so many other young men who fought in that senseless and avoidable conflict, was a sad and tragic one.
Birth of a fallen hero
Ernest was born in 1896 in Goole, Yorkshire (UK) and immigrated to Canada in 1910. By 1911, he was living with his widowed mother and two older brothers in Leaside – or “Leaside Junction” as it was also called back then. They were all boarders at the home of Thomas Mummery – a baker and labourer who came from the same Yorkshire village as Ernest and his family.1
Ernest was a lad of medium height, with reddish hair and hazel eyes. He was also an active member of St. Cuthbert’s Church and sang in its choir. A self-described “labourer,” when war broke out in early August 1914, he was among the first to enlist, joining the Governor General’s Body Guard in Toronto during the first week of hostilities. From there he was transferred to Valcartier, QC where in September he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD), C Squadron. The following month, he was sent overseas as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and by June 1915 was in France.2 Soon after, he was serving in the trenches near Messines, Belgium – the site of fierce fighting the previous year between German and British forces.
Early action
The trenches near Messines were still dangerous places in 1915. The Germans occupied the high ground and regularly bombarded the British and Canadian positions with artillery and sniper fire. Late on the morning of Oct. 1, according to the RCD’s official war diary, the Germans fired five high explosive shells into the regiment’s trench. Ironically, the diary records that “no damage” was done, but there were “two casualties – 1 killed, 1 wounded.”3 The “1 killed” was Ernest Wilson. He was only 18 years old.
Back in Toronto, the news of Ernest’s death was carried by almost all the city’s major newspapers – including the Globe, the Star, the World and the Telegram. The stories remarked on his young age, his early enlistment, and his association with St. Cuthbert’s. Ernest’s church involvement probably explains why St Cuthbert’s Canon Lamb was the one who informed Ernest’s mother of her son’s death. This must have been a hard task indeed, considering that Mrs. Wilson’s other two sons had also joined the Canadian army. Both would be wounded before the war ended, one seriously.
Ernest Wilson is buried close to where he fell – at the La Plus Douve Farm Military Cemetery, in Belgium. His gravestone records simply his service number, rank, name, regiment, date of death and age. An inscription at the base reads: “For God, Justice and Liberty.”
Here in Leaside, Ernest has not been forgotten. His name appears – along with the names of 20 other parishioners who gave their lives for Canada – at the bottom of the WWI Honour Roll at St. Cuthbert’s, the same church where he sang and worshipped over 110 years ago.
1 1911 Canada Census, South York/East York.
2 Ernest Wilson’s complete WW1 service file is available online through the Library and Archives Canada website at: https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/help/pffww.
3 The Royal Canadian Dragoons WW1 diary can be accessed at: https://dragoons.ca/dragoons-history/first-world-war-wwi/
