LANCE CORPORAL WILLIAM HARVEY (1881 - 1915)

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LANCE CORPORAL WILLIAM HARVEY (1881 - 1915) William Harvey was born February 17, 1881 to Robert and Frances Harvey of No. 4 Walton Street, Dundee, Scotland. After serving with the Gordon Highlanders in South Africa, Harvey immigrated to Canada in 1910. Like many, he found himself drawn to the 'Chicago of the North'. Harvey worked at the CPR Weston Shops as a craneman' and turntableman' in 1910/11. He had no permanent address perhaps indicating that he lived at the CPR bunkhouses or worked on rural projects. Harvey joined Winnipeg's 79th Cameron Highlanders and enlisted on October 10, 1914. In January 1915 he left for Europe, transferred to PPCLI and within weeks was involved in the Battle of Bellewaerde Ridge, Belgium. He was killed in that battle on May 4 1915. His body was never recovered and his name is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. Having no permanent address or family in Canada Harvey died a man without a city'. An immigrant who came to make a new life, helped build the West and worked in the poor conditions of the railway shops, in death did not end up with a home town boy obituary in either Winnipeg newspaper. On the 93rd anniversary of his death, Lance Corporal William Harvey of Winnipeg finally gets that local obituary.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on May 04, 2008