SOLDIER DETAILS:
Dent,
Harold James
Trooper Fort Garry Horse 511217
April 18, 1918
Evergreen
Cemetery, Milton Canada
Parents originally from Milton ON
Aunt resided in Milton ON
Maple
Leaf Legacy Project
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Dent Family Plot
Milton Evergreen Cemetery
Sent to Maple Leaf Legacy
R. Laughton
Burlington Gazette
May 1, 1918
Click to Enlarge
Courtesy Marika Pirie
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Trooper Dent is not
memorialized on either of the Milton Cenotaphs, despite
being the only Great War Soldier KIA that is buried in
Milton.
Harold
James Dent is buried in Milton Evergreen Cemetery. There
is a family stone plus two stones for Trooper Dent.
(Blk-046
Lot-1 2 2”).
A
detailed report on the action of Trooper Dent and his
place in Milton was published in the Milton Champion and
repeated in the Burlington Gazette on May 1, 1918.
See also Milton Soldiers Locations (Google
Earth). |
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SOLDIER SUMMARY:
| Harold James
Dent, son of James and Elinor Dent (formerly of Milton) and
husband of Nellie Czarina, Dent (Saskatchewan), was born in
Gagetown Michigan on June 27, 1891. He arrived in Milton when he
was a mere 4 months old. The family moved west in circa 1912.
Harold joined the Fort Garry Horse of the CEF on October 28,
1915. Private Dent was awarded the Military Medal for bravery
during a raid by the Canadian Cavalry Brigade on the enemy lines
in the Devise area (Somme) of France.
His team was placing bangalore torpedoes to cut the
German wire so that the rest of the raiding party could advance
to gain intelligence. He
was one of 25 wounded, 3 seriously.
The exploits are detailed in the Fort Gary Horse war
diary for that period of July 1917.
As
noted on Harold’s gravestone, he died in Halifax Nova Scotia
on April 18, 1918 as a result wounds to the chest received on
July 8, 1917. A
piece of shrapnel had not been removed – it killed him 9
months later! Trooper Dent's service file contains detailed
records of his action and the medical issues that eventually led
to his death while on route back home. The newspaper reports the
trip home was to visit his family, prior to accepting an
Officer's Commission in the Imperial Forces.
Trooper Dent Markers
Milton Evergreen
The War Diary of the Fort Gary Horse reports on the action of
Trooper Dent and in particular the award of his medal for
gallantry:
War Diary July 1917
For those interested in the details of the story of Trooper
Dent, we suggest reading the extensive war diary details for
that period.
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The soldier pages contain information
that is available from a number of resources. The following hyperlinks
are active where the information is available:
The summary of the service is taken from
the soldier's service records, if they were available from Library and
Archives Canada. A complete copy of the service record is
available in electronic and paper format in the Alex
Cooke Memorial Archives at the Milton Historical Society.
Using that summary, combined with the key references, a summary of the
events leading up to the death of the soldier has been prepared.
The research information available is as noted on the Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group web site Matrix
Project as well as in the Library and Archives Canada On-Line
War Diaries.
A summary of all the soldiers is
contained on the Web Blog "Great
War Soldiers of Milton, Ontario CANADA". Please also
be sure to purchase your own copy of "Milton
Remembers World War I - The Men and Women We Never Knew" by
John Challinor II and Jim Dills, edited by Ken Lamb. |
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