SOLDIER DETAILS:
Lees,
William Garvy
Private 4th Battalion 11160
April 23, 1915
Menin
Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
Next of Kin at Milton.
Maple
Leaf Legacy Project
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Victoria Park Cenotaph
R. Laughton
Commonwealth War Graves
Menin Gate Inscription
Thanks to Sabine
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Private Lees is
remembered on the Victoria Park Cenotaph, Milton ON.
Private Lees body was not
recovered. His name, like many other at that time, is
engraved on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres (Ipres)
Belgium.
Milton Soldiers on the Menin Gate
Memorial (Google
Earth). |
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SOLDIER SUMMARY:
| Private William Lees was the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Alexander Lees of Milton West, Ontario. His service records show
he attested to the 4th Battalion (1st Division, 1st Infantry
Brigade) on September 22, 1914. Certainly one of the very early
Milton lads to sign up! He was reported wounded between April
22nd and April 30th, 1915 and missing and presumably dead on
April 23, 1915.
April 1915 was in the middle of the initial Battle of Ypres.
Thursday April 22, 1915 was the first gas attack in the Battle
of Gravenstafel Ridge. At 7
am that morning the 4th Battalion received orders to
stand-by as Ypres (Valmertinghe area) was being heavily shelled.
The 1st Brigade came up from reserve at 8:15 pm on April 22,
1916. At 5 pm that day the Germans had released the
chlorine gas. The next day the 4th Battalion crossed the Yser
Canal and lost 487 officers and men, presumably one of them
being Private Lees.
Sketch
6 of Nicholson clearly shows the 1st and 4th Battalions
moving to the west of Geddes Detachment heading for Turco Farm.
A tough day for all for sure! |
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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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