Private William Harold Hamilton, known as “Harold”, was born in Sundridge, Ontario, on July 20, 1897. He enlisted at Burk’s Falls on February 7, 1916, with the 162nd Overseas Battalion.

Shipping for England on board the S.S. Caronia in November of 1916, he was sent to France in April of 1917 with the 123rd Pioneer Battalion. In November of 1917 he was injured in action and convalesced back to England with gas poisoning, where he was eventually medically discharged on January 30, 1919, with a partial loss of vision from the gas exposure.

External links:
Pte. Hamilton’s service record (Reg/Ser# 657521) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.

The Collection for Pte. W. Harold Hamilton was created from the donation of the Gladys Hornibrook materials. Harold was Gladys’ step-uncle, the step-brother of Gladys’ mother Martha Jane Hornibrook (née Hamilton); after the death of Martha’s mother Eliza Jane Hamilton (née Crowder), their father George Henry Hamilton married Harold’s mother Henrietta (née Raney). Living in the small village of Sundridge near North Bay, Ontario, Gladys was only thirteen years old when World War One began. The majority of her correspondence was with her enlisted uncles Joseph, Charles, and step-uncle Harold Hamilton, but she also saved other letters, photos, and keepsakes from the war years which can be viewed together on the main Gladys Hornibrook Collection page.