[published in the newspaper The Charlottetown Guardian on July 24, 1916]

ANOTHER ISLANDER LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY

The sincere sympathy of the community goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Theodore J. Lantz in the death of their son Walter who fell in action in the battlefield “somewhere in France,” the sad news having been officially telegraphed to them on Saturday. The deceased was a member of the 98th Siege Battery, and is the first to have fallen of that gallant band who left the province last September. He was 24 years of age and was in every way an exemplary citizen, a dutiful son and a man whom all loved who knew him. He was a graduate of Prince of Wales College and had enlisted with the 98th shortly before its departure for England. One of the brightest men in the battery he was a general favorite and had frequently been specially referred to in letters from both officers and men. He had for several years been a member of St. James Church choir, prominent in all the young people’s associations in the church and always ready to help in every good word and work. At the morning service yesterday the pastor Rev. Dr. Fullerton made touching and sympathetic reference to the exemplary life he had led and the loss sustained by the congregation in his untimely death. As a fitting tribute to the memory of their late comrade the choir sang the anthem “Oh rest in the Lord,” and the service was concluded with “The Dead March” in Saul. The late Mr. Lantz was a member of the Masonic and Oddfellow Lodges and the flags of these societies were displayed at half mast yesterday in respect to his memory. The Guardian joins in the heartfelt sympathy that goes out to the bereaved family – one of the many similarly bereaved in the province and throughout the Empire – one also which while mourning the death of a dearly loved son and brother have the melancholy consolation of knowing that he did his duty as a man and that he died that others might live and enjoy the liberty for the redemption of which so many are laying down their lives. There are left to mourn besides his parents, one sister, Miss Florence and one brother, Joseph.

Gr. Vernon Bourke, son of Mr. P. Bourke, the well known painter of Charlottetown and Gunner William Case, both of the 98th are officially reported wounded. To the relatives of these also in the great anxiety which will be theirs until further particulars are received The Guardian extends its deepest sympathy.