Initial List of Exeter Soldiers

The following list of soldiers was taken from this photograph of the Exeter Cenotaph. Soldiers from the area that attended South Huron District High School are also detailed in the SHDHS Book of Remembrance. I have asked David MacLeod and his students to join me in finishing this blog. Some soldiers may be from neighbouring communities are not shown in this photograph.

The list and links from the SHDHS Book of Remembrance have been inserted here to start the process. We will continue with the linking of all of these soldiers to their LAC Attestation Papers, CWGC Memorials and the Virtual War Museum.

Thomas Harold Carling Bisset
Earl Elbert Gardiner
Loftus Roy Hern
Clinton Stephen Hogarth
John Gordon Hogarth
Lawernce Earl Johns
John Daniel Laing
James Russell Marshall
Elmer McFalls
Robert Henry Passmore
Thomas William Penhale
Cecil Gerald Verity Pickard
Wilber John Rowe
Victor Sanders
John Caldwall Strang
Reginald David Turnbull
Sydney West
Almer Thomas Willis
Harry Ernest Windsor

Remembrance Day 2006 Project

To commemorate Remembrance Day 2006 in Exeter, Ontario CANADA a blog has been created to allow all those interested to learn more about the soldiers of Exeter who served and lost their lives in the Great War (1914 - 1919). This site will contain the list of all soldiers (and others) who are listed on the Exeter Cenotaph, or are interned in Exeter's Public Cemetery Veterans' Plot.

This project is a joint effort with the staff and student's of South Huron District High School Book of Remembrance, under the direction of David MacCleod. I worked with David on the project to recover the medals of Lt. Thomas Penhale, who was initially in the CEF 32nd Battalion with my grandfather. It is presumed that with the restructuring of the CEF in 1916, Penhale and Laughton went to Oxford together for Officer Training prior to taking a commission in the Imperial Army. Lt. Penhale was unfortunately killed at the same battle of Arras where my grandfather won his Military Cross.

From the links on this blog, you will be able to access the Attestation Papers of the soldiers, as well as the Memorial Certificates published by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. As we progress, we will link the soldiers names to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, the Canadian Great War Project, and finally to the units in which they served as detailed on the CEF Matrix.

If you have additional information on any of the soldiers on the list, we would be pleased to add the details to each soldiers profiles.

For additional details on the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War, please visit the CEF Matrix Web or the counterpart CEF Matrix Blog. Here you will find details on the structure of the CEF during the Great War and the Army Corps and Troops that made up the CEF ranks. In addition, the Matrix provides you with a number of Matrix Utilities to support your continued research.

Great War Soldiers, Exeter Cemetery

Following my visit to the Remembrance Day Ceremonies at South Huron District High School, including the unveiling of the Lt. Thomas Penhale medals, I took time to visit the Exeter Cemetery.

It was here my grandfather George Van Wyck Laughton was laid to rest in 1966. Grandfather Laughton served in the Canadian Militia (7th Fusiliers) and went on to join the 142nd Infantry Battalion, then transferred to the 32nd Infantry Battalion (University of Toronto COTC). This was the same unit as Lt. Penhale, and from here they both went to Imperial Officers training at Oxford University. George went on to serve with the 26th Northumberland Fusiliers and was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery at the Battle of Arras (Vimy Ridge) in April 1917.

Laughton, George Van Wyck, M.C.
Lieutenant, 26th Northumberland Fusiliers BEF
Private, 142nd and 32nd Infantry Battalions CEF 82130
Exeter Cemetery Veterans Plot
Grandson raised in Exeter.

While at the Exeter Cemetery I checked out the other stones in the veterans plot. There was only 1 CEF soldier that I could see:

Broom, Herbert
Private, #2 Canadian Army Medical Corps 528177
August 9, 1951
Exeter Cemetery Veterans Plot
Relationship to Exeter Currently Unknown