Clements Hilliard Elmer Stanley 3058289

Hilliard Elmer Stanley Clements     3058289

Hilliard Elmer Stanley Clements was born on April 09, 1895 in Warsaw, Ontario to parents William Henry Clements and Eliza Clements.  The Clements’ lived on South Street in Warsaw and operated a blacksmith shop.

Hilliard was drafted under the Military Service Act on October 24^th, 1917.   He reported to Peterborough and was considered an A.2 category.  He was 22 and ½ years old, stood 5 foot 4 ½ inches tall and weighed 100 pounds.  He had light brown hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion.   His occupation was recorded as a blacksmith & wheelwright.  He was single, and listed his religion as Presbyterian. 

Click here to access Full Service File

As an A.2 category, Hilliard was not “called up until May 06 1918, when he was taken into the 1^st Depot Battalion at Barriefield, Kingston.  He trained for two weeks there.  Almost immediately it became apparent that Hilliard’s health and physical well being was not good, as he later reported to doctors that he struggled to complete exercises and often had to fall out on account of weakness and lack of energy.

Never-the-less he left Montreal on June 23 1918 and arrived safely in England on July 7^th.  Immediately upon arriving he entered Royal Herbert Woolrich Hospital in Epsom complaining of severe chest and leg pains and sporting a heart beat rate of 138 beats per minute.  After a little over a week of examination, he was transferred to a different hospital at Bushey Park where he was listed as suffering from Myalgia.  He would spend an additional two months at this address where more examination was offered.  Doctors noted that as a boy, Hilliard was not healthy, and often could not partake in games with other boys as he often suffered from a lack of energy. He would also indicate that he was often sick as a child, having contracted measles, bronchitis, and scarlet fever as a boy.  It is also on record that Hilliard abstained from drinking alcohol, but did partake in the use of tobacco about once weekly.  He was also noted as having bad teeth.

 He was discharged on October 9^th 1918, with a slightly different diagnosis of neurasthenia, suggesting that much of his pain resulted from nerves.  He went into the 3^rd Casualty Clearing Depot at Seaford, England, where he could perform light duties at the training base.  He was in this unit when the Armistice was declared and the fighting ceased.  He was later posted to the Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Buxton Camp on December 23^rd to await his return home to Canada. 

He sailed home on the ship “Scotian” and arrived in St. John on January 12 1919.  He made his way to Kingston, to appear at a standard pension tribunal on January 30^th.  The tribunal determined that Clements was to receive no disability pension as his infirmities were ruled as present before his service.  During the tribunal Hilliard had stated that he had been thrown from a horse in 1914 in Warsaw, and the tribunal had ruled that injury as the original cause of the chest pains. He was discharged at Kingston on April, 02, 1919. 

In 1921, he returned to the village of Warsaw and resumed living with his parents and working in a blacksmith/garage.  A year later he married Mary Annette Boyce, eighteen years his younger, in Warsaw, Ontario on September 06 1922.

In 1935 he appears as an electrician living in the village of Warsaw, Ontario.

Source:

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths- 1869-1913. MS 929, reels 1-245. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2004.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2007.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2013.

Library and Archives Canada online; Complete War Service File: Hilliard Stanley Elmor Clements. Canada.

Ontario, Canada, Select Marriages. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.