Thomas Drain 195727
Thomas Drain was born in Dummer
Township on April 01 1889 to John and Elizabeth Drain. He was one of 11
children in the family. The family lived
in Clarina, the northern part of the township.
It seems the Drains packed up and moved slightly north of Dummer, to the
township of Burleigh-Anstruther to farm around 1901. The area is fairly rocky and not greatly
suited to farming, and the Drains had returned to the Stoney Lake area in Dummer
by 1911.
Thomas attested into the 93rd
Battalion in Peterborough on February 9th 1916. He was only 27 years old, weighed 141 pounds,
and stood 5 foot 8 ½ inches tall. He had
a fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. He was single, Methodist
and listed his occupation as a lumberman.
He had no previous military experience. He passed the medical inspection
of the 93rd Battalion medical officer, though it was noted he had
previously lost the “terminal joint on the second finger of his left hand.
Thomas spent the next four months in Peterborough
training and drilling with the 93rd Battalion until May 30, 1916,
when they left for Barriefield Training
Camp, in Kingston. They received further training there until they left
for Halifax on July 15 1916, and there boarded the S.S. Empress of Britain for
overseas. The 93rd arrived
in England on the 25th of July and was directed to Otterpool Camp
for further instruction. There the
Peterborough Battalion learned the dismal fate that it was to be broken up and
its ranks used to reinforce other battalions already fighting at the
front. Pte. Drain was transferred to the
39th Reserve Battalion at West Sandling Camp to await further notice
as to joining a front line battalion. He
was posted to the 21st Battalion and joined them in France on October
28, 1916. He served at the front with that unit until he entered No.22 General
Hospital at Camiers on January 18 1917 with a gunshot wound to his shoulder and
neck. He was transferred to the Military Hospital in London 5 days later. While there he wrote home to his mother, on Stoney
Lake.
C. Ward.
Endell
St. Hospital,
London
Dear Mother,- Just a few lines to say I am in hospital
and getting on fine. I have got my left shoulder hurt and am grand. This is the
best place I have struck yet. Don’t think that because I am very much alive. I
am in London. I expect to be in here quite a while. I like it a lot better than
I do France. You might excuse the short letter as I am pretty sleepy. They even bring my meals to me in bed. I came
in the hospital on the 25th. When I can get three months’ leave I
shall come over and see you, but I don’t think I shall. That cake that you sent
I never got, but I had a good feed of turkey and rum to match it. I guess I will close. Best wishes to
all.-Thomas.”
He recovered sufficiently enough to be moved
to rest at the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre (C.C.A.C) at Shoreham at the
Sea.
Drain
was sent to the Canadian Infantry Brigade Depot, still in England, on June 6th
and was taken back into the 21st Battalion. It was most likely
around this time that he wrote this letter home to his sister, Mrs. M.
McIlmoyle of Young’s Point:
“I received your two post cards and letter. Was glad
to hear that you are well, and your letter found me the same.
I am back to duty again. My wound is all healed up
nicely, and I am able to work again. I had my ten days’ leave in London and had
a fine time. I expect I will have to go to France again, but I do not know just
when. I expect to be training here for a month or so yet.”
Surprisingly,
3 days later he was admitted to No. 51General Hospital with V.D.G., or venereal
disease gonorrhoea, spending from July 25 to November 10, 1917. He was moved
for treatment to No.4 Stationary Hospital. He would spend the next year in
assortment of hospitals and convalescences with various diagnoses of venereal disease
including syphilis and penile ulcers. He
returned to the 21st Battalion on March 15 1918. He would spend less
than 3 months at the front until he was admitted to No.6 Canadian Field
Hospital complaining of severe abdominal pains. He was sent to No. 43 Canadian
Casualty Clearing Station on the 21st of May and to No.11 Stationary
Hospital on the 23rd, where an exploratory incision was made
thinking that it might be gall stones. Doctors
noted some adhesions around his gall bladder and removed his appendix. His diagnosis was later described as having
hepatitis.
He was
invalided to the Eastern Ontario regimental Depot in Seaford, England on June
23rd, 1918. Pte. Drain spent the duration of the war in the Canadian
Casualty Clearing Depots No.3 and No.1 in Buxton, England.
 |
| An excerpt from the proceedings of the Discharge Board |
He
embarked for Canada on the S.S. Tunisian on December 23, 1918. The Peterborough
Examiner announced that he had arrived in the city on January 4th
1919. Records show that Pte. Drain
entered the Casualty Company No.3 District Depot in Kingston on June 5th
1919. During his final hearing in front of the discharge board it was noted
that Pte. Drain was robust and well developed and had no disability, but did
complain of tenderness of in the 5 inch scar that he received during his
appendectomy during the war. He received
a 10% disability pension for his injuries and was discharged on February 03,
1919.
Thomas
Drain died on September 21 1962, he is buried in St. Mark’s Cemetery in Warsaw,
Ontario.
Sources:
Library and Archives Canada. 1901 Census of
Canada. Census Place: Burleigh & Anstruther, Peterborough East, Ontario,
Page 5, Family no.45.
Library and Archives Canada. 1911 Census of
Canada. RG 31-C-1; Folder Number 81,
Census Place 22: Dummer Township, Peterborough East, Ontario. Family No. 64.
Page 07.
Library and Archives Canada. 1891 Census of
Canada. Census Place: Dummer,
Peterborough East, Ontario. Roll T-6363; Family No. 65.
Library and Archives Canada. 1921 Census of
Canada. Census Place: Dummer (Township),
Peterborough East, Ontario. Series RG31. Statistics Canada Fonds. Page 2
Library and Archives Canada online. The Complete Military Service File of Thomas Drain. Accessed November 27 2015. RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4930-35.
<www.bac-lac.gc.ca>
Peterborough Evening Examiner. “Today’s Military
News”. March 12 1917. P.5,11
Peterborough Evening Examiner. “Today’s Military
News Continued”. June 02 1917. P.19
Peterborough Evening Examiner. “Pte. Drain
Arrives Home”. January 04 1919.Pg.4
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