Melville Roy Crowe 3056573

Drafted/1^st Depot Battalion Eastern Ontario Regiment

Regimental Number 3056573

Melville Crowe was born in Dummer Township, Ontario on April, 19^th 1897 to parents William Crowe and Mildred “Millie” Watley.   The family lived on Lot 17, Concession 2, where William was employed as a butcher.

Melville continued to live in Dummer and work as a farmer into his twenties. 

He was drafted under the Military Service Act and reported to Barriefield Camp in Kingston on February 8^th 1918 for a medical inspection.  He was neatly 21 years old, stood 5 feet 6 inches tall, and weighed 145 pounds.   He had a fair complexion, grey coloured eyes and fair hair.  He was a Methodist and a farmer by occupation. He was single, had no previous military experience and was living in Warsaw at the time. He was considered class C.1, or acceptable for home service, probably because of being flagged for Tachycardia, an abnormally rapid heart rate. 

Crowe was assigned to the 1^st Depot Battalion Eastern Ontario Regiment at Barriefield Camp, Kingston.  He was most likely given time to arrange his affairs, as only days after being drafted, Melville married Rhoda Reed of Young’s Point, at Lakefield Ontario on February 20^th.  He later returned to Barriefield and trained there until being granted a month’s leave on August 8^th without pay on account of his low ability rating. When he returned to Barriefield on September 8^th, he was given a full discharged. 

Melville returned to Dummer and with his wife, continued to live in the family home on the 2^nd concession.  He died on April 2^nd 1981 and is buried in Lakefield Cemetery, Lakefield Ontario.

Sources

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. Series: MS929;   Reel: 139.   Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario. P.17.

Archives of Ontario Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928;  Series: MS932; Reel: 462  P.81.

Library & Archives Canada The Military Service File of Melville R. Crowe.  Ottawa, Ontario. RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1557-36. NO.91649.

LAC. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: 2004. Census  Place: Dummer,  Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page:11; Family No: 109.

LAC. Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: 2007. Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; Page: 7; Family No: 91.

LAC. Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives   Canada, 2013. Series RG31. Statistics Canada Fonds.  Reference Number: RG 31;   Folder Number: 81; Census Place: Dummer (Township), Peterborough East, Ontario;  Page Number: 9.