Cpl. George Lennox 195134

George Lennox was born in Dummer Township on December 11^th, 1875 to parents Stewert and Angeline Lennox.

George enlisted in the 93^rd Peterborough Battalion in that city on September 10^th 1916.  He was nearly 40 years old.  He listed his occupation as labourer and his religion as Baptist.  Lennox was a fairly short man for enlistment standards, standing only 5 feet 2 ½ inches tall.  He had a dark complexion, hazel eyes and dark brown hair.  George listed his wife Annie, who was living in Lakefield, as his next of kin.  He had no previous military experience.

Lennox trained in Peterborough until the entire 93^rd Battalion was moved to the military base at Barriefield, Kingston in late March of 1916.  After another three months there, he boarded a train for Halifax harbour.  Lennox sailed aboard the S.S. Empress of Britain on July 15^th 1916 and arrived safely in England ten days later.  The battalion was stationed at Otterpool Camp, England where it soon received the news that it was to be broken up and its ranks used to reinforce other Canadian battalions already fighting at the front.

Pte. Lennox was part of a large draft of 93^rd men who were assigned to the 5^th Canadian Mounted Rifles.  The 5^th C.M.R.’s were an infantry unit that had already seen considerable action in France up to this point.  Lennox joined them in France on September 8^th 1916 just as the Battle of the Somme was about to begin.  Lennox probably participated in the costly attacks on Mouquet Farm on September 15^th and Regina Trench on October 1^st-2nd.

Service at the front seemed to take its toll on the 41 year old, and Lennox was sent back to England sometime around the 19th of October 1916 and declared Class C: fit for non-combatant service in England only.  He entered the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre, a centre where wounded were assessed for further treatment or return to duty, on October 20^th.  He stayed there for nearly a month before being discharged on November 16^th.  Lennox spent the rest of the month at the Canadian Discharge Depot waiting to be sent back to Canada.

George sailed back to Canada on December 1^st 1916 and arrived in Canada a week later.  He convalesced in Kingston for four months before recovering sufficiently to work as an orderly within the No.3 Special Service Company in Kingston beginning in April of 1917.  This was a position for overage, or medically unfit soldiers in various garrison duties in Canada.  Lennox continued to serve within this capacity, receiving a promotion in rank to provisory Corporal in August, 1918, and finishing his service long after the war ended.  He was officially discharged from military service on January 31^st 1920.

George Lennox died on February 9^th 1929.

Sources:

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Ottawa, Year: 1891; Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; Roll: T-6363; Family No: 194.

Canada. "Census of Canada, 1881." Statistics Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. Year: 1881; Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; microfilm Roll: C_13241; Page: 42; Family No: 184

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Year: 1901; Census Place: Lakefield (Village), Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 12; Family No: 119.

Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 99

Library and Archives Canada. "The Complete Military Service File of George Lennox (195134)." Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5575-12. Item no. 529003.