Sergt. William Lemay 195122

Sergt. William Lemay

93^rd Canadian Battalion/ 20^th Canadian Battalion

Regimental Number 195122

William John Lemay was born on February 27^th, 1896 in Dummer Township to parents John and Elizabeth (Snelgrove) Lemay.  The family farmed in Dummer for many years but moved to the village of Lakefield sometime between1901-1911.

William, with his older brother Percy, enlisted with the 93^rd Peterborough Overseas Battalion in that city on September 10, 1915.  He was a student at the time and listed one year’s previous service with the 46^th regiment of militia.  He listed his father John, who lived in Lakefield, as his next of kin.  He was 19 years, 6 months old, stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 115 pounds.  He had a dark complexion, hazel eyes, and dark brown hair. He was Methodist.

William trained with the 93^rd in Peterborough while it recruited up to full strength, until late May of 1916.  At that time the entire battalion was sent to Barriefield Camp in Kingston to further its training there.  By the 10^th of July the battalion had boarded trains for Halifax where they boarded the ship S.S. Empress of Britain.  The battalion sailed for England on July 15^th and arrived safely in Liverpool 10 days later.

After arriving in England, William and his battalion went to Otterpool Camp to continue training.  William was immediately raised to the rank of acting sergeant.  The promotion was not for long as the 93^rd Battalion was soon slated to be broken up and its men used to reinforce other fighting battalions already fighting at the front.  William resigned his sergeant’s stripes and reverted to the rank of private on September 16^th when he joined a draft of 93^rd men who would join the 20^th Canadian Infantry Battalion who were already fighting in France.

Lemay crossed the Channel at the end of September and joined up with the 20^th Battalion by October 3^rd, 1916.  The 20^th had just come out of the Battle for Courcellette only two days earlier and having suffered a loss of nearly a quarter of their men killed and wounded, were desperate for men to fill their ranks.  Lemay spent the next two and a half weeks training and fatiguing with his new battalion before seeing his first four-day tour of the trenches on October 19^th.  The tour was fairly uneventful (in a First World War sense) and apart from intermittent shelling and sniping, there was not much action.  The routine of four days in the front line, followed by four in the support trenches, and another four in billets in the rear was a fairly standard regimen for the troops.  Large scale attacks were not very frequent, but a battalion could receive daily losses (called trench wastage) holding any trenches on the western front.

The British offensive in the Somme stalled in late November and the lines soon became static again.  The 20^th Battalion continue to cycle in and out of the trenches, always accumulating a few casualties from the intermittent artillery fire and snipers.  The 20^th Battalion finally returned to the offensive, when on the morning of January 17^th 1917, they and another Canadian battalion stormed the German lines in a daring raid.  Following up on an artillery barrage the Canadian raiders entered the German trenches, bombed their dugouts and netted close to a hundred prisoners, with minimal losses of their own.

The 20^th Battalion remained in the Somme sector until mid-February, when it moved to the Vimy sector to begin planning the famous assault on the ridge in two months’ time.   Lemay would have spent considerable time in the remainder of February and early weeks of mark drilling and preparing behind the lines for the attack.  He also would have spent time in the front line to familiarize himself with the ground.

William would not take part in nation-defining assault.  After close to 6 months in France, he fell sick with influenza on March 24^th and was admitted to the Canadian Field Ambulance station, he was transferred to a hospital in Etaples, France where he contracted bronchitis.  His condition continued to deteriorate enough to warrant him being evacuated to England (or Blighty, as the soldiers called it) on April 11^th.  He was diagnosed with trench fever there and would spend the next eight months in various English hospitals and convalescent units, until being declared well enough to be released from care.  During this time William would also learn that his older brother Percy was killed on October 28^th, during the Battle of Passchendaele.

Lemay was still in rough shape and doctors noted that even upon release that he was unable to do any physical training because of shortness of breath, dizziness and headaches.  Upon being released to the Canadian Casualty Clearing Depot on November 14, 1917, he was assessed as a Category C3, indicating that he was medically unfit for duty overseas, but could possible do service in the Home Guard back in Canada. 

Pte. Lemay remained in England until sailing for Canada on April 4^th 1918.  Upon returning to his home country, he reported to Kingston, Ontario where he was taken on strength to the Garrison Regiment there on April 11^th.  He served there, most likely in the capacity of guard and was promoted in rank twice: to Corporal on June 11^th and to Sergeant on July 6^th. 

Sergeant Lemay finished his military career on December 12^th 1918 when he was given a discharge after being considered medically unfit for further service.  A medical inspection at the time noted that William complained of being tired, short of breath and troubled by headaches and that he suffered from pains in the back if he did any walking. He was 25 pounds underweight and looked debilitated.

William returned home for a while before travelling West sometime around 1921 to the Qu’Appelle region of Saskatchewan to take work as a labourer.  He eventually returned home to Peterborough where he trained to be a dentist.  He practiced in the city and in Lakefield until 1926 when his health forced his to retire. He died on January 3^rd, 1934 in Hamilton, Ontario though his death certificate indicated that he was residing in Peterborough.  His death was attributed to tuberculosis.  He was 37 years old and listed his occupation as a dentist.  He was buried in Lakefield, Ontario. 

William Lemay’s death certificate records that his death was attributed to his wartime service.  It was only discovered through writing this bio, that William Lemay meets the criteria for including his name on the Dummer Township cenotaph. 

Sources

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Series: MS929; Reel: 89.

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Year: 1901; Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 8; Family No: 84.

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Census Place: 19 - Dummer Township, Warsaw Village, Peterborough East, Ontario; Page: 5; Family No: 59.

Library and Archives Canada. Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2013. RG 31; Folder Number: 158; Census Place: Qu'Appelle-Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan; Page Number: 8.

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1947 (MS 935, reels 1-694), Archives of War Graves Registry: Circumstances of Death Records. Record Group 150, 1992–1993/314, Boxes 255. Library and Archives Canada. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.