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Courtesy of Veterans Affairs Canada
Courtesy of Veterans Affairs Canada
CWM 19920166-1600
CWM 19920166-1600

Private

Reid, John Earl

Unit

52nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (New Ontario)

Branch

Infantry

Service Component

Canadian Expeditionary Force

Service Number

139746

birth

1895/01/06

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

death

1917/10/28

Belgium

grave

Nine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium

Gender

Male

John Earl Reid was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, on 6 January 1895.

Reid was a school teacher when he enlisted in the 114th Canadian Infantry Battalion in Hagersville, Ontario, on 24 December 1915. On 22 March 1916, while undergoing training in Canada, he was made a provisional lance corporal. The following month, he was granted leave to plant crops. On 1 November 1916, Reid sailed to England with his unit on SS Caronia, embarking in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The 114th Battalion disembarked in Liverpool on 11 November 1916.

Upon arrival in England, Reid was transferred to the 35th Canadian Infantry Battalion and made an acting corporal. On 28 December 1916, he reverted to the rank of private at his own request and was transferred to the 52nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (New Ontario). He joined that unit in France on 29 December 1916.

In April and May 1917, Reid was hospitalized in France with abscesses on his neck. In July, he was in hospital again with a skin infection and boils on his neck. Reid sustained severe shell wounds to his left thigh on 27 October 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele. He died the next day at No. 44 Casualty Clearing Station, in Belgium.

John Earl Reid is buried in Nine Elms British Cemetery, in Belgium.

The Canadian War Museum’s Collection includes the following artifacts for this recipient