HARRISON, PTE WILLIAM ‘BILL' Harrison Regimental # 3106769
Robert William Morley ‘Bill’ Harrison was born October 21, 1894 son of Robert and Emma (Morley) Harrison of Whitestone. His medical examination was Nov. 2nd , 1917. His actual enlistment took place in Hamilton Feb 4th, 1918 in Hamilton. He was assigned to the 2nd Central Ontario Regiment, 1st Depot Battalion.
Bill Harrison
Mumps; September 19, 1918 he suffered dysentery and November 23-Dec 23 he suffered influenza.
Despite illness, Bill did see active service. He arrived in England.
His time in the service was plagued with illness: May 26 and again July 6, 1918 he suffered from n March 4, 1918 on the Melita. He was transferred to the C.M.G.Pool (Canadian Machine Gun Pool)[1]
He arrived in France August 19, 1918 with the CMG Corps (CMG Pool - Canadian Machine Gun Corps). After what appears to have been a brief time in hospital, was posted to the 4th Battalion CMG.
According to anecdotal history, both Bill Harrison and Guy Hayward were part of tank crews. He was discharged April 3, 1919.
[1] Wikipedia notes that: Another entity within the Canadian Expeditionary Force was the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. It consisted of several motor machine gun battalions, the Eatons, Yukon, and Borden Motor Machine Gun Batteries, and nineteen machine gun companies. During the summer of 1918, these units were consolidated into four machine gun battalions, one being attached to each of the four divisions in the Canadian Corps.
In the book Lake Wah Wash Kesh, The Early Years, pages 58 and 59, following description of the Harrison family is provided:
Of the four Harrison children, William was the only one to develop a significant on-going relationship with the summer people. Bill, as he was known, remained a bachelor and became well known to many people. He decided early to live more or less on his own and bought land from John Bottrell to the north of Duck Bay and Bottrell's Narrows in 1925 and built himself a cabin.
As well as working for cottagers as a handyman, Bill busied himself at this location with a sawmill, a shop, and, in the early spring, with maply syrup. With commercial potential in mind, he also tried his hand at growing mushrooms.
He shunned motor boat travel in favour of his canoe and was easily recognized as he moved about the lake with his unique paddle stroke.
Bill bought Turkey Island in 1937 and built a new cabin. Here he stayed spring to fall and worked as a boiler engineer in Toronto during the cold months. He died in 1952 and left the Island to his brother Frank.
