Private William Dunbar REID
Regimental Number: 883731
Enlistment Date / Location / Unit: 17 October 1916 / Sarcee Camp, Calgary, AB / 187th Battalion
Birth Date / Location: 8 September 1894 / Onondaga, Brant, Ontario
Parents: Reverend William Murray Reid and Isabella Jane Provost
Occupation on Enlistment: Chemist
Date of Death / Location: 24 June 1917 / France
Age at Death: 22
Unit on Date of Death, or on Demobilization: 50th Battalion
Circumstances of Death: Died of injuries
Cemetery or Memorial: Villers Station Cemetery, Villers-au-bois, Pas de Calais, France, VIII.D.20
Where commemorated: First World War Book of Remembrance page 314, Memorial Chamber, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, ON; Maple Ridge Cenotaph, Maple Ridge, BC
William Dunbar Reid was the son of Reverend William Murray Reid and Isabella Jane (nee Provost) Reid. He was born 8 September 1894 in Onondaga, Brant, ON.
His family emigrated from Scotland to Ontario in 1893 and were in Maple Ridge in about 1910. William attended the Maple Ridge School. W. Reid is one of the names of former students of the Maple Ridge School on an honour roll unveiled at a patriotic fundraiser in the spring of 1917.
William enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 187th Battalion, at Sarcee Camp, AB on 17 October 1916, at the age of 22. On enlistment he presented as 172 centimetres (5 feet 8 inches) tall, weighing 61 kilograms (135 pounds) with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and black hair, his occupation was noted as chemist; he was missing the first and second fingers and thumb of his right hand. He had three brothers and two sisters. His father was a clergyman in the Presbyterian church in Maple Ridge.
William arrived in England on 26 December 1916 and was transferred to the 50th Battalion 21 April 1917. “He was severely wounded in both legs by shrapnel on June 23rd 1917, and died at 2.20 a.m. the following day at No. 11 Canadian Field Ambulance” according to the Circumstances of Casualty record. He was 22 years of age.
He was buried in the Villers Station Cemetery, Villers-Au-Bois, France.
His parents are interred in Maple Ridge Cemetery, as are his brother Edgar Cameron Reid and sister Alice Tweedie Gordon (nee Reid) Taylor.
W Reid’s name was added to the Cenotaph in 2000 as part of the Legion’s Millennium project.
(Updated 20-Feb-2024)
