Brethour, Private Hector Wilson

Service highlights

  • Name: Private Hector Wilson Brethour
  • Service number: 1018419
  • Born: 12 November 1881
  • Unit: Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment), 5th Battalion
  • Religion: Presbyterian
  • Died: 1 September 1918, killed in action
  • How he died: Shot in the back while returning from the front line to Company Headquarters, after an attack east of Hendecourt les Cagnicourt, near the Dury Road.
  • Age at death: 36
  • Burial: Upton Wood Cemetery, Hendecourt les Cagnicourt, Pas de Calais, France, grave C. 28
  • Family noted in records: Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Brethour of Kirkton, Ontario.

A Life and Service Remembered

Hector Wilson Brethour was a working man and a farmer, rooted in rural Ontario and drawn west like many others of his generation. The account in The Fallen describes him working on his father’s farm, then heading to the Battlefords and building a life on a farm near Daysville before he enlisted.

That same source traces a long, patient path through training and reinforcement channels before he finally reached the front with the 5th Battalion. It also records a hard stretch of service in 1917, including Passchendaele and a hospital admission for contusions after shell debris, followed by a return to duty.

He was killed during the intense push of late summer 1918. The official casualty record captures the plain, devastating detail: he had come through the fighting, was on his way back to Company Headquarters, and a bullet struck him in the back, killing him instantly.

He rests at Upton Wood Cemetery, near Hendecourt les Cagnicourt, not far from Arras and is commemorated on the Cenotaph in Rannoch.

Major battles and operations

(Operations listed here are drawn from The Fallen and the official casualty record.)

  • Passchendaele (1917): Served with the 5th Battalion during the campaign, and later returned to duty after being treated for contusions from shell debris.
  • Canada’s Hundred Days (August 1918): The unit fought at Amiens and later around Arras.
  • Hendecourt les Cagnicourt area (1 September 1918): Killed during operations east of the village, near the Dury Road, while returning from the front line.

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