Service highlights
- Born: 20 June 1870, Devon, England
- Enlisted: 10 March 1916, at St. Marys, with the 110th (Perth) Battalion
- Service number: 727670
- Civilian life: worked at the St. Marys Cement plant
- Sailed overseas: 31 October 1916
- Hospitalized: admitted 27 December 1916 for asthma, discharged 5 March 1917
- Returned to Canada: From Liverpool on the SS Grampian on 23 March 1917 due to asthma
- Later service noted: “F” Unit, MHCC, 18 April 1917 to 26 July 1917
- Died: 22 February 1949, at his home on Jones Street, St. Marys, Ontario
A Life and Service Remembered
Samuel Sandercock’s service stands out immediately for two reasons. First, he enlisted as a grown man with an established working life, a husband and father with a household depending on him. Second, he did not serve in isolation. He served in a unit that would include his sons, and for a time he served alongside them.
Samuel was born in Devon, England, on 20 June 1870. Family history says he came to Canada as a young man of about eighteen and worked west of Lucan. He later married Anne Jackson on 25 February, and together they built a large family, six boys and one girl. By the time the First World War arrived, Samuel was working at the St. Marys Cement plant, grounded in the routines of a labouring life and the responsibilities of raising children.
And yet, on 10 March 1916, he enlisted with the 110th (Perth) Battalion in St. Marys. Within weeks, Cecil also enlisted. William transferred into the 110th later that summer, likely to keep the family together in uniform. That shared decision produced one of the most remarkable details in the Sandercock story. On 31 October 1916, they sailed overseas from Halifax as part of the same battalion, beginning the war journey together.
Samuel’s overseas service did not unfold as he would have hoped. By late December 1916 he was admitted to hospital for asthma, moving through care at Ravenscroft Military Hospital in Seaford and then to a convalescent hospital in Eastbourne. He was discharged from that hospital on 5 March 1917. Shortly afterward, he left England for home. Records note that he sailed from Liverpool for Canada on the SS Grampian on 23 March 1917, the reason given as asthma.
That return is the kind of turning point that echoes through a family story. Samuel went overseas with his sons, but illness forced him to come home while William and Cecil continued toward the front. Later, Samuel served with the MHCC in “F” Unit, beginning 18 April 1917 and ending 26 July 1917. His war, in other words, became defined by the limits of his health and by service that kept him closer to home, while his sons remained in the danger zone overseas.
In the years that followed, Samuel lived with losses that are hard to put into words. William was killed in August 1917. Cecil carried on, but shortly after was killed in August 1918. Samuel’s story is not only about where he served, but about how a father’s decision to enlist may have influenced his sons and became a shared family path that the war later tore apart. He died on 22 February 1949 at his home on Jones Street in St. Marys, leaving behind a family history forever marked by what the Sandercocks gave.
Major battles and operations
- Overseas service with the 110th (Perth) Battalion, departure 31 October 1916
- Hospitalization and convalescence for asthma, winter 1916 to spring 1917
- Service with “F” Unit, MHCC, 18 April to 26 July 1917