Pettigrew, Private William Barclay

Service highlights

  • Service Number 602419
  • Born 7 April 1895 in Edinburgh.
  • Immigrated to Canada sometime after the 1911 census.
  • Worked as a tin plater at Maxwell’s Foundry on James Street South in St. Marys.
  • Enlisted 6 April 1915 in Guelph with the 34th Canadian Infantry Battalion.
  • Transferred 3 February 1916 to the 23rd Reserve Battalion.
  • Posted 23 March 1916 to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion, then serving in Belgium.
  • Died: June 4 1916
  • Buried by his comrades on the battlefield, but post war search teams could not locate the grave.
  • Commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
  • Remembered on the St. Marys Cenotaph.

A Life and Service Remembered

William Barclay Pettigrew was born in Edinburgh and came to Canada as a young man, building a working life in St. Marys as a tin plater at Maxwell’s, the big foundry on James Street South. Before that, he had already tasted structure and discipline as a boy in Scotland through the Naval Cadets. That detail sits quietly beside the rest of his story, a hint of how early he learned to stand in line, follow orders, and keep going.

He enlisted in Guelph in April 1915 and, by the fall, was crossing the Atlantic with the 34th Battalion. England on the SS California following which, more training, then the familiar reshuffling of units that so many men experienced. By March 1916 he was posted to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion in Belgium.

In early June 1916 the fighting around Mount Sorrel turned violent and relentless. The front line was not a neat trench system so much as shell holes and ditches, made worse by constant bombardment. In the early hours of 4 June, as his battalion moved into position at Maple Copse to relieve another unit, William was instantly killed by enemy shellfire. His comrades buried him where they could, but the battlefield shifted and the ground was torn apart again and again. After the war, search teams could not find his grave.

His name remains in Belgium on the Menin Gate Memorial among the missing, and it also came home to the St. Marys cenotaph, where the community kept it close and permanent.

Major battles and operations

  • Mount Sorrel and the Ypres Salient, June 1916.
  • Relief and holding actions near Maple Copse during the early days of the Mount Sorrel fighting, where he was killed 4 June 1916.

Learn More

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/634879
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=58548
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B7776-S056
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1595267/william-barclay-pettigrew/
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/6049502

The Fallen by Richard Holt, 602419 Private W.B. Pettigrew, pg 53