Profile image
Military service
Service number:
246804
Age:
23
Rank:
Private
Force:
Army
Unit/Regiment:
Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment)
Division:
38th Bn.
Death:
May 28, 1918
Burial/memorial information
Grave reference:
IX. E. 3.
Additional information
Born 27 February 1895 in Vars, Ontario. Son of Mr. Andrew and Hannah (Tanner) Simpson of Vars, Ontario. Brother to James Herbert, Builah Elizabeth, Ethel Alice, George Ephraim, Ester May, John Andrew
and Wilfred Edgar. Enlisted 2 January 1917 in Ottawa, Ontario with the 207th Battalion attesting that he was single and a farmer. He sailed from Halifax to Liverpool on the SS Olympic on 28 April 1917. He was
transferred to the 7th Reserve Battalion (Seaford) on 11 June 1917 and again transferred to the 156th Battalion (Whitley) on 21 August 1917.
Dispatched to France 18 January 1918 where he was transferred to the 38th Battalion on 1 February 1918. Pte Simpson was killed in action at Lozinghem, County of Pas de Calais, France. On the morning of May 28th while Battalion was moving into training field, one shell from enemy artillery caused 23 casualties - 6 killed and 17 wounded, while companies were moving in column of fours. ( Excerpt from the 38th Battalion War Diary). Pte Wesley Adam Simpson is commemorated on the Vars Cenotaph which was formerly dedicated and unveiled on 20 September 1931 by the Vars Women's Institute. The plaque inscription reads: 'In proud and loving memory of the boys of this community who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914/1918. Matthew Barclay, Wesley Simpson, Ernest Bonsall, Robert McElroy, Charles War, Ernest Buckland, Frank Cormack, Roy Brownlee, Warren Dunning. Their name liveth for evermore'.
Digital gallery of Private Wesley Adam Simpson
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Plaque commémorative
Vars Cenotaph, Ontario -
Cénotaphe de Vars (Ontario)
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Papier d'attestation (page 1)
Attestation Paper Source Library and Archives Canada Soldiers of the First World War -
Papier d'attestation (page 2)
Attestation Paper Source Library and Archives Canada Soldiers of the First World War -
Mémorial
Vars ON cenotaph, re-dedicated Sept. 18, 2011 with 12 posts added in front honouring the 12 soldiers mentioned on the cenotaph. -
Mémorial
Plaque of Wesley Adam Simpson on one of the posts in front of Vars ON cenotaph. -
Mémorial
Built in 1904 in Vars, the Knox Presbyterian Church building served at different times as both a United Church and Presbyterian Church. Closed in 1980, the church building and its artefacts were relocated to the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum. IN MEMORIAM 1914-1918 MATTHEW BARKLEY ROBERT McELROY WESLEY SIMPSON CHARLES WARD THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES -
Mémorial de Vars
Memorial – Plaque on Vars Ontario
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
Digital gallery of
Private Wesley Adam Simpson
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 501 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.
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