Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Lance Corporal Humphrey Wilson
Date Information
11/02/2019
11/02/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 3rd October 1918: Lance Corporal Wilson
11/02/2019 Lance Corporal Wilson, Canadian Forces, a report of whose death in action appeared last week.
10/02/2019 ‘The stroke was hard, the shock severe,
10/02/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 28th September 1918:
10/02/2019 WILSON – Lance Corporal Humphrey Wilson, Canadian Infantry, killed in action in France on 2nd September 1918, second son of William Wilson, Ballymaguigan. Twice wounded, aged 22.
10/02/2019 To part with one we loved so dear;
10/02/2019 The loss was great, but why complain!
10/02/2019 Inserted by his sorrowing father.
10/02/2019 His King and country called him;
10/02/2019 The call was not in vain;
10/02/2019 On Britain’s Roll of Honour
10/02/2019 You will find our hero’s name.’
10/02/2019 We trust in Christ to meet again.
10/02/2019
12/04/2016 Humphrey emigrated to Canada. It seems he arrived in Quebec in July 1910 on board the ‘Tunisian’. He was 21 and gave his occupation as valet. He has the word ARMY stamped beside his name in the passenger lists, probably retrospectively.
12/04/2016 The 1901 census lists Humphrey as age 11 living with the family at house 55 in Ballymaguigan, Castledawson, County Londonderry. His father was a farmer. His mother and his elder brother William were both linen weavers.
12/04/2016 Humphrey Wilson was born on 10th January 1890 in Ballymaguigan, Castledawson.
12/04/2016 Humphrey Wilson was the second oldest son of William and Mary Wilson. William Wilson and Mary Brown were married on 5th February 1887 in the district of Magherafelt.
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12/04/2016 The 1911 census does not list Humphrey as living with the family at house 151 in Ballymaguigan, Castledawson.
12/04/2016 Family: William Wilson, Mary Wilson, William Wilson (born 28th February 1887), Humphrey Wilson (born 10th January 1890), Joseph Wilson (born about 1891), Mary Wilson (born 12th March 1892), Elizabeth Wilson (born 30th January 1895, died 7th August 1898, aged 3), Maggie Wilson (born 19th August 1897), Robert Wilson (born 10th August 1900), Brown Wilson (born 20th February 1904), Elizabeth Wilson (born 26th March 1907), Simpson Wilson (born 1st October 1910).
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12/04/2016 Prior to enlisting, Humphrey was working as a presser.
12/04/2016 Humphrey enlisted in Toronto on 22nd July 1915. He gave his next of kin as his father, William Wilson of Ballymaguigan.
12/04/2016 Lance Corporal Humphrey Wilson was serving with the 75th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry when he was killed in action on 2nd September 1918, just a few weeks before the end of the war.
12/04/2016 In August, 1918, Dury was behind the German defence system known as the Drocourt-Queant line; but on the 2nd September this line was broken by the Canadian and XVII Corps, and Dury village and the hill just South of it (Mont Dury, or Dury Ridge) were captured. The Mill (Moulin Damiens) stood beside the road from Dury to Villers-les-Cagnicourt, and was destroyed.
12/04/2016 Lance Corporal Humphrey Wilson is buried in Dury Mill British Cemetery. The village of Dury lies ten miles south east of Arras. The cemetery was begun by Canadian units early in September 1918, and closed by the end of the month.
12/04/2016 The CWGC record Lance Corporal Humphrey Wilson as the son of William and Mary Wilson, of Ballymaguigan, Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Ireland.
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