Person

The fifth child of farmer Charles Tweddell Wearmouth and his wife, Mary Jane, who farmed 160 acres at Butterby, Croxdale, just outside Durham City, Hebert Farrow was born on 8 February 1885. His father died in 1889 whilst at sea on the Indian Ocean, and by the time of the census of 1891 Mary Jane and the six children were living in Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Mary Jane died in March 1910 and Herbert travelled to Canada a month after her death to start a life farming in British Columbia, At the time of the 1911 Canadian census both Herbert and his older brother, Ernest, were living and working together as farmers in Masset, British Columbia. Both brothers were members of the local active militia groups 68th EGOR based in Prince Rupert, where their older brother Cecil and his family were living.

On 11 November 1914 both Herbert and Ernest enlisted with the 30th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in Victoria, British Columbia. giving Cecil as their next of kin. The boys were given consecutive regimental numbers, 77188 (Ernest) and 77189 (Herbert) and both their attestation papers were signed by Captain Peck, a local businessman who raised the Prince Rupert Company, which became part of the 30th Battalion. Captain Peck would go on to win the Victoria Cross and become Member of Parliament after the war.

The battalion embarked for Britain in two sections, either sailing on the SS Megantic to Liverpool or the SS Missanabie to Avonmouth, and on arrival was designated as a Reserve Battalion to provide reinforcements to the Canadian Corps on the front line. On 25 April they were both posted to the 16th Battalion which had just been decimated at Ypres and joined them at Brielen as part of a draft of 220 men led by Peck.

Promoted to be lance corporal in April 1916 Herbert then spent a week learning how to use the new Stokes trench mortars. Herbert’s war effectively ended during a night attack on Hill 61 on 13 June near the end of the battle for Mount Sorrel. He was wounded in the head and both legs by shrapnel. His head wound and the wound to his left leg appear to have been slight, but shrapnel balls shattered his right patella (knee cap) and he never fully recovered. Initially treated at hospital at Wimereaux, he was invalided to England on Hospital Ship St. Denis and admitted to 2nd Eastern General Hospital at Brighton two weeks later. After four weeks in Brighton he was moved to Woodcote Park convalescent home at Epsom and then to a specialist hospital in Ramsgate. A Medical Board in November recommended that he be invalided to Canada for medical discharge. At the beginning of December, he found himself on board the SS Olympic returning home to be admitted as a patient to Restaven convalescent home, Sidney, Victoria where he would have received vocational as well as medical treatment. It was whilst here that a medical board found that had weakness of his right knee from his wounds and was left permanently partially disabled as a result. Hebert was discharged as medically unfit in mid February 1917.

By 1921 Herbert was working as a clerk and lodging with the Parolin family in Prince Rupert, and in July the following year he married local girl Margaret Ella Murray in Prince Rupert, and they had one son named for his uncle, Ernest John, in 1924. Herbert returned to farming until he retired in the early 1950s. He died from a heart attack aged 91 on 2 March 1976 in Saanich Peninsula General Hospital and is buried in Holy Trinity Cemetery, North Saanich, British Columbia.

Civil Parish: Sunderland Bridge

Birth date: 8-Feb-1885

Death date: 2-March-1976

Residence: Butterby Farm, Croxdale, Durham (birthplace)
51 Larkspur Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1891 census)
86 Holly Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1901 census)
Massat, Comox-Aitlin, British Columbia (1911 Canadian census)
855 Borden Street, Prince Rupert, British Columbia (1921 Canadian census)
RR1 Sydney, Esquimalt-Saanich, British Columbia (Voters list 1957)
2166 Mount Newton Cross Road, Saanich, British Columbia (death certificate)

Religion: Church of England

Employment: Farmer (1911 Canadian census)
Poultry farmer (death certificate)

Family: Parents: Charles Tweddell Wearmouth, Mary Jane Wylam Wearmouth nee Lister
Siblings: Charles Lister Wearmouth, Cecil Wylam Wearmouth, Emma Collingwood Wearmouth, Ernest Tweddell Wearmouth, Charlotte Maud Wearmouth
Wife: Margaret Ella Wearmouth nee Murray
Children: Ernest John Wearmouth

Military service:

68th Regiment EGOR (pre-war militia)
77189
Corporal
Prince Rupert Company
30th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
30th Reserve Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
16th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham | Jim Busby, Canada