Person

Born in November 1902 in West Hartlepoo,l Herbert was baptised on 7 January 1903 at Stranton Church. His father, George, was a merchant seaman from Lincolnshire, who had married a Hartlepool seaman’s daughter in 1883, and they eventually raised a family of eight siblings. Father George arrived in Canada in 1906 and was joined by his wife and younger children, including Herbert, in 1911.

On 1 March 1916 Herbert travelled the eighty miles from their farm in Punnichy, Saskatchewan to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Regina. Saying that he had been born in 1899, he was accepted as being aged 16 and became Private 907170 of the 195th Battalion. In hospital at Camp Hughes for eleven days in June with influenza, young Herbert embarked with the Battalion on the SS Empress of Britain, arriving in Liverpool on 11 November 1916. Based at East Sandling on the south coast the 195th was absorbed into the 32nd Reserve Battalion. It was here that Private Wilyman was discovered to be underage and it was arranged that he would be returned to Canada for discharge as a minor.

Herbert returned to Canada on the SS Metagama and was discharged in Quebec at the end of March 1917. He returned to Saskatchewan and married and lived in the Punnichy area until his death in 1992.

Civil Parish: Hartlepool

Birth date: 19-Nov-1902

Death date: 1992

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: West Hartlepool (birthplace)
43 Percy Street, West Hartlepool (1911 census)
Kutawa, Saskatchewan (1916 census of Manitoba. Saskatchewan & Alberta)

Religion: Methodist

Family: Parents: George Wilyman, Dorothy Mary Wilyman nee Barnard
Siblings: George William Wilyman, Sarah Jane Wilyman, Henry Wilyman, Florence Wilyman (died in infancy), Edward Wilyman, Charles Wilyman, Bertie Wilyman, Isaac Wilyman (died in infancy), Ruth Wilyman(died in infancy), Lily Wilyman

Military service:

Private 907170
195th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham