Person

Born in Stockton-on-Tees on 15 February 1897, at the age of four, Luke and his older brother, Harry, were boarders with Catherine Dolan in Thornaby. In July 1910 Luke followed his brother to Canada. By 1916 Harry and his brother, Luke, who had arrived in Canada in 1910 were homesteading near Maple Creek in Saskatchewan and their mother Elizabeth was living with them.

Luke enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Winnipeg on 27 January 1916 and became Private 700631 of “A” Company, 1st Platoon of the 101st Battalion. The end of June saw the battalion embarking for England on the SS Olympic and a posting to East Sandling Camp in Kent, where a week later they were absorbed into the 17th Reserve Battalion. In September he was posted to the 54th Battalion (part of the 11th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division) and proceeded to France joining the battalion in bivouac at Tara Hill near Albert.

He was attached to the Brigade School for a Grenade Course in December 1916, and just four weeks later, was given seven days punishment for failing to comply with an order. In October 1917 he transferred to the 11th Trench Mortar Battery, joining them at Maisnil-les-Ruitz. Trench mortar batteries were not popular with front line infantry as the high arc of the mortar bombs allowed spotters to follow the arc back to its origins and call for artillery “retaliation”, which is what war diaries called the enemy response. There are recorded instances of infantry inviting mortar batteries to go elsewhere, in terms not necessarily friendly.

Private McEwan was wounded by shrapnel in both legs and his face during the assault on the Drocourt-Queant Line on 2 September 1918, and invalided to England soon after on the hospital ship Cambria and spent two months in the 16th General Hospital, Orpington. Luke did not return to France, he was discharged from hospital in November and granted sick furlough, returning to Canada at the end of February. He was demobbed at Calgary on 22 March 1918.

He lived with his mother in Edmonton, Alberta, working at the Alberta Hospital for the Insane at Ponoka. He had moved to Vancouver, British Columbia by 1925. On 14 March 1927 married Margaret Campbell, and they had a son, Lawrence Henry, born in May 1928.

Luke died from colon cancer in Shaughnessy Hospital, Vancouver on 21 December 1939 and is buried in a Veteran’s Plot at Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.

Civil Parish: Stockton on Tees

Birth date: 15-Feb-1897

Death date: 21-Dec-1939

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Stockton-on-Tees (birthplace)
55 Queen Street, Thornaby (1901 census)
Maple Creek, Saskatchewan (1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)
565 William Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba (enlistment papers)
4995 Windsor Street, Vancouver, British Columbia (marriage certificate)

Religion: Roman Catholic, later Presbyterian

Employment: farmer (1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)
Electrician (enlistment papers)
Hospital orderly (marriage certificate)

Family: Parents: William McEwan, Elizabeth McEwan nee Leyden
Siblings: Harry McEwan, Arthur McEwan
Wife: Margaret Campell McEwan nee Cameron
Children: Lawrence McEwan

Military service:

Private 700631
101st Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
32nd Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham | Jim Busby, Canada