Person

Charles Harrison was the first born son of Yorkshire born blacksmith David Harrison and his wife Elizabeth. Charles was born in Shildon and by 1881 was living in South Church, Bishop Auckland. Five years later the family, by then consisting of seven children, left Liverpool aboard the SS Sardinian and arrived in Quebec City on 18th October 1886. They intended to make for Port Hope, Ontario, and the 1901 Canadian census shows them living in Belleville City, Hastings, Ontario. Charles’s father David and the five oldest boys all worked for the Grand Trunk Railroad.

On 21st February 1906 Charles married Maud May Wallace in Butte, Montana. The couple moved to live in Calgary, Alberta, where he continued to work for a railway. Ten years later they had moved to British Columbia and were living in Vancouver. It was from there that, even though he worked in a war essential trade like his brothers, Charles enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on 11th July 1916. He became Private 1039061 with the 239th (Railway Construction) Battalion. Based at Valcartier the Battalion actively sought experienced railwaymen.

After sailing to England in December 1916 on the SS Olympic under the command of Lieut-Col J B L MacDonald, the battalion was posted to Purfleet, Surrey. It was then absorbed into the Canadian Railway Construction Corps and became the 3rd Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops, which meant that Charles then held the rank of Sapper.

Arriving in Boulogne on 12th August 1917, the battalion was issued with steel helmets and the men made their way to billets at Barlin near the border with Belgium, where they laid and repaired track. A month after being on leave in England in July Sapper Harrison was taken ill with trench fever for which he was treated at #10 Field Ambulance.

At the beginning of November he was attached to the Canadian Base Depot at Etaples after being in hospital with haemorrhoids. He was posted to the 1st Divisional Employment Company and then attached to 1st Divisional Salvage Company for duty. He remained on salvage duty until he returned to England in November 1918. He returned to Canada two months later having sailed from Liverpool to Nova Scotia on SS Royal George. He arrived in Vancouver at the end of February 1919. Admitted to Vancouver General Hospital at the end of his landing leave he was again treated for haemorrhoids and was then transferred to Shaughnessy Hospital for dental work. Before a Medical Board on 19th May they found that he had recovered well and needed no further treatment, but was still discharged as medically unfit at Vancouver on 23rd May 1919.

Charles had been promised work as a switchman on his return post war, with the Canadian National Railway. This was an amalgamation formed in 1918 out of several small rail carriers operating mainly in Western Canada.

By 1921 he and his family were living in Calgary, as were two of his brothers. Charles eventually rose to the position of Yard Master at Calgary; a post from which he retired in December 1940.

He and Maud moved to Squamish, British Columbia in 1943 and he died from heart failure in Squamish General Hospital on 1st December 1955. He was cremated at Vancouver Crematorium the next day.

Civil Parish: East Thickley

Birth date: 21-Oct-1875

Death date: 01-Dec-1955

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Shildon (birthplace)
South Church, Bishop Auckland (1881 census)
Belleville City, Hastings, Ontario, Canada (1891 Canadian census)
919 9th Street E, Calgary, Alberta (1906 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)
1338 Grant Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia (enlistment papers)
1807 William Street, Calgary, Alberta (Calgary Herald, 4 Feb 1941)
PO Box 14, Squamish, British Columbia (death certificate)

Religion: Church of England

Employment: Railway trainman (1906 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)
Yard Master, Canadian National Railway (death certificate)

Family: Parents: David Harrison, Elizabeth Margaret Harrison (nee Harman)
Siblings: George Harrison, John W Harrison, David Harrison, Robert Harrison, Arthur Harrison, Edward Harrison, Sarah Harrison, Hannah Harrison
Wife: Maud May Harrison (nee Wallace)
Children: Hannah Harrison, Sarah Edna Elizabeth Harrison + 1 more daughter

Military service:

1039061
Private
239th (Railway Construction) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force
3rd Battalion, Canadian Railway troops
1st Divisional Employment Company
1st Divisional Salvage Company

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham | Jim Busby, Canada