839119 George Herbert Wyllie was born on January 14th, 1898, in Kilsyth, Ontario. The eldest of George Sr. and
Mary's five children, he was living and working on the family farm when war was declared.M/p>
George attested to the 147th (Grey) Battalion on May 13th, 1916, shortly before the battalion left for Camp Niagara. From there the battalion was moved to Camp Borden, a newly founded training area some thirty miles west of the City of Barrie. When the 147th Battalion arrived, there was very little in the way of infrastructure, so the battalion was put to work clearing the bush to facilitate the camp's construction before their training began.
It was late September before the 147th Battalion received orders to proceed overseas. After a week's leave the battalion left Borden by train. En-route to Halifax the unit was detained in Amherst, Nova Scotia for over a month when a number of soldiers contracted diphtheria. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain, on November 14th, 1916, aboard the S.S. Olympic.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion. The task of this new reserve unit was to supply fully trained reinforcements to the 58th and 116th Battalions as well as the 4th C.M.R. George was taken on strength of the 4th CMR on March 31st, 1917 and was put to work with the 3rd Engineer Battalion in the work up for the Battle of Arras. Re-joining the 4th C.M.R., George served with the unit during the remainder of the battle that saw the Canadian Corps take Vimy Ridge.
George also saw action during the battles of Hill 70, Passchendaele and Amiens before taking part in the build-up for the Battle of Arras 1918. It was while his company was conducting a relief-in-place with Imperial forces that the Germans unleashed an artillery barrage consisting of high explosive and gas shells from which George inhaled some of the mustard gas. Suffering from the effects of the gas he was medically evacuated and didn't return to the unit until into September.
It was during the Advance to Mons that the battalion endured another short artillery barrage on November 10th, the day before the Armistice was signed. Suffering from the effects of gas a second time, George was medically evacuated to England. With the war over George was eventually taken on strength of the 3rd Reserve Battalion and shipped home in February 1919.
839119 Private George Wyllie returned to Canada where he continued with his medical treatment until he was discharged from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Toronto on April 23rd, 1919. Eventually George emigrated to the United States where he married Annie Allan. George passed away in Indian River, Florida, on April 12th, 1970. His service is remembered locally, in Ontario, in the Derby Township's Honour Roll scroll.
Biography credit: George Auer.