Deseronto Archives

On this day in 1915 Frederick John Sager, a boxmaker, enlisted in Ottawa. He was born in Deseronto on June 8th (or 9th, or 10th, depending on the source), 1886, the son of John Sager and Millie (née Bradshaw).

Frederick joined the 38th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force with the regimental number 410610. He was five feet five inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. His service record shows that he served in Bermuda between January 1915 and May 1916, then arrived in England in June 1916 on the SS Grampian. He was transferred to France on August 14th, 1916.

In April 1917 he was admitted to hospital with a minor gunshot wound to the neck.  He rejoined his unit in May, only to be wounded again in early June at Vimy, when the bridge of his nose was destroyed. He was sent back to England to recover but this injury left him with continuing problems such as headaches, dizziness, and sinusitis. Sager had his appendix removed in 1917.

Sager left England for Canada in December 1918 and was demobilized in Kingston on January 13th, 1919. At the time of the 1921 census Sager was living in Thessalon, Ontario, where he was working as a labourer in a box factory. He died on October 20th, 1970.