Harry Stiner signature

On this day in 1916, Harry Stiner, a hotel-keeper, enlisted in Deseronto. He was born Uxbridge, Ontario on December 2nd, 1881, the son of Frederick Stiner and Mary (née Booth). On July 28th, 1903 he married Josephine O’Donnell in Uxbridge. In 1911 the couple were living in North Bay with one daughter and two of Harry’s siblings. When he enlisted, Harry and Josephine were living in Deseronto. By 1916 they had had three more children, one of whom had died.

Harry joined the 155th Battalion with the regimental number 636362. He was five feet six and a half inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. His service record shows that he left Canada on the SS Northland on October 17th, 1916. In December he was transferred to the 154th Battalion. He was admitted to hospital on January 22nd, 1917, suffering from asthma. Proceedings of a Medical Board note that his asthma was aggravated by the damp climate in England. (Harry mentions his asthma in a letter home.)They agreed that he was “unsuitable for military life”. He left England on May 13th, 1917 on the hospital ship Letitia and discharged as medically unfit on June 19th, 1917. Family tree information on Ancestry suggests that he died in 1954.