Samuel James Barber signature

On this day in 1916, Samuel James Barber, a machinist, joined up in Orillia. He was born in Deseronto on February 18th, 1898, the son of John Alexander Barber and Mary Elizabeth (née Williams).

Barber joined the 157th Battalion with the regimental number 643849. His service record shows that he arrived in England on May 4th, 1916 and was transferred to the 4th Battalion in the following month, arriving in France on July 20th. On October 11th, 1916 he received a gun shot wound to the head and was discharged from hospital after three days. He was wounded again on September 16th, 1917, this time in the right buttock. He spent six weeks in hospital in England. Between November 1917 and April 1918 he was treated for an infection and in June 1918 he was in hospital with tonsillitis. In July and August he was treated for a recurrence of the infection. He returned to the front on September 26th, 1918 and left England for Canada on April 14th, 1919.

He was demobilized in Toronto on April 24th, 1919 and was back with his parents in Orillia in 1921. Barber married Beatrice Kirkland in Toronto on August 7th, 1924. He died in Toronto on June 27th, 1952.