Calvin Leslie Myles signature

Calvin Leslie Myles, a craneman, signed up in Toronto on this day in 1916. He was born in South Woodslee, Ontario, on March 18th, 1889, the son of William Nelson Myles and Emma (née Brown). In 1916 William Myles was the proprietor of the Deseronto House Hotel on Main Street. Calvin’s younger brother Clifford had joined the army in January 1916.

Like his brother, Myles joined the 92nd Battalion. His regimental number was 193598. He was five feet seven inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. His service record shows that he arrive in England on May 29th, 1916 on the SS Great Britain. He was transferred to the 42nd Battalion and joined them in France on September 11th. On February 13th, 1917 he was wounded by a bomb which left pieces of shrapnel in his left wrist. An x-ray photo in his service file shows the dark shape of the shrapnel fragment:

He spent the next few months in hospital but did not regain the full use of his left hand. He was sent back to Canada on the SS Olympic in November 1917 and discharged from the army on the recommendation of a medical board in Toronto on January 11th, 1918.

Myles was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the French  Medaille Militaire. The citation for the former is on his service file:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during a raid on the enemy’s trenches. He carries a wounded officer from the enemy trench for a considerable distance back towards our lines under very heavy fire. Later, he again rejoined his party and was wounded.

Calvin married Hazel Faustina Walter in Orono, Ontario on December 12th, 1922. He died in Bowmanville in 1985, according to information from family trees on Ancestry.