Deseronto Archives

On this day 100 years ago, Thomas Peter Wims signed up in Montreal. He was born in Deseronto on July 31st, 1894, the son of Patrick Wims and Jessie (née Kerr). The Wims ran a store in Deseronto in the 1890s, which Herbert Osborne photographed in around 1895. By 1901 the family had moved to Campbellford and they were living in Belleville at the time of the 1911 census. When he enlisted, Thomas was living at 17, Rue Labardie, Montreal, and working as a stenographer.

Wims joined the Canadian Field Artillery with the regimental number 1251853. He was five feet five and a half inches tall, with a fair complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. His service record shows that he left Halifax on the SS Olympic in April 1917. He arrived in France in November 1917.