Deseronto Archives

Keith Sharpe enlisted in Toronto on this day in 1917. He was born in Deseronto on September 12th, 1899, the son of Philip Sharpe and Sarah (née Smith). When he joined up (claiming to have been born in 1898), he was living with his parents at 334 Adelaide Street, Toronto. His four elder brothers, Ernest, Alfred Nelson and Harry and James Wilmont had already enlisted.

Keith joined the Canadian Mounted Rifle’s Depot Regiment with the regimental number 226925. He was described as five feet four inches tall, with a medium complexion, grey eyes and fair hair. His service record shows that he left Canada on the SS Scandinavian on October 22nd, 1917. He joined the Fort Garry Horse on April 11th, 1918 in France. In February 1919 he was injured when the little finger of his left hand was crushed in a pair of clippers. An x-ray on his file shows the damaged bone at the end of the finger.

Sharpe left Liverpool on the troopship Caronia on August 9th and was demobilized on August 19th, 1919 in Toronto. He married Maude Mary Shaw (née Evans), a widow, in Napanee on March 4th, 1921. Keith died in April 1978 and was buried in the Deseronto cemetery, in plot 137A.