William Howard Leeroy signature

On this day in 1918, William Howard Lee Roy, a cook, signed up in Toronto. He stated that he was born on September 18th, 1897 in Deseronto and that his mother, Ella Paterson (né Howard) was still living in Deseronto. When he enlisted, he was living in St. Louis, Missouri.

William joined the 2nd Depot Battalion of the 1st Central Ontario Regiment with the regimental number 3233521. He was five feet three and three quarter inches tall, with a medium complexion, brown eyes and brown hair. His service record shows that he arrived in England on June 21st, 1918 and joined the 19th Battalion in France on October 29th. In December he was treated in hospital for 12 days for flat feet. By February 1919 he was back in England and he left for Canada in March. He was demobilized in Toronto on April 8th, 1919.

After the war, William Howard Lee Roy was living at 8 Grape Street, Rochester, New York, with his mother and her husband, John Paterson and his uncle, Lorenzo Howard.