Deseronto Archives

Pharmaceutical chemist Clayton Herbert Mastin enlisted in Aldershot, Nova Scotia on this day in 1918. He was born in Deseronto on September 20th, 1893, the son of Melburn Masten and Minerva Jane (née Bruin). His elder sister, Hattie, had enlisted as a nurse in January 1916 and his younger brothers Percy and Garnet were both serving in the army.

Clayton joined the army with the regimental number 2770006. He was five feet six inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His service record shows that he caught influenza in Ottawa in October 1918. He recovered and was one of the men who left Vancouver on the SS Protesilaus  on December 26th, 1918 as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to Siberia. He returned from Vladivostok on the SS Empress of Japan in May 1919 and was discharged from the army on June 12th, 1919 in Kingston. He was suffering from bronchitis and was classified as medically unfit for further service.

Mastin left Canada for the US on December 22nd, 1926, crossing the border at Detroit to work as a chemist at Parke-Davis and Company.