MOULTON, PTE. WILLIAM EARL Reg.# 657803
William ‘Earl’ Moulton was born May 9, 1895, son of Robert and Isabella (McDonald) Moulton of Dunchurch. He enlisted March 27, 1916 at Burks Falls in the 162nd Battalion.
William 'Earl' Moulton
Earl arrived in England on November 11, 1916 on the Caronia and was transferred from the 162nd to the 2nd Pioneers. By January he appears to have been deployed to France.
On August 17, 1917 Earl suffered a severe wound from a pick wielded by a fellow soldier while digging a trench. The pick severed the tendon on his left hand and fractured some of the bones.
He returned to Canada in November and was discharged Dec. 17, 1918 as medically unfit.
Earl made it through the war but drowned on the Magnetawan River log drive after the war.
William Earl Moulton signed his Attestation Papers on March 27, 1916.
In his Discharge Certificate, William is identified as having enlisted in the 162nd on March 27, 1916 and to have served in England and France.
He was discharged December 17, 1918 in Toronto.
William’s injury occurred August 17, 1917 behind Lens in France:
William arrived in England on November 11, 1916 on the S.S. Caronia.That same month he was transferred to the 2nd Pioneers in the Field.
As noted, William’s injury took place on August 17, 1917.
Wikipedia describes the events around that date as follows:
The Battle of Hill 70 took place in the First World War between the Canadian Corps and five divisions of the German 6th Army. The battle took place along the Western Front on the outskirts of Lens in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France between 15 and 25 August 1917.
The objectives of the assault were to inflict casualties and to draw German troops away from the 3rd Battle of Ypres and to make the German hold on Lens untenable.[1] The Canadian Corps executed an operation to capture Hill 70 and then establish defensive positions from which combined small-arms and artillery fire, some of which used the new technique of predicted fire, would repel German counter-attacks and inflict as many casualties as possible. The goals of the Canadian Corps were only partially accomplished; the Germans were prevented from transferring local divisions to the Ypres Salient but failed to draw in troops from other areas.[2]
A later attempt by the Canadian Corps to extend its position into the city of Lens failed but the German and Canadian assessments of the battle concluded that it succeeded in its attrition objective. The battle was costly for both sides and many casualties were suffered from extensive use of poison gas, including the new German Yellow Cross shell containing the blistering agent sulphur mustard (mustard gas).
