Alien Gets a Premature Burial

William Lohoar Inglis

(1886 Braemar, Scotland d. 1951 Vancouver B.C)

Written and researched by David Bohl, with the kind help of Library and Archives of Canada 

 

William Lohoar Inglis (WLI) was born 1886 in Braemar, near Aberdeen and moved to Liverpool around 1907 to further his career as an accountant for a Shipping Line.
He was living with his sister in Coniston St, Everton and must have crossed paths with some members of the Aliens. He started playing in the 1910-11 season.

[Back row, 2nd from right]

In the build up to the Great War WLI did six years service with the10th (Scottish) Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment and the 6th Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry.

Around 1912 a  better job opportunity within the Shipping Lines beckoned and he moved to the west coast of Canada in Vancouver.

He must have enjoyed the military side of things as in 1914 he was on the paylist of the 72nd Regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders (the grand amount of 75c a day for drill practice).

As war broke out he volunteered for the Canadian Expiditionary Force.

[Library and Archives of Canada]

[The First Canadian Contingent sailed for England in October 3rd, 1914. The 16th Battalion was part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. Its motto, ”Deas Gu Cath”, was adopted on the third day of the voyage. It was on December 16, 1914 on Salisbury Plain, that the battalion was subtitled ‘(The Canadian Scottish)’. It sailed for France in February 12, 1915, and disembarked at St. Nazaire three days later. Between February 17th and March 2nd each Canadian brigade was attached to a British division in front of Armentieres for indoctrination in trench warfare. The Canadian division then relieved the 2nd Border Regiment south of Fleurbais. In mid-April the Canadians relieved a French Division in front of Ypres.

French defensive policy, in the event of an enemy attack, was for the front line troops to fall back and let the artillery deal with the attackers. British policy, reflected in Canadian orders, was to hold the trenches at all costs. Thus the Canadian’s first task was to develop forward defences. At 1600 hours on April 22nd French Colonial troops on their left came under heavy bombardment, followed an hour later by the first gas attack in the history of warfare. The line broke, exposing the Canadian flank and opening the way to Ypres. That night the 3rd Brigade partly restored the situation by counter-attacking with the 10th and 16th Battalions; though much further fighting, including a second attack with gas, lay ahead. To commemorate the first night’s counter-attack on Kitcheners Wood, the Reserve units perpetuating the 10th and 16th Battalions (in the case of the 10th, The Calgary Highlanders) wear on their shoulders an emblem of an acorn and an oak leaf.]

[Library and Archives of Canada]

It looks like William decided to convalesce back in England rather than Canada, as well as the leg injury he had continued heart and breathing problems.

During the recovery period he managed to get married to Stella Young in Liverpool at the end of 1916.
Finally on the 10th Oct 1919 he departed Liverpool on the SS Scandanavian and shortly after arrival in Quebec weighing just 10st he was demobbed.

Subsequent census records have him living with his wife in Vancouver.

                            William passed away 1951 in Vancouver B.C