Thomas Murray is found in the 1901 census of Scotland, age 4, living in the civil parish of Glasgow Govan with parents John and Jane, an older sister Jane (who died of TB before 1917) and younger sister Agnes age 9 months.
Thomas and Agnes came into the care of the Quarrier's Orphan Homes of Scotland. They both migrated as home children to the Fairknowe home in Brockville in 1912: he was placed with William Cathcart in Stanley's Corner's, Stittsville as a farm labourer.
He enlisted on 25 September 1915, giving his date of birth as 1 April 1896, serving with the 80th Battalion to May 1916, the 74th Batallion to the following month, and then the 46th Batallion.
Likely as a result of exposure in the trenches he contracted TB. He was in various medical facilities in England before returning to Canada and the Mowat Sanitarium in Kingston.
He died on 19 April 1920 and is interred in Section 29, Lot 14 at Beechwood Cemetery.
His sister Agnes married Aringo Thomas Kelly. They had five sons and three daughters named in an Ottawa Journal death notice on 2 April 1956.
19 April 2020
CWGC Beechwood Cemetery Burials: Thomas Murray
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1 comment:
This reminds me of how fragile life was. My Sterling and Story families in Ottawa (Westboro) survived fine in the 1918 flu pandemic. In the middle of the pandemic, my grandmother would have heard the news of my grandfather, her fiance, being badly burned by mustard gas(September 7, 1918) In 1917, he had spent over 4 months in hospital in England while his heart and lungs "recovered" from being assaulted by chlorine gas. So, I had not thought that he could easily have died of TB.
This post scared me, as I had not thought of the TB possibility.
So, I am here in my cozy house on a rainy day.
Anne S.
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