LEST WE FORGET 131 COATES, William Ernest WWI William Ernest Coates was born on February 12, 1886, in Reading, England. He served in the English army prior to his arrival in Canada. William Coates emigrated to Canada in 1905, the year Saskatchewan became a province, and claimed a homestead. He and Maude Conlin were married in August 1914. Maude was born in Wawanesa, Manitoba in 1895 and came to Asquith, Saskatchewan with her parents in 1903. Maude and William had two daughters (Hazel and Elva) and two sons (Gerald and Ken). The family lived near and contributed to the community of Birsay until they retired and moved to Saskatoon in 1959. Maude passed away on December 18, 1977. William Ernest Coates died on May 16, 1966. They are buried together in the family plot at Lakeview Cemetery near Birsay. CONLIFF, William Sanford WWI William was born on April 4, 1889, in Aultsville, Ontario, to Henry A. and Isabella (McMillan) Conliff. He had two brothers and seven sisters. Bill served two years with the 59th Battery in Rockliffe, Ontario prior to going west to Rocanville. He was working as a salesman at Barrett and Scott Store in Rocanville around 1911-1912. William was on the coaching team of the men’s hockey team in 1912 along with hockey players who would also join World War I (George Brownlee, Jim Davis, Walter Hilts, Billie Hilts, and John Lockhart). Bill’s girlfriend, Mary Evelyn Clarke, had a married sister living in Rocanville. The young couple married in 1916, the same year that Bill enlisted in the Army on March 13, 1916, in Regina. He sailed for England on November 14, 1916, aboard the Empress of Britannia. He served in the 15th Reserve, 28th Battalion and finally the 195th Battalion when he went to France on March 9, 1917. His medical war records show that he spent November 1917 and much of 1918 in hospital recovering from a concussion and wound to the head. This head injury was sustained in an enemy artillery barrage (near Camiers, France) on November 7, 1917, which caused Private Conliff to be buried by debris. He was also treated for tuberculosis in 1918. Bill was discharged on March 29, 1919, and his plan was to live in Toronto with his wife and young daughter Dorothy (who had lived in Winnipeg while he was overseas). The family immigrated to New York in 1922 and the couple operated Avenue Community Grocery on New York Avenue in Ogdensburg for about ten years. They raised five children (four girls and one boy). Bill’s wife, Evelyn, died in an auto accident on January 25, 1950, near Morrisburg, Ontario. Bill died in 1955 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, at the age of 66. Both he and his wife are buried in Ogdensburg, NY.
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