LEST WE FORGET 269 MURRAY, Richard Henry Gale WWI Richard joined the 20th London Regiment Army Corps in 1914, and was in the service for four years and eight months, and saw a lot of action before being wounded at Vimy Ridge in France. He was discharged in 1918. MURRAY, William Brooks WWI Private William Brooks Murray was born on March 1, 1896, in Vars, Ontario. His parents were Margaret (Wylie) and John Murray who were married on June 20, 1888, in Russell, Ontario. There were eleven children in the family: nine sons and two daughters. William, the fourth-born, moved with his family to the Macrorie area in 1908. John Murray, the father, died on December 10, 1914, leaving his wife Mary to raise the family. When William Brooks Murray enlisted in Saskatoon on January 5, 1916, he was 19. Before leaving Saskatoon, he wrote a letter to his mother describing the ‘great dinner’ he had enjoyed. It would prove to be a stark contrast to the uninviting trench food he would be eating only a few months later. He sailed from Halifax aboard the Empress on June 18, 1916, arriving at Bramshott Military Base on July 3. His company, the 65th Overseas Battalion, was south of Givenchy preparing for the Battle of Vimy Ridge, when he was killed in action on March 1, 1917, his 21st birthday. He is buried in the Cabaret-Rouge Military Cemetery, only a few kilometres from Vimy Ridge. William Brooks Murray was one of twenty-four young men from Macrorie who fought in World War I. He and his brother Percy Ross Murray were the only two killed in action. His mother received a Memorial Cross. William Brooks Murray is also commemorated in Saskatoon Memorial Garden at Woodlawn Cemetery where an elm tree was planted in his honour.
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