LEST WE FORGET 149 HANNETT, Earl Frank WWI Earl was born on October 13, 1897, to Wilbur and Grace Della (Eastman) Hannett in Lisbon, New Hampshire, USA. The family, with two boys and two girls, came to the Dryden, Ontario area in 1912 and moved west to the Rocanville area around 1915. Wilbur worked for local farmers before farming on his own east of town. The children attended Rocanville School. Earl was farming and was eighteen years old when he enlisted with the 181st Overseas Battalion on March 10, 1916, in Brandon, Manitoba. He was hospitalized with Measles from July 31 to August 14, 1916 (while training) so ended up being sent overseas with the 97th Battalion. This battalion had been set to sail in May 1916 but there was a delay of four months, and they had been halted at Aldershot, Nova Scotia in which time a number of officers had resigned and men deserted to rejoin other units to get overseas. Earl was on the Nominal Roll for the 97th Battalion sailing from Halifax on September 9, 1916 aboard the SS Olympic. He was assigned to the RCR on October 22, 1916 and was sent to France with his unit on October 25, 1916. Earl was made acting Lance Corporal with the Royal Canadian Regiment on January 22, 1917. On June 9, 1917, “during a raid on the enemy’s trenches, he was acting as a runner, and in the course of his duties whilst carrying messages from his Company officer to Battalion headquarters, was so severely wounded by enemy shrapnel that he died soon after being taken to the dressing station.” He was nineteen years old. There were nine other soldiers from his unit killed the same day. His medals and Memorial Cross were sent to his mother and the scroll to his father. Earl’s mother died in childbirth in December 1918 and the infant son died soon after. His father and brother moved back to Dryden, Ontario, Earl’s sister, Grace, married and raised her family in the area so Earl had a number of great-nieces and nephews. The name Lance-Corporal Earl Frank Hannett is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial in Pas-de-Calais, France (about eight kilometres north-east of Arras). His name is on the Royal Canadian Regiment Roll of Honour. Earl is also remembered on the Rocanville cenotaph. HARPER, Frank WWI Frank Harper was born on Mach 15, 1893 in Wallington, Oxfordshire, England, to Walter and Alice Harper. He was working as a clerk in Outlook when he enlisted in Moose Jaw on December 18, 1914, at the age of 21. He enlisted with the 128th Overseas Battalion but was attached to the Borden Motor Machine Gun Battery of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. He arrived in France on March 2, 1916. On March 24, 1918, he was killed in action near Clery, France. The Borden Machine Gun Corps was ordered to proceed to Clery and hold the line. However, the enemy broke through the line and overran the village. One motorized machine gun was blown up, and the men on the other one were all either wounded or killed. Twenty-four-year-old Private Frank Harper was among the soldiers killed. The War Diary for March 24 concluded with the notation that “casualties were exceptionally severe.” Private Frank Harper is commemorated at the Vimy Memorial.
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