LEST WE FORGET 155 HEAP, John Percival Ward WWI John was born on January 24,1893 to John and Annie (Hamilton) Heap in Millwood, Manitoba. He was the youngest of seven children and lived in Moosomin, Millwood, and the Oak Knoll District near Rocanville. He enlisted in Winnipeg on March 11, 1916 with the 107th Battalion and left Halifax on September 18, 1916 aboard the Olympic. The 107th (Timber Wolf) Battalion, officially the 107th Winnipeg Overseas Battalion, consisted of nearly fifty percent of soldiers of aboriginal descent. They underwent about three months of training at Whitly Military Camp in Surrey, England. Jack was transferred to the 1st CMR to go to France from December 7, 1916 to July 13, 1919. Beside tonsilitis and mumps, Jack was hospitalized several times with acute ear infections and defective hearing. He was awarded a Good Conduct Badge on May 11, 1918 and made Lance Corporal in August 1918. He returned to England from France on February 12, 1919. After returning to Canada, he took up farming the family homestead in the Oak Knoll District SE 34-17-31. In 1953, he moved to Rocanville and owned a house in town from 1954 to 1966. In 1958, Jack married Sally Wall (Wahl), a widow with two young sons. Jack served as municipal councillor for fourteen years and RM Reeve for one year. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion for 40 years. In his later years, he was caretaker of the United Church, the little school and the Rocanville Farmers’ Building. Jack passed away on January 4, 1966 in the Moosomin Union Hospital and he is buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens in Moosomin. HENDERSON, Robert Anderson WWI Private Robert Anderson Henderson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on April 26, 1883. His parents, George and Elizabeth Julia (Anderson), had ten children. Robert, aged 33, was working as a blacksmith in Bounty, Saskatchewan, when he enlisted with the 128th Overseas Battalion on April 13, 1916. He had served earlier with the 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles in the South African War in 1902. A newspaper article from his hometown, Bounty, states the following: “When the Outlook platoon of the 128th Battalion was being formed, Henderson, who was anxious to get into the fight, disposed of his business and joined up at the local recruiting office and went overseas with the battalion, leaving Halifax on August 15, 1916. He had been in the trenches for two years, only to be killed when going to rest camp behind the front line.” Henderson saw action with the 28th Battalion of the Canadian Light Infantry in France. He died on July 18, 1918, about midnight, by a bomb dropped by a hostile aircraft on the battalion transport lines at Wanquetin. Private Robert Anderson Henderson is buried in Wanquetin Communal Cemetery, near Arras, France.
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