LEST WE FORGET 295 PORTER, Nelson Leawood WWI Nelson was born on February 24, 1898, in Vasey, Simcoe, Ontario, to Wilbert E. and Marion Porter and he had two older sisters. He came west and was working as a farm labourer near Rocanville and was living with the Easton family (shoemaker) when he enlisted in Moosomin on March 28, 1916 with the 217th Battalion. He sailed from Halifax on June 2, 1917 aboard the Olympic and was with various reserve units until going to France on November 8, 1917 with the 46th Battalion. Nelson served in Belgium and France. He was wounded in the right leg and arm on September 10, 1918. He was hospitalized in Boulogne and sent to Birmingham and Epsom to recover. The knee injury caused him to “walk lame”. He was discharged in Canada on March 26, 1919 and returned to Rocanville. He was boarding and working at the John Reavie farm on the 1921 census. In 1925, he moved to the US and was living with his oldest sister’s family (the Sawyers) in Chicago, Illinois and was working as a machinist at a steel company. He married Geraldine Charlotte Filiere in 1941.They retired to Holiday, Pasco County, Florida in the mid-1960s. He died on October 3, 1976 and was buried at North Funeral Homes, Florida. His wife died in 1993. Nelson’s mother was in Winnipeg around 1918 and in Coldwater, Ontario around the time he was discharged in 1919. She passed away in 1920 and his father in 1934. POTTLE, John Reginald WWI John was born on January 5 (or May 1), in 1893 in Brunswick Square, England to Stephen William Pottle and Agnes Elsie Todd. John was the fourth oldest in the family. The father died very suddenly leaving his ailing widow to support a young family. In 1902, John and his older brother, Stephen, were among 199 Barnardo Home Children shipped to Canada aboard the Dominion from Liverpool to Portland, Oregon (arriving on April 6, 1902). After spending time at Stony Point, Ontario, John was working in Rocanville, Saskatchewan when he enlisted on October 20, 1914, in Regina. He stated his occupation as “gas engineer” and his address as “Rocanville”. He was on the Nominal Roll for the 28th Battalion, leaving Montreal on May 29, 1915 aboard the Northland. He qualified as a bomb thrower and was sent to France on September 18, 1915. He was buried for four hours in a mine explosion on October 19, 1915 and had a concussion and severe contusions from a gunshot wound to the back. After convalescing in England, he was very thin (110 pounds) and could not carry equipment so was put on base duty at the Canadian Payroll Office in London. John was granted permission to marry (July 31, 1918) and was married to Louisa Martyr in London on November 1, 1918. He took leave from December 29, 1918 to January 12, 1919 and was allowed to wear four blue chevrons and one gold casualty badge. He was discharged on January 22, 1919. The Pottles had a daughter, Juanita, born in 1921. After the war, John worked for the Dickson Importing Company in Saskatoon until 1935. The family moved to Regina where he got a provincial government job but when World War II broke out, he took an Army position on the committee that was “in charge of transient troops” (R.C.O.C.) and he was sent overseas. His wife and daughter returned to Saskatoon and his daughter passed away in 1940. John died on March 12, 1955 in Regina and is buried in the Military Old Cemetery in Regina. He was a long-time member of The Royal Canadian Legion. His wife died in 1970 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Saskatoon beside their daughter.
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