Joseph (Joe) Herbert Gale

Rank: Corporal

Regiment: Canadian Naval Reserve / 39th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Parents: Mr & Mrs Joseph Gale

Wife: Mrs Ada Mary Ann Gale

Brothers: A Gale , Frank Gale & G Jones

Brothers-in-Law: Frederick John Henry Sargent & William Hewitt

Nephew: Fred Sargent

Parent’s Address: 94 Manor Road, Hastings

Home Address: Albert Street, Cobourg, Ontario

Other Info: Of the old Hastings Navals. Machine Gun Instructor. Killed in action. According to CWGC, Joe died on 11th June 1916 aged 31. He is remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, on panel 24 – 26 – 28 – 30.

You can view Joe’s CEF enlistment papers for free here.

An article in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 1st July 1916 reads:

“Hastings Corporal Killed. We regret to hear that Corporal J. H. Gale, of a Canadian Machine Gun Section has been killed in action.

He was the son of Mr and Mrs Gale of 94 Manor Road, Hastings. He has been Canada for some years, but returned to England. <text unclear> he made a second trip to Canada, and soon after the outbreak of war joined the Colours, going to the Front in January.

His wife is a native of Hastings, and at the present time is residing with the late Corporal’s parents. She is left with three children. Two sons-in-law of Mr & Mrs Gale are on active service, and two sons are undergoing training and another will join up shortly. One grandson is training in Canada.

Mrs Gale received a sympathetic letter from a lieutenant, who says the late Mr Gale was ‘a fine man and a fine soldier. One cannot say any more for a man these days. I am sorry, but it is the fortune of war, and our womenfolk have a hard part to bear in this War. Their task is harder than ours, and it is the way that they keep cheerful under the strain that keeps us going”.

Published: October 1914, March 1916 & October 1916

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