Yesterday, my wife and I were enjoying the great weather in the London area and hit the road for a drive. To provide a route and waypoints, I had an objective of taking some photos for the
British War Graves Project in Brantford, Woodstock and Stratford. I have received a number of photographs of the graves of RCR soldiers for
my own grave photo project on The RCR in the First World War, and have sent them images from a growing number of cemeteries in southern Ontario of the graves of British servicemen. (Many of these were deaths in training with the BCATP.)
Whenever I visit a the cemeteries, I also walk through all of the veteran's graves to see if I can spot Royal Canadians or others of interest. Yesterday I came across a familiar name, that of CSM William Fardy. Fardy was familiar to me because his 1914-15 Star happens to be among my little collection of RCR medals.
Returning home I pulled up the files I had on Fardy, and spent the evening finishing the narrative I had started on his service with the Regiment in the First World War.
477294 Sgt William John Joseph Fardy
On 30 Nov 1910, at Stanley Barracks in Toronto, Ontario, The Royal Canadian Regiment enlisted a new infantry recruit into the Canadian Permanent Force. William John Joseph Fardy had decided to try military service and would serve until the end of the Great War.
Fardy's medals would be sent to him in February of 1921. He would receive a First World War trio, consisting of the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
In June of 1950, William Fardy's address was recorded as 136 Regent St, Stratford, Ontario. William Fardy died in 1952. He is buried in the Avondale Cemetery in that town, under a simple flat gravestone reading "Royal Can. Regt., C.S.M. William J. Fardy, 1893 - 1952."
Read the rest here -
477294 Sgt William John Joseph Fardy
