Perspectives On The Front

Name

Henry King

Regimental Number

181207

Battalion

16th Battalion, Canadian Scottish

Date of Birth

26 May, 1884 (32 Years Old)

Place of Birth

Ottawa, Ontario

Address at Time of Enlistment

Ottawa, Ontario

Circumstances of Death

On the morning of the 30th of October, 1916, whilst shaving in an old disused dugout in the Zoave Valley, near Souches,  the dugout collapsed and he was pinned down by one of the beams. The cause of the collapse was unknown but the place had probably been weakened by constant concussion. Private King was apparently killed instantly as he was taken at once to a dressing station only a few yards away and was dead on arrival.

King had been drafted to the 16th Battalion in August 1916, having arrived in England two months earlier. He had originally enlisted in Ottawa in May, 1916, attaching himself to the 88th Battalion Victoria Fusiliers. Within a month of joining the Canadian Scottish he had been wounded by a gunshot wound in the right leg (18 September, 1916). He returned to his unit three weeks later and was killed three weeks after that, having been at the Front for less than three months.