By 1915, the Great War had arrived on Jones Avenue in Toronto’s working-class east end, binding two nearby households together in a shared family story of mobilization.
At 88 Jones Avenue, 50-year-old Sarah Pomeroy (listed formally in records as Mrs. Thomas Pomeroy alongside her 55-year-old husband, Thomas) saw her 25-year-old son, Fred, answer the call of King and Country. Fred, a local postal clerk, volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force on August 26, 1915. He was assigned to the 38th Overseas Infantry Battalion under regimental number 171571 and designated his mother, Sarah, as his official next of kin.
Just a few doors north at 104 Jones Avenue, (note the photo) Sarah’s 28-year-old daughter, Maria, was facing the exact same reality. Maria had recently married 25-year-old William Thomas Cameron, a railway mail clerk who split his time between Toronto’s train lines and their new home. Following his brother-in-law’s lead, William stepped forward to enlist in the 83rd Overseas Battalion (Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada) under regimental number 527793. He wrote down his wife, Maria, as his primary wartime contact.
When the 1915 Departure Nominal Rolls were officially signed, the family’s path was permanently etched into Canada’s military archive. Sarah and her daughter Maria lived just a stone’s throw apart, watching a son and a husband leave their neighborhood behind for the battlefields of Europe.
Leave a Reply