(20 March 1898-1 March 1996), soldier. (Bill Williamson) Born in Scotland. In an interview in 1990, he recalled that his people were poor sheep herders in the East Kilbride area (near Glasgow). He emigrated to Canada alone in 1912, when he was 14. Having joined the Canadian Army in 1916, he had prolonged experience of the fighting on the Western Front. At this time, he saved as much as he could of his army pay to send to his mother in Scotland. He was severely wounded, and as a result was a hospital patient for some 4 years. Afterwards, he worked as a farm manager in Quebec, farmed in Sask., worked for a pharmaceutical company in Montreal, and finally was a stockbroker. When retired, he lived on a farm at Dalkeith, GC, before becoming a resident of Maxville Manor in July 1991. He lived to be the last surviving WWI veteran in GC. In this role, he was a much-honoured figure. When he was taken to Kingston for a military event, an acid commentator on the GC scene, himself a military man, declared that “a private was treated like a major.” A smallish, neat, alert man, Bill Williamson was often to be seen in the public areas of the Manor, tranquilly reading a paperback book. He died at Glengarry Memorial Hospital a few weeks before his 98th birthday. He is buried at St. Columba cemetery, Kirk Hill, under a Celtic cross handcarved in Aberdeen, Scotland. The inscription on the foundation names him “A Proud Veteran of Vimy Ridge.” He never married. Mason and Shriner.

Standard Freeholder 2 March 1996, Glengarry News 6 March 1996 (various, includes portrait, cols. of Gordon Winter and Jean MacLennan), Manor Chatter (April 1996), 7 Aug. 2002 (gravestone, story of its origin, illust.) * Michael O’Dwyer, “Glengarry’s Only Surviving WW1 Veteran Remembers,” GN 7 Nov. 1990 (biog., interview, portrait) * private knowledge