Remembrance Day service held for sapper falsely declared a deserter

A SPECIAL remembrance service has been held in honour of a Cornishman who was falsely declared a deserter while trying to recover from tuberculosis after the First World War.

- OLIVIER VERGNAULT

A special Remembrance Day celebration was held at the grave of Sapper William Hart who emigrated from St Ives to Canada and served during the First World War with Canadian forces. He was mistakenly declared a deserter

Sapper William Hart, who had emigrated from Cornwall to Canada and came over to fight alongside Commonwealth Allies against Germany in Northern France, died in St Ives in August 1919 while convalescing in the Duchy where his family originated from.

In March 1918, William Hart became Private 2503600 of the Canadian Railway Troops. This unit was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and had been serving in the war zone in Europe since 1915. Their main work was to build railways for use by the military in France and Flanders and they were often very close to the frontline action.

A St Ives man, who had been baptised in the local Methodist chapel, Hart enlisted in Winnipeg in March 1918 as a 33-year-old, six months before the end of the war.