George Leonard Spires
Currently with 12th York Rangers, and with two months previous military experience with the 48th Highlanders, George Spires Jr. enlisted with the 220th Battalion in October of 1916, but was later discharged as being medically unfit. Eager to do his part for the war effort, in September of 1917 George gave it a second go and joined the Welland Canal Force.
George had been born in England…the family having immigrated to Canada in 1906. George was the son of George Spires Sr. and Alice DeFretius. The 1911 Canadian Census show the family living in Oakville, but upon his enlistment in 1917, George states that he is living in Toronto and his parents are living in Georgetown.
George’s military record notes that he was admitted to the Hospital in Niagara Falls, Canada on January 30, 1918 with Pericarditis and removed to Base Hospital, Toronto on February 5, 1918. He developed pneumonia and died at 12.25 P.M., February 23, 1918.
George was 18 years old. He was buried in the family plot at Greenwood Cemetery in Georgetown.e wheh
George is memorialized on the Georgetown Cenotaph in Remembrance Park and commemorated on the memorial stain glass window at St. George’s Anglican Church, Georgetown.
Truly a Canadian Hero. His story lives on.
*Information taken from Canadiangreatwarproject.ca and Ancestry.ca
