838789 Pte. John Joseph Benjamin King was born on April 16th, 1898, in Belfast Ireland, to parents John and Anne King. Emigrating to Canada at some point he would list his sister Rose as his next-of-kin.
John was working as a farmer when he attested to the 147th Battalion on January 31st, 1916, and would have been billeted locally over the winter, until the unit left for training at Camp Niagara in the spring of 1916. As the conditions in the Camp were wanting the unit moved to the new training facility of Camp Borden in late June. In September the unit received their orders to proceed overseas, but they were detained in Amherst Nova, Scotia, for over a month when a number of soldiers contracted diphtheria. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain, on November 14th 1916.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion, whose task it was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th C.M.R. John was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. on February 22nd, 1917.
Participating in the great battles of 1917, John was admitted to hospital with trench foot after the Battle of Passchendaele. Returning to the unit on August 21st, 1918, he saw action again during the Battle of Amiens where he was wounded after inhaling poisonous gas.
838789 Private John Joseph Benjamin King was struck off strength of the C.E.F. on May 27th, 1919. Obtaining employment with the railway, John married Laura May Campbell on August 15th, 1925. He passed away in Windsor, Ontario, on January 23, 1965.
Biography credit: George Auer, with thanks.