109524 Pte. Walter Cameron McNair was born on August 23rd, 1889, in Toronto, to William Cameron and Matilda (nee Lindsay) McNair. Sadly his mother died just before Walter's third birthday.
Walter married Florence LeMierre in June 1910, and at the time he answered the call to duty, Walter's occupation was listed as Teamster.
On October 12th, 1916, an item in the Globe and Mail newspaper stated that Walter was believed to have been killed after having been reported missing four months earlier. A further article in the Toronto Star dated April 26th, 1917, said that a comrade wrote to Walter's wife to inform her that Pte. McNair had died in battle.
In a largely unusual and risky trip, Florence had travelled to England the previous summer to see her husband, but they never met. Alas, when she made the hazardous return trip to Toronto, her sister met her at the train station with the news that Walter had been killed.
[4cmr.com editorial note]
Walter's official date of death is now correctly recorded as June 2nd, 1916, the opening day of the 'Battle for Mount Sorrel'. As many 4th CMR men were lost without trace that morning, and so many were taken POW, it was not possible to confirm Pte. McNair's fate until the Germans had released official notification of the names of those taken POW and who were in camps in Germany, or those they had taken and who had subsequently died of wounds received in the battle.
As such Walter was listed as missing until late July, and then posted as believed to have been killed in action. As he went missing on June 2nd, 1916, he had clearly been lost in the 'Battle for Mount Sorrel'. His name subsequently appears on Tablet R, Panel 32 of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper (Ypres), for those who were lost defending the town and area and and who have no known grave.
Credit and thanks are extended to Bruce McNair for the image and the biography.
Menin Gate Tablet R, Panel 32 image supplied by 4cmr.com