839093, Pte John Ferguson Young was born in Sydenham Township, Grey County, on 15th July, 1898, to Thomas and Jessie Young. The second born of the couple's four children, John, or &Jack& as he was known, was also their eldest son. Claiming to be born in 1897, seventeen year old Jack, lied about his age when he attested to the 147th Battalion, in Owen Sound, on May 13th, 1916.
Enrolling just as the unit was preparing to leave for centralized training at Camp Niagara, and as conditions at this camp were wanting, they moved to the new training facilities at Camp Borden. At the end of 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, aboard the S.S. Olympic.
On 1st January, 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 the 4th C.M.R., as well as the 58th and 116th battalions. Jack was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R., on 16th June and was then attached to the 3rd Entrenching Battalion. He didn't return to the unit until December.
Serving with the unit through the winter, Jack's first major engagement serving in a combat unit at the sharp end was the Battle of Amiens in 1918. Launched on August 8th, the Canadian Corps penetrated 9 miles / 15 kilometers through enemy lines the first day of the battle.
The following day the 4th C.M.R. took up the advance. It was during this advance that Jack was wounded by shrapnel in the left shoulder. Medically evacuated, Jack had received a &Blighty& - a wound sufficiently debilitating enough to remove a soldier from active duty, usually back to the UK - and would serve out the remaining three months of the war in England.
Repatriated home aboard the Carmania, 839093, Private John &Jack& Ferguson Young was struck off strength of the 4th C.M.R. and the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 19th March, 1919. After a few years of wandering, Jack returned to Owen Sound to take over the family farm, where he married Elsie Annette Minty on 11th June, 1941. The couple raised a couple of children of their own. Jack passed on 12th July, 1978, and was buried in Owen Sound's Greenwood Cemetery.
Thanks and credit for the above biography go to George Auer.