BORN HULL 26TH APRIL, 1872. SON OF ROBERT & ELIZA BRANTON, OF 156 WATERLOO STREET, HULL. HIS SISTER BESSIE WILHELM LIVED CANTON, OHIO, USA.
HE ENLISTED AT NIAGARA, CANADA, ON 06/07/1915. SERVED AS PRIVATE, 405725, 20TH CEF, ONTARIO REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION, NEAR LENS, ON 17/08/1917, AGED 43. AWARDED BROTISH WAR MEDAL AND VICTORY MEDAL. HE IS BURIED AT AIX-NOULETTE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, PAS DE CALAIS, FRANCE.
I am grateful to Gordon MacKinnon, in Canada, who supplied the following information on 21/3/2015.
When reference is to Niagara it is to the CEF camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake which is situated at the point where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. I decided to look more thoroughly at Branton because his surname starts with B and there should be a Digitized Service File and I am attaching it. You will note that the number 405725 comes back as Not Found. I found the correct number is 405735 but two soldiers have that number. I think the correct number for Branton is 405725 but some clerk has transcribed it incorrectly. All the CEF numbers are unique to the man and last throughout his career (normally). Branton, enlisted in the 35th Bn (which never became a line Bn) and was transferred into the 20th Bn. His number is from the number block assigned to the 20th. He was killed or died of his wounds during the CEF Battle of Hill 70 and buried in Aix-Noulette Cemetery Extension. Hill 70 is north of Vimy and near Lens.
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