| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Joe was born in Beverley the 27 Dec 1884, the son of a local journeyman baker, Thomas Isaac Cattle and Maria (nee Redhead). Joe was brought up at 2 Wilbert Terrace, Wilbert Lane, Beverley. His mother died in 1903. Joe worked as an errand boy at a grocer's shop and then as a labourer.
Joe left Beverley on 5 Apr 1906 for Canada, one of fifty local men supported by the Beverley and East Riding Migration Committee. The plan was to find work for respectable and worthy individuals and give them a better life in Canada. On the 5th the group were entertained at the Beverley Guildhall and then attended a service at Beverley Minster after which they marched to the station, accompanied by a band, to catch a train to Liverpool. On 11 Apr 1906 they left Liverpool on the SS Lake Erie for St Johns, Newfoundland. They were headed for Toronto. Joe settled in the town of Guelph, near Toronto, and worked as a caretaker (and was able to reimburse the Committee in Beverley). He returned to the UK in 1910. By 1914 Joe was living in Toronto; in the 1911 Canadian census it is clear that he was now a Canadian citizen. Joe was unmarried.
On 27 Dec 1915 Joseph enlisted in the Canadian Army at Harriston, Ontario. He joined the 153rd Battalion but was later transferred to the 122nd after he was declared unfit for infantry service due to "mild flat feet". The 122nd were a construction battalion. He arrived in Liverpool on 10 Jun 1917 and then joined the CEF in France on 25 Jun 1917 and later served in Belgium. In Apr 1918 he was awarded a Good Conduct Badge in addition to the usual war medals. He was discharged on 23 May 1919.
He returned to Canada.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |