William Albert Heal was 27 when he chose to leave his job as a salesman for the Toronto Electric Light Company and join the army. His name appears on a list of successful applicants to the 95^th Battalion published in Toronto newspapers on 1 November 1915, a unit that was only authorized the week before in answer to Canada’s decision to increase the size of its force to 250,000 men. (See a “Night at the Pictures, 1915” for more details)

The oldest of three surviving siblings in the Heal family, he was a graduate of Malvern Collegiate Institute in Toronto’s Beach community and was likely influenced by the significant events of the last week of October. His military career lasted almost three years and yet his service file is short on details, likely because he was an ordinary solider who served for months at a time with little out of the ordinary to report – until the moment he went over the top with the 20^th Battalion’s ‘B’ Company on 26 August 1918.

The 95^th Battalion sailed for England in May 1916 but on arrival Heal was transferred to the Canadian Pay Office in London where he stayed for seven months. There is no mention in his record of why this move came about but the 95^th was designated a draft battalion upon arrival at Shorncliffe and his business experience may have been deemed useful while he awaited assignment.

By March 1917 he returned to the 95^th in time to join a group of 120 other ranks being sent to the 20^th Battalion as replacements on 27 May but his arrival was delayed until August for reasons unknown. For the next 12 months he spent his days as a soldier, marching, serving in work parties and taking his turn serving in the line and enjoying 14 days leave in the final two weeks of January 1918. Upon returning, his record goes silent again as he continued plying his trade as his battalion moved about the Western Front.

By 26 August 1918, the 20^th Battalion was taking up a position in front of the Bois des Bouefs near Guémappe, ready to begin the Battle of the Scarpe. ‘B’. ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies took up their positions at midnight and at 3am, the attack went in meeting with little resistance, according to the war diary. The battalion advanced 5.5 kilometres that day, capturing Monchy-le-Preux and Wancourt. However, Heal did not move forward with them to experience Canada’s Hundred Days and the end of the war. Shortly after zero hour, he was killed by a shell and his service to his country was ended. He was buried in Tilloy British Cemetery in Tilloy-les-Mofflaines and the news of his death made the Toronto papers on 11 September.

He is remembered on the Cenotaph in front of Malvern Collegiate, one of 25 from the school who died in the war.

Originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of The Maple Leaf, the magazine of the Central Ontario Branch Western Front Association.