World War II : Philip Service Cassidy (1863-1930)

I’vebeen working for some time [as part of my work-in-progress, the genealogy book: see my piece around his daughter, my great-grandmother, here] to research the details of my second greatgrandfather, Philip Service Cassidy, including why he moved from Grenville,Ontario into the American Dakotas, where he married a local girl, and they hadthe first four of their eventual mound of children. They moved back to CarletonCounty after a while and had at least eight more children. Philip later signedup to fight in the Second World War, a war record I couldn’t quite figure outhow to read.

Thanksto an assist from Marjorie Stintzi, I’m able to discern that the birthdate heoffers when registering to join the 156th Overseas BattalionCanadian Expedition Force, having previously served as part of theKemptville-local 56th Lisgar Rifles, is actually false. Apparentlyhe was beyond the age for enlisting, claiming his birthdate as May 6, 1871 inRichmond, Ontario, which would have put him at forty-five years old instead offifty-three. I knew there would have been an age minimum, but hadn’t realized amaximum, and I hear from multiple people that they knew of relatives pretendingto be younger than they were. He apparently suffered a hernia while movingboxes later that same year, refused surgery, and was found at the medicalexamination to be overage, which even Stintzi suggests might have allowed him away out.

Whatbecomes frustrating: various sources on Ancestry and otherwise replicatePhilip’s deception, instead of what the 1901 census offers as his birthdate: May9, 1863. Ten years earlier, a further census lists his birthday as “about1865,” but the 1881 census returns to the correct year, if nothing else, whichputs him precisely at fifty-three during that 1916 paperwork. Apparently hisreward for fudging his age was a truss, as he sent home to Kemptville. Completelyunable to find a birth record or notice for him, I actually can’t find a deathnotice or obituary for him, either. He died somewhere either in BritishColumbia or Saskatchewan in 1930, having moved out that way, most likely, tolive with one of his grown, married daughters. His story an enigma I’ve yet tofully discern.