Person Record

Metadata

Name

Husband, Arthur

Othernames

Arthur Clifford Husband

Born

10/25/1889

Birthplace

Kemble, Keppel Township, Grey County

Places of residence

Kemble area, Keppel Township, Grey County
Toronto
Overseas (First World War)
Nipigon River area

Father

Charles Husband

Mother

Mary Fraser

Nationality

Canadian

Education

Kemble public school
O.S.C.I. (Owen Sound Collegiate Institute), graduated in 1910
Attended _______Model School to get his teaching degree
In 1914, began at Toronto University, left in 1915, returned after the war

Notes

The Husband family is recorded in the book BEAUTIFUL STONEY KEPPEL (1986), see page 352. Charles Husband had purchased the Kemble blacksmith shop in 1888.
The family is also listed in the 1901 Census of Keppel Twp.:
They were at Pt. Lot 40, and Lot 41, Con. 19:
Husband, Charles...b. June 9, 1864, age 36, b. Ontario, Methodist, Blacksmith. His wife was Mary Husband, b. May 11, 1866. Their son, Arthur C. Husband was born Oct. 25, 1889 and was then 11 years old. Their daughter Eliza G. Husband was born Oct. 14, 1891 and was 9 years old. A blacksmith apprentice named Wm. G. Grant, age 22, resided with them.

There is a military portrait image of Arthur C. Husband in the book CHRONICLES OF KEMBLE. There is a photographic postcard version of this portait in the Grey Roots Archives (PF468 Julie Smith Collection). The following information is from CHRONICLES OF KEMBLE:
"Arthur Husband was born in Kemble in 1890 [sic]. He attended public school in Kemble and later the O.S.C.V.I. [sic, it was only O.S.C.I. when he attended] from which he graduated with a senior matriculation in 1910. He attended Model School and taught for two years in Western Canada. In 1914, he took his two years pre-medical course in Toronto University, but this was interrupted early in 1915 when he joined the Armed Forces. He trained at Valcartier, Quebec, and Folkestone, England. He joined the Medical Corps as a stretcher-bearer near the front line trenches. Later he worked in Advanced Dressings Stations. Often he was in direct line of fire. At this time he collected many of his war trophies from prisoners of war on the field of battle.
He gradually advanced in rank until near the end of the war when he became a Second Lieutenant.
When the war ended, he returned to the University to complete his medical course. At the completion of his third year of medicine, during summer vacation, he and another medical student went to North Western Ontario as "Fisheries and Game Inspectors". When running the rapids below Virgin Falls, on the Nipigon River, their canoe overturned and Arthur was drowned. They had been taking a short cut to meet their Chief on an Inspection Tour.
For years, his interesting war letters were kept in his father's desk, and as the years passed they became yellow with age and the writing became almost illegible. Eventually his letters were burned, along with his well-preserved college books. His collection of war trophies was taken to the Women's Institute Museum in Owen Sound". (eventually transferred to the County of Grey-Owen Sound Museum in 1967).

Arthur's attestation paper shows that his regimental number was 1663. It had his birth year recorded as "1892". He joined up at Toronto, on Feb. 19, 1915.

He returned to Canada somewhat earlier than most of the veterans, as he departed from Liverpool, England on the ship MELITA, and arrived at New York, on Oct. 9, 1918. His destination was provided as "Owen Sound, Ont." and he was recorded as a "Medical Student"., age 25 (born circa 1893--so either he didn't tell the ship personnel his true age, or they just guessed?)
Husband, while studying medicine in Toronto, enlisted in the First World War and went overseas, receiving a commission. After the war he had returned to his medical studies, and worked as a fire ranger and trapper the summer before his death. Arthur Husband drowned in the Nipigon River in August of 1920. His death registration reads that his date of death was August 24, 1920. He died at Virgin Falls, Ontario, age 30, 11 mos. He was recorded as a medical student.

Arthur's war souvenirs were kept by his father, Charles Husband, and subsequently by Charles' second wife, Alice Husband.