James Fletcher Sloane was born on October 26, 1890, in Melancthon, Dufferin, Ontario to James Sloane and Mary Kennedy.1 His father was a farmer and saw miller, and the younger James Sloane would be raised on farm work alongside two older siblings. At age twenty-four, near the beginning of December of 1915, James travelled to Toronto with the intent to enlist. He was small for his age, standing 5 feet 5 inches and weighing 140 lbs, but was nonetheless declared “fit” for service, and attached to the 123rd Battalion - the Royal Grenadiers - of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
James Sloane arrived in England aboard the S.S. Cameronia on August 30, 1916, and would train at Bramshott Camp for the following seven months. He sailed to France in March of 1917 with the 123rd Battalion. Two months after arriving on the continent, he was admitted to the No. 7 General Hospital in St. Omer, France, with a case of mumps. He recovered quickly, however, and rejoined his unit at the end of June 1917, where they were stationed at Vimy Ridge.
On December 15, 1917, six months after rejoining his unit, James was awarded a “Good Conduct Badge” in the field. In mid-February of 1918, he was granted fourteen days leave in England, likely spent enjoying life away from the front lines - a well-deserved break for a young soldier. He rejoined his unit again on March 9, 1918.
On March 26, 1918, Private James Sloane was reported to be killed in action. Hospital records recorded that he had died of wounds received, paired with shell shock from a head injury. The exact location of his death is unknown, although regimental war diaries show his unit had been stationed at Vimy Ridge at this time. The death was reported from Casualty Clearing Station No. 57, located in Aubigny-en-Artois, France. James Sloane, dead at the age of twenty-eight, was buried in the Aubigny Communal Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France. His name can also be found on the War Memorial in Orangeville, Peel, Ontario.
"Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913," database and images, Ancestry, (www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 October 2018), birth of James Fletcher Sloane, 26 October 1890, Melancthon, Dufferin, Ontario, "Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. MS 929, reels 1-245," Series: MS929; Reel: 98; Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Researched by Josh Blair