Backgrounder

Private Lloyd Clemett

Lloyd Clemett was born December 10, 1899 in Toronto, Ontario. He was Canada's oldest of the last three known First World War Veterans. He was also one of Ontario's last two known Veterans from the First World War.

A bugle boy when he enlisted in January 1916, Mr. Clemett joined the 93^rd Battalion in Peterborough, but soon transferred to the 109^th Battalion. They were in England by July. Mr. Clemett transferred to the 12^th Battalion in December and then to the Canadian Forestry Corps the following February. He served with the Corps in Le Havre, France beginning on July 12, 1917, until transferring to the 75^th Canadian Infantry Battalion on October 6, 1918. They were waiting to be called into battle when the war ended.

Mr. Clemett did not arrive home until July 1919, after the Armistice was signed. The delay was due to a strike by British longshoremen. Upon his return, Mr. Clemett took advantage of courses offered by the Army to help him obtain employment as a railway agent. He lost that job during the Depression and was then hired by the old Village of Leaside, now part of Toronto, and remained there until retirement. He and his wife, Catherine, had two sons. Since August, 2004, Mr. Clemett had been a resident of Kilgour wing at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in Toronto, Canada's largest veterans care facility.