Randall, Richard: Tracking Information of My Uncle: Veteran and Casualty of W.W.I

Elmore Russell Randall was born in Port Hope on February 16, 1898 and was the third child of Ralph Joseph and Margaret Randall. He moved with his family to Cobourg after the turn of the century to live on the corner of George and Covert Street. They were descended from old area families. His great grandfather John Peros Randall, had arrived in Hamilton Township just east of Cobourg in 1803 and his wife Nancy Ferguson’s family, United Empire Loyalists, earlier by 1799. His grandfather Joseph Maitland was a carpenter in Port Hope, his great uncle Peter, a former Mayor of Port Hope, his uncle the founder of Randall’s Book Store and his father a shopkeeper and later a painter and decorator in Cobourg. His mother, Margaret Stevenson, came from a family that settled just north of Cobourg. He was a member of the 14th Battery for two years in Cobourg before he signed up to join the expeditionary force with the 2nd Division Ammunition Column Canadian Artillery. He eventually was sent overseas to Belgium where on March 30, 1918, the ammunition hut that he and three other soldiers were in was hit by enemy fire. He was the only survivor of the attack but died of wounds a few days later as a prisoner of war. His remains were returned and interred in Étaples Military Cemetery located about 27 km south of Boulogne.

The Cobourg World of April 5, 1918 records in “This Week’s Honour Roll":

Gunner Elmer Randall Makes Supreme Sacrifice

On Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph K. Randall received an official telegram containing the sad news that their son, 20011076 Gunner Elmer Randall, Artillery, was officially reported to have died of gunshot wounds in the abdomen at No. 20 General Hospital, Camiers. Gunner Randall was 20 years old last February. Upon the out break of war, being ready and willing to do his bit, he tried to enlist in the infantry in the company left here to join the 1st Canadian Expeditionary Force, but was not allowed to do so, as he was under age. Later he signed up in the heavy artillery and went overseas with Lt. Ponton’s draft.

He was one of the first two men chosen from this draft to go to France. An older brother, Gunner John Randall, went overseas in the first Cobourg Battery draft with Lt. Col. J. W. Odell. Gunner Randall was employed as porter at the Dunham afterwards at the British Hotel. Besides his parents, he is survived by four sisters and two young brothers, with whom much sympathy is felt, while all citizens regret the death of “another brave Cobourg boy”.