GARROW, John Ure
DIVISIONAL UNIT: 3rd Canadian Infantry Division
8th Infantry Brigade
2nd Brigade Canadian Mounted Rifles
4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - Toronto
Canadian Infantry Corps
RESIDENCE: Toronto – Ontario
DATE OF BIRTH: April 14, 1889
Goderich – Goderich Township – County of Huron - Ontario
DATE OF DEATH: September 12, 1916 27 years 5 months
CEMETERY: Puchevillers British Cemetery – Puchevillers
Somme – France
III A 14
PARENT: Mrs. Mary Balfour Garrow – Toronto – Ontario
Occupation: Barrister Religion: Presbyterian
Enlistment: Camp Niagara – Niagara on the Lake – September 10, 1915 into 74th Battalion
Enlistment Age: 26 years 5 months
John was admitted into the University of Toronto as a law student in 1912 at the age of 23 years, and was called to the bar at the age of 23.
The 74th trained at Camp Niagara before moving to winter headquarters at the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto. Prior to leaving Canada reinforcement drafts were drawn from it. These drafts went to infantry battalions as well as the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles. This is the unit that John was assigned to. Late in March 1916, the unit left Canada for overseas. It was active in England from April 9, 1916.
On September 7, 1916, the battalion began to move toward the Somme and traveled by truck, train and by foot until they arrived in Albert on September 11th. They were ordered to the line on the night of September 11th to relieve the 5th Battalion. It was here they saw the devastation of the battlefields. Not a tree was standing and villages were heaps of rubble. When they left Poizieres it was dark and they were getting lost in the trenches.
As the 4th Mounted Rifles moved forward to relief the 5th battalion, the Germans bombarded them with gas-shells with the result that Lieutenant John Ure Garrow was gassed and died shortly after at No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station on September 12th, 1916. Lieutenant Garrow’s Commanding Officer came upon him and others overcome by the gas, jumped into the gas filled trenches and got his men to safety. This took place in the area of Courcelette.
Lieutenant Garrow is remembered in the War Book of the Upper Canada College and on the University of Toronto Roll of Service