The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
One of Canada's last veterans of the First World War has passed away peacefully in Toronto. Clarence (Clare) Laking died last Saturday, leaving only four Canadian vets from the Great War. Laking was 106 and is believed to be the last Canadian World War I veteran to have seen action, having fought on the front line. In 1917, at the age of 18 and against his father's wishes, Laking enlisted in the 64th Battery in Guelph. During WWI, he was a Private with the Canadian Field Artillery, 27th Battery, 4th Brigade. Laking trained in Morse-code and served two years in France as a signaller, stringing telephone wire for field telephones along the trenches. Part of his duties included trips to the front line to observe where the first shell landed and then telephoning the information to gunners at the rear. The army paid him $1.10 a day. Laking was hit on the head by shrapnel near the end of the war. He suffered only a small flesh wound and was in the first-aid station when the war ended. He was awarded the French Legion of Honour and the Golden Jubilee Medal. Laking curled with the Royal Canadian Curling Club until the age of 96. At age 100, he gave up his season tickets for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He held his driver's licence until he was 102.2/12/05
