George Frederick Soames - Lest We Forget
George Soames was born March 4, 1891 at Butler, Indiana, USA. He was the son of Fred Soames, born May 29, 1859 in the United States, and Florence Soames, born December 26, 1865, in England. Fred immigrated to Canada in 1898 and worked as a railway switchman. Florence emigrated to Canada in 1899. George had a sister, Grace, born March 3, 1899 in the U.S. Fred Soames died at Revelstoke Mar. 28, 1937 age 77 and Florence Soames died at Vancouver Dec. 4, 1957 age 91. The family’s last name is spelled Somes in some listings and Soames in others. George enlisted under the name Soames. On December 21, 1910, George’s sister Grace Elizabeth Soames married Timothy James Somes. In the 1911 census George is noted as working as a boilermaker, probably with the CPR. According to school district records, George attended the Revelstoke High School in 1904. Florence Soames was the secretary for the Revelstoke Red Cross Society for most of the war, and was also very active on the Wounded and Returned Soldiers Committee.
George Soames was one of the first 69 men to immediately volunteer for service when war broke out in August 1914, but was not immediately accepted. However, on July 5, 1915, George Soames signed his enlistment papers at Vernon. He was one of about 100 men from Revelstoke to enlist with the 54th Battalion in the spring and summer of 1915. His regimental number was 443318. He was 24 years old, a rancher, single, 5’ 9” tall with dark hair and grey eyes. He gave his religious affiliation as Methodist, though the rest of the family was Anglican. He left Halifax on the HMT Saxonia on November 22, 1915, arriving at Plymouth, England on December 1, 1915. He began overseas service in France on August 13, 1916.
George Soames died January 3, 1917. He was 25 years old. At the time of his death he was a Private with the 54th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (British Columbia) Regiment. His body was never found or identified and his name is memorialized on the Vimy Memorial.
The February 1, 1917 edition of the Revelstoke Review printed a letter from George’s commanding officer to his mother:
“Dear Madam:- before receiving this you will have been officially informed of your son’s death. I trust it will soften the blow to know that he died instantaneously and could never have known anything. His comrades buried him in the little graveyard behind the lines; I have just come from attending his funeral. Though I have only recently been appointed to the command of the platoon to which he belonged, I have known him for some time, always cheerful and brave. Last night he was with me on a tour of the trenches, and we had a conversation together. He was in excellent spirits and spoke of his home and mother in B.C.”
The name of George Soames is inscribed as “Somes” on the Courthouse and Cenotaph plaques as well as on the Chancel Screen at St. Peter’s Anglican, the Methodist Church Honor Roll and the YMCA Honor Roll.
George Soames and Evelyn Haner in Revelstoke, 1915. P3801