Thomas Harold Reade - Lest We Forget
Thomas Harold Reade was born July 25, 1889 at Niagara Falls, Ontario. He was the son of Thomas W. Reade, M.D. and Alice M. Reade of Niagara Falls. He attended Upper Canada College and then entered the service in the Imperial Bank in Toronto. By 1914 he was working as a bank accountant for the Imperial Bank of Canada in Revelstoke. He had also been very interested in the military life having served three years with the Queen’s Own Rifles at Toronto, six months with the 102nd RMR, and three months with the 89th Regiment, Calgary.
Thomas Harold Reade married Frances Lawson in Revelstoke on August 24, 1916 at St. Peter’s Anglican Church. Frances Lawson was from a prominent Revelstoke family and was a very talented musician, organizing concerts and dramas, and conducting music lessons. She taught the joy of music and culture to many children during the war years. They had a son, Thomas Harold Jr., born July 31, 1917 at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Revelstoke.
Thomas Reade signed his overseas enlistment papers on December 2, 1916 at Calgary as a lieutenant. He was 27 years old and married. He was 5’8” tall, and had brown eyes and dark hair.
Because of the prominence of Frances Lawson in the community there are numerous notices of her visits to her husband prior to his shipping out to France. She was also very involved in the patriotic appeals during the war and held many concerts to raise money for the war effort.
Thomas Harold Reade died April 5, 1918, perhaps during the last German offensive of the war. He was 29 years old. At the time of his death he was a Lieutenant with the 29th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (British Columbia) Regiment. He is buried in the Bac-Du-Sud British Cemetery, France.
Thomas Reade’s wife and child were living in Revelstoke during the war but after the death of Thomas Reade they moved east to Toronto.
The name of Thomas Harold Reade is inscribed on the Courthouse and Cenotaph plaques. He is also remembered on a memorial tablet at Upper Canada College in Toronto, and on a panel in St. Thomas Anglican Church, Toronto.