Charles Wesley Spike taken by whooping cough

 John and I walked around the Hamilton Cemetery Sunday morning to look at the veteran's stones and we encountered a number of stones for children. A few with little lambs caught my eye. Charles Wesley Spike was born at 211 Picton St East (Hamilton, Ontario) on 24 April 1916 to mother Millicent Amy Needham and father Charles Thomas Spike, a soldier with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.(1)   Not even 5 months later little Charles developed whooping cough and died.(2)   Charles and Millicent were married 15 July 1915 in Hamilton(3) and Charles attested 10 Nov 1915(4).  I feel for Millicent, she gave birth without her husband, took care of her son without him and also helplessly watched her baby get sick and die without him.

Charles Sr. was a sail and tent maker prior to the war and emigrated from Devonshire England. When he returned home in 1918, he and Millicent had two more boys by 1921, Clifford and Harold.(5)

I poked a little bit into the history of Charles Sr.  It seems Millicent married a bit of a bad boy.  According to his attestation record, he was just shy of 24 years old, had several tattoos and had already had 4 years military experience.  He listed his experience with the 13th R.R (Royal Regiment), which is the militia in Hamilton but I also discovered that he served time in England.  He enlisted with the 9th Lancers on 24 June 1911, but by 27 Oct, he was reported to have deserted in Canterbury. (6)  By December of the same year, he was on the Empress of Ireland bound for Canada.(7)  Charles died at the age of 49 in the Christie Street Hospital in Toronto on 24 March 1942 of pneumonia and is buried in Prospect Cemetery.  His son Clifford reported his death and he stated that his dad's occupation was sailmaker but he had not worked in the job since 1929(8) I wonder if he had some lasting health issues from the war. Tragedy seems to have struck a second time for the Spike family in 1942.  Harold Leslie while serving in France with the Royal Regiment of Canada died on 19 August at the age of 21 and is buried in Janval Cemetery, Dieppe.(9)  You can see a picture of him here: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2317453.  According to the veterans website, Clifford also served in the war and there was younger brother Kenneth back in Canada in 1942.   In doing some further searching, Charles and Millicent had another child, a daughter who was born prematurely and died 7 Nov 1922 (scanned death records image on Ancestry for Wentworth County (Hamilton))

Millicent was born in Pontefract, England and emigrated to Canada with her parents in 1904 and by 1906 settled in the town of Indian Head, Saskatchewan.(10)  She seems to have well outlived Charles and died in 1959 (according to an unsourced ancestry tree).  There's a lovely picture of her on Ancestry.

(1)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Series: Registrations of Births and Stillbirths, 1869-1913; Reel: 280; Record Group: Rg 80-2

(2)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 227

(3) Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 35710 

(4)Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Canada; Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918)

(5)Reference Number: RG 31; Folder Number: 63; Census Place: 63, Hamilton West, Ontario; Page Number: 12

(6)The National Archives; Kew, London, England; MEPO 6: Metropolitan Police: Criminal Record Office: Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers; Reference: MEPO 6/54

(7)Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Series: RG 76-C; Roll: T-4825

(8)Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS 935; Series: M023563; Reel: 678

(9)Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Author: Peter Singlehurst; Series Title: British Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1918; Archive Name: London, United Kingdom

(10)Year: 1906; Census Place: 43, Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan; Page: 26; Family No: 7