John and I went to Doors Open in Queenston Heights and Niagara on the Lake. During a stroll through the local NOTL cemetery, I came across this stone.
Bugler Gordon Blake Ryan of the 92nd Highlanders.
Gordon was born on 2 July 1893 in York, Ontario Canada to William Ryan, a grocer and Jane Norrie. William was the informant and he resided at 164 Major Street (now downtown Toronto).1
In 1901 Gordon along with his parents and older sister Marian lived in the Town of Niagara (now Niagara on the Lake), where his dad worked as a clerk and made $360 per year.2 The family still lives in Niagara in 1911, on Queen Street and William works on his own account as a grocer. He does not have life insurance. William is recorded as immigrating into Canada in 1855, and Jane was born in Ontario.3
Gordon attested in Niagara on 20 September 1915 and named his mom as next of kin. He was 5' 7.75" tall with a girth of 37". He had a reddish complexion, blue eyes and red hair. 4 His stint with the army was sadly short. He died of of Bronchial Pneumonia in York, the city in which he was born on 31 January 1916 at 8 Strachan Avenue, likely the Fort York Military Hospital.5 Prior to pneumonia, Gordon contracted the measles and his death was sudden.6
1. Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Series: Registrations of Births and Stillbirths, 1869-1913; Reel: 119; Record Group: Rg 80-2
2. Census of Canada, 1901. Census Place: Ontario; Page: 6; Family No: 72. https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/8826/records/13983319. Accessed 15 February 2025.
3.Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2007. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1911/Pages/about-census.aspx. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels T-20326 to T-20460. Accessed at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/8947/records/517279. Accessed on 15 February 2025
4. Canada. "Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918)." Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4930 - 35. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. Accessed on 15 February 2025 at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/1086/records/494512. Accessed on 15 February 2025.
5. Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Deaths, 1916; Series: 217 Accessed at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/8946/records/2598292. Accessed on 15 February 2025.
6. Historical Niagara Digital Collection. Ryan, Blake Gordon. https://nfpl.historicniagara.ca/s/all/item/411732. Accessed 14 March 2025
