Sergeant Clayton Oscar Fuller
745825
Born in 1892 in Watford, Ontario
Lived in Watford, ON
Killed in Action on April 19th, 1917 at Vimy
The men have barely been at the front for ten days and it was becoming quite clear that this war spares no mercy. German artillery had been raiding down of on our supply routes ever since we neglected to finish off the Hun in this sector. Instead of breaking them, he essentially just bent the line. This resulted in allowing them to merely flex their lines, giving them sufficient time and space to reposition their guns and spew hate back down upon our men. It was in one of these retaliatory sessions of iron-fueled innate animosity when Private Clayton Oscar Fuller’s time in this conflict would come to an early end.
Clayton Fuller would have stood out from the others. It was not that he was tall or hefty, rather that he sported a dark complexion with dark brown eyes and black hair. These were not the features shared by his pasty-white battalion mates. He was a farm boy and hailed from the rural town of Watford. Watford is located nearby to the city of Sarnia, Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron. He noted that his occupation was a Ships Purser. One would think that a man who grew up on a farm in the midst of a region known for more farms would want to become well, a farmer. However, it turns out Clayton was a people person, someone who was interested in getting away from the staid, quiet rural setting of home. Instead, he chose a career whereby he worked with the public on a day to day basis. The Ship’s Purser would be responsible for taking care of the guests on a passenger ship. The traditional role would be to look after the ship’s purse or tickets and collect fares. It would be hard to validate, however there was an active ferry service between the USA and Canada from Sarnia to Port Huron, Michigan. His noted occupation may reflect this rather exciting job…exciting for a farm boy…that is.
However, with the waves of enlistment for the war and the raising of the 116th, Clayton soon found himself signing up. He became Private Fuller in July of 1916. This was quite late a bit later than most of the ‘original’ 116th Battalion volunteers as most others signed up between Oct 1915 to April 1916. It is uncertain if he chose to enlist with the 116th because they just happened to be training at the camp when he happened to arrive or if there was another reason. Either way, he joined Sam Sharpe’s team on the 12 of July and accompanied them to Halifax where he departed on the 23rd and arrived in Liverpool by the end of the month. Talk about speedy onboarding!
My suspicion that Private Fuller did not just happen to sign up with the 116th is reinforced by another factor. He does not seem to have any prior military experience and the job of ticket taker on a glorified rowboat also does not shout “promising leader of men”. Yet, on the day after Fuller arrived in England he was promoted to Acting Corporal. Following this, after a bout of training in England, his promotion was followed up with a second appointment. On Dec 12th he was named Acting Sergeant. Following this, he was granted the permission to marry which was provided on Jan 17th, 1917. One can ponder on the backstory, however it seemed that young Clayton had impressed the Officers of the 116th and big things were expected of him.
It is here where the promising series of advances for the Sergeant was quickly and tragically truncated. With the 116th being targeted for a Pioneer battalion and repeatedly asked to supply working parties, the men were being tasked with chores like rebuilding roads. In the time after Vimy and in the area that happened to be in the range of the bitter Huns, they were tasked to rebuild the Lens-Arras road. The allies needed dependable and passable terrain to quickly supply the front trenches and embedded gun emplacements and thus the road needed to be repaired. The Germans, on the other hand, needed to try to stop that from happening. Late in the evening on the 18th of April or early on the 19th, another array of multicaliber shellfire was lobbed on the working parties. It was on one of these deadly volleys when both men and their officers hit the dirt in the attempt to avoid being a victim of the shrapnel. It was also on one of these volleys where Sergeant Fuller was unlucky in his futile attempt to avoid being hit. Shrapnel shredded his legs with multiple injuries, of which he died shortly thereafter. He is buried at Ecoivres British Cemetery in Mont Saint Eloi.
Lest we forget.