Premature CEF Memorial Card 116th Battn , Familiy Group WW1 and WW2

[CampX]

Well here is a story!! I just bought a Family Group that is local to me, Photos and some paperwork.
The Father was the Bandmaster for the 116 Battn CEF ( the 116th was the highest numbered CEF unit to see combat)
When I first looked at the group, I see that the Father had died Dec 11 1918 as there is his Memorial Card with Photo. So I thought the rest of the stuff was the Sons, who Served with the Ontario Regt in WW2.
WELL... After looking throught the the Canadian Roll of Honour, I could not find "Frank Crawford" listed

Well the passport that was with the group was his, and it was issued in 1960!!!! I checked the records and it was his, so notice of his Death was somewhat premature. He served with the 34th Regt Between the Wars, then with the Ontario Regt in WW2 ( the 34th became the Ontario Regt) His Son was also an Officer with the Ontrs during the Second World War

In all my years of Collecting I have never seen a Canadian Memorial Card for a Living ( surviving) Soldier.
I have seen Names on Canadian Memorials or those that Died, that in fact had not Died, including at least 2 on the Vimy Memorial.

So here are some of the photos, including one of the 116ths Band in France.

Dean O
Ajax Canada

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi Dean ,thanks for sharing this story ,that is truly amazing!! I know in the heat of war mistakes and miss-identification can and is made but to get to the stage of producing the memorial card must be quite a rarity! After the family had recovered from the shock of finding out he was in fact alive and well, I bet they had some great laughs and "after dinner" tales to tell with this one! Leon.

[CampX]

Funny enough, CEF Memorial Cards of any type are hard to find. I guess he kept this as a "joke" as the family had made it.

Something else odd is this, A short while ago I picked up another WW1 Canadian item, and that fellow had also died on Dec 11th 1918, turns out that Soldier died of the flu, so when I saw this Memorial Card I thought he died for the same reason.

Can't remember what the other item is, but it is here somewhere!!

Thank you for your reply.

Dean O

[harryamb2]

nice story.

[Allegra]

All I can say is:

‘The report of my death was an exaggeration’: Mark Twain

A most interesting grouping Dean.

Cheers