What happened to Joseph E. McDonald?
What ever happened to JOSEPH EDWARD MCDONALD?
MacNaught History Centre & Archives is very close to completing the profiles of the men of C Company, 105th Battalion. The 2016 project has extended into the year 2017 and there are only a few of the soldiers on the C Company list who have eluded the research efforts of staff and key volunteer, Louise Morris. Anyone who might have information on the date and place of death of the men featured in this series is urged to contact the MacNaught History Centre at 75 Spring Street, Summerside.
Editor’s Note: MacNaught History Centre & Archives is very close to completing the profiles of the men of C Company, 105th Battalion. The 2016 project has extended into the year 2017 and there are only a few of the soldiers on the C Company list who have eluded the research efforts of staff and key volunteer, Louise Morris. Anyone who might have information on the date and place of death of the men featured in this series is urged to contact the MacNaught History Centre at 75 Spring Street, Summerside. Joseph Edward McDonald (712964) was from a large catholic family in North Carleton, his parents being Cyprian and Jane McDonald. His siblings were Mary Ann, Mary Ellen, Bernard Daniel, John Alexander, William Francis, Catherine, Ronald James, Cyprian Hubert, Clementina Jane, Annabella and Bertina. Joseph was born in 1874 and was a widower in 1916, his wife, Elizabeth McNeil of Sydney, N.S., having died of tuberculosis in 1912.
The couple had two children, Jane Mary and William. Joseph enlisted in C Company of the 105th in April 1916 and went overseas, leaving his children with his late wife’s sister in Iona, Cape Breton. In September 1918, he was discharged with a wound to his leg and in 1921 was living in the household of his brotherin-law, Rory McNeil, of Iona. In the obituary of his sister, Mary Ellen Muttart, in 1938, the McDonald children are listed with surviving family as niece and nephew, “to whom she had given a mother’s love since the death of their parents some years ago.”
The niece was Mrs. Harold Campbell, of Cape Traverse, and the nephew was William McDonald of North Carleton. The date of Joseph McDonald’s death and final resting place is unknown.