Charles Ernest Johnson was born on the 12th of September, 1890 in East Mountain, Colchester County, Nova Scotia. He was one of nine children of William George Johnson and Eunice Emmeline Blair. Related to me through two branches of the Bragg Family Tree, he was my fifth cousin, once removed as a descendant of the Johnson family who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1761 from New Hampshire. He also descended from our Campbell family who also arrived in 1761 from Northern Ireland, making him my fifth cousin, twice removed, as well.
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Private Charles Ernest
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In 1916, Charles joined many of his fellow Nova Scotians and headed west to Manitoba to work on the harvest. Jam packed harvest trains regularly crossed the country, providing much needed labour to western farmers. Charles ended up in Lauder, Manitoba and it was there that he enlisted as a Private in the 16th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, Manitoba Regiment. His attestation papers describe him as 5'9" tall with grey eyes, fair hair and fair complexion. His church affiliation was Church of England.
On October 1, 1918, just 5 days before armistice talks began, Charles was killed in action. He was 30 years of age and his remains were laid to rest with full military honours in the Sancourt British Cemetery near Cambrai, France.
We have a C. Johnson on our cenotaph at Rocanville, Saskatchewan but don't know if Charles Ernest had a Rocanville connection???
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