On May 16, 1918, Cecil Stapleton won the lottery that few Canadian men wanted to claim. His number came up in the draft, and just like that, the 24-year-old bachelor farmer from Clarke, Ontario, found himself recruited for service in the Great War.

Stapleton was one of 124,588 men who were conscripted under the Military Service Act of 1917. Fortunately for Stapleton, he would survive the war. Indeed, his granddaughter, Sharon Teves, says ill health prevented Stapleton from ever making it to the front.

“Grandpa got sick on the boat to England … and was placed under quarantine,” she says. “The armistice was signed the night before he was to be released. As a result, he was shipped home to Canada and never saw action.”

Conscription nearly tore the country apart. By 1916, after tens of thousands of casualties, volunteers were drying up. Most Quebecers were opposed conscription, and many English speaking Canadians also sought exemptions from service (the exemption for farmers was eliminated in spring 1918). By the time of his death in 1991, at age 97, Stapleton’s farm had grown to more than 600 acres and 200 cows.

Do you have an ancestor who served in the Great War? Submit their story and it could be included on this Great War Album website.