Family lore has it that Samuel Watson owed his survival in the war to his soldiers’ rum ration. On the eve of a deadly bayonet charge, each man in his unit was given a strong dollop of rum. Watson’s must have went straight to his head, for he passed out moments after drinking it. “Uncle passed out since it was the first shot of rum he ever had,” said Watson’s nephew, Mick Watson. Watson was carried out of his trench on a stretcher, thereby avoiding the bayonet charge.

Watson of Pincher Creek, Alberta, enlisted at Medicine Hat, Alberta, on June 21, 1915. He was thirty-six-years-old.

A carpenter by trade, after the war he married Mary Redhead and grew fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

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.