There are three brothers in uniform and two sisters in the front row. The occasion would have been when they decided to take a family picture before the men left to go to war. Warner James Halstead, located on the left, was age thirty-two when he enlisted. When he returned from war “he made it sound like a real adventure for him” said his daughter, Betty Lowry.

He left behind his wife and seven children. Halstead fought at "Vimy Ridge" Ridge and was wounded in the leg. Because thee were so many casualties they were rushed and were going to amputate his leg. He said “NO”- asked for the probe and dug out the shrapnel himself therefore saving his leg.

When he arrived home, his wife was dying from the Spanish Influenza. He nursed her, but she died which left him with seven children to care for. When his children began to move out of the house hemet Mary Kearney, who had three children of her own. Halstead and Kearney married.

Halstead loved to talk about his experiences in the war—about the rats crawling over them in the trenches and other details. He was honourably discharged in 1917.

Halstead died in 1968 at the age of eighty-six.

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.