James Michael McGlade was born at Perth (Lanark Co., Ontario) on 17 September 1905, the son of Patrick McGlade and Elizabeth Cahill. When he enlisted with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry on 20 July 1940, he gave his occupation as “Diamond Driller.”
My mother was too young to remember this, but a couple of her older siblings have told me about their father’s cousin coming around to say good-bye, in case he never came home.
He never came home.
James Michael McGlade was killed in action in Belgium on 3 October 1944. He is buried at Schoonselhof Cemetery, Antwerpen, Belgium.
From his WWII service file, here is what he left behind: an inventory of his personal effects.1
RIP James Michael McGlade.
- James Michael McGlade, Service Number B41289. Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Canada; Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939-1947; Series: RG 24; Volume: 26463. Ancestry.com. Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry Operations, Inc., 2015. ↩