George Dusome: Service and Sacrifice

George Dusome was born on July 17, 1899, the oldest child of Paul and Victoire Dusome in what would become their large Métis family. Though growing up in relative poverty, George and his family shared a love of music—a trait common among many of Penetanguishene’s Métis families. According to his niece Leona Paul, "They loved to dance, they loved to sing, they loved to play the mouth organ and guitar." 

On March 3, 1916, at just seventeen years old, George voluntarily enlisted in the Canadian armed forces to fight in the First World War. To meet the age requirement, he altered his birthdate from July 16, 1899, to April 27, 1897, a detail that went unnoticed by the recruitment officers.

In the spring of 1917, George departed his hometown of Penetanguishene for active military duty. After recovering from the mumps in Halifax, he arrived in England on May 14, 1917, with the 177th Overseas Battalion. He soon transferred to the 3rd Reserve Battalion to prepare for combat, and then to the 4th Battalion. 

In the autumn of 1917, George was deployed to the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele. Years of prior conflict had utterly devastated the battlefield, resulting in ruthless, muddy conditions. On November 7, 1917, at only eighteen years old, he was reported missing and later confirmed killed in action, just days before the battle concluded. Belgian researchers later suggested that George “fell out of the line during the chaos of the relief… on the crowded duckboard No. 5,” likely a victim of the mud. 

Even after George died in combat, his family's monthly "Separation Allowance" of fifteen dollars continued being sent to his mother, Victoire, in Penetanguishene for an additional month before the so-called error was noticed by military officials. In a stark display of bureaucratic insensitivity, the military's Estates Branch sought to recover this modest sum, likely demanding it directly from his grieving mother, rather than forgiving the amount. 

Though he has no known grave, George Dusome is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Belgium and on the Memorial Park Cenotaph in Penetanguishene, his name among the thousands who never returned home.

See Our Sources

• George Dusome, Canadian Great War Project

• Dusome-Clermont Family VMFL

• George Dusome Attestation Record (1)

• George Dusome Attestation Record (2)

• On their way to Vimy, students learn what ‘nobody on earth can imagine’, Waterloo Region Record, March 31, 2017

• Passchendaele Archives: Pte George Dusome

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