Category: Military
Rank: Private 123842
Regiment or Ship: Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
Service Number(s): 123842
Occupation: Farm Labourer (1901 census)
Date of Birth: 23.01.1893
Place of Birth: Hooe, Sussex
Date of Death: 18.09.1916
Place of Death: Mortally wounded at the battle of Courcelette
Place of Burial / Memorials:
Buried at Puchevillers British Cemetery, France – plot V. F. 34.
Address: Hall's Cross Farm, Hooe
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
From the 1901 Census –
Parents:-
George Vitler, born 1849, in Hooe, Sussex and Ellen Vitler (née ???), born 1853, in Bexhill, Sussex.
Horace Marchant , born 1893, Hooe, Sussex, son of George and Ellen Vitler, of Olives Nursery, Hooe, Sussex never married and emigrated to Canada at some time before the 1911 census. On his Canadian Attestation Papers, dated September 1915, he states that he was not married.
Siblings:
George William, born 1880, Bexhill, Sussex.
Alfred, born 1881, Bexhill, Sussex.
Charles William, born 1883, Bexhill, Sussex.
Arthur Thomas, born 1885, Bexhill, Sussex.
Frank, born 1888, Hooe, Sussex.
Muriel Elizabeth, born 1889, Hooe, Sussex.
Ida Ellen, born 1892, Hooe, Sussex.
Alice Winifred, born 1895, Hooe, Sussex.
Robert Edward, born 1897, Hooe, Sussex. W0148 Robert Edward Vitler
No record has been found of Horace Marchant Vitler ever marrying.
First World War Experience
Horace emigrated to Canada at some time before the 1911 census took place and he enlisted on September 27, 1915 at Chatham, Kent County, Ontario.
His original overseas unit was the 70th Canadian Infantry Battalion. He joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. in the field, on June 9th, 1916.
Horace was wounded at the battle of Courcelette, eventually dying of those wounds. His Canadian Army Service Records, are available on-line, at Ancestry.com, but comprise just his “Attestation Form”.
This form, dated September 1915, gives his age as 22 years and 7 months old, and say that he is 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a chest size of 35 inches (2” expansion). He had a ‘medium’ complexion, was blue-eyed, brown-haired, and member of the Church of England.
The following is from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
In Memory of Private HORACE MARCHANT VITLER, 123842, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
(Eastern Ontario Regt.) who died age 23 on 18 September 1916
Son of George and Ellen Vitler, of Olives Nursery, Hooe, Sussex, England.
Remembered with honour
PUCHEVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY