Private John Norman McBride was born on June 16th, 1883 in the Village of Churchville to John and Elsie McBride. His career before the war was as a Motorman, which is someone who operates an electric vehicle such as a Tram, Streetcar or Subway Train. He enlisted on April 24th, 1916 at the age of 22 and was assigned to the 4th Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park (source: Library & Archives Canada). An Ammunition Sub-Park was basically a fleet of lorries / delivery trucks used to transport munitions and supplies, along with a workshop for maintaining them (source: longlongroad.co.uk). 

                    Upon enlistment, a note was made about McBride having had two recent operations resulting in large scars on his back and abdomen, but he was listed as ‘fit’ and given the green light to go overseas. Looking through his service records however, this was clearly not a good idea; McBride’s health quickly began failing once he arrived overseas. Private McBride got to England via steamship on May 29th, 1916, eventually landing in France in August of that year. That September, he was sentenced to ‘stoppage of pay’ for two days to repay the cost of a government issued tent bag that he had ‘willfully destroyed while on active duty’. That same month, Private McBride began suffering greatly from what seems to be chronic and severe kidney issues; it turned out the scars mentioned in his enlistment papers were from operations to remove kidney stones the previous year. He took sick that month while serving at Ypres, with stabbing pains on the left side of his back near the scar from his previous operation. 

              By January 1917, McBride was sent back to England and admitted to hospital there due to severe pains in his back - the doctor reported that he looked very well, and that all tests and an x-ray came out normal. This doctor also wrote that McBride said he had noticed the back pain gets particularly bad one hour after eating candy or anything acidic, that he cannot sleep on his right side, and he has pain whenever he walks. He was diagnosed with myalgia (muscle and joint aches and pains) and treated with mustard leaf. At the end of February McBride was deemed fit for duty and returned to service, but by mid-March he was back in hospital and an x-ray showed he had a stone in his kidney “the size of a shrapnel bullet” (about 7.5 cm). Through May there was no improvement and he was sent home to Canada for further medical treatment. At the end of May 1917, McBride saw a vocational counselor who recommended he take some business courses out of the necessity of a new career due to his ‘permanent illness’, and in July of 1917 he underwent another operation to remove the 7.5 cm stone at Toronto General Hospital. McBride’s health seems to have taken a steep decline after this operation - the wound where they went in to remove the stone never properly healed, and in October, 1917 he was transferred to the Toronto Base Hospital with severe pain in the left kidney and hip region, a fever, and an extremely infected post-operation wound. Despite doctors trying everything they had available at the time, Private McBride’s wound continued to get worse and his health continued to decline rapidly. 

            By January 1918 he was suffering from paralysis of his limbs, a ‘very troublesome stomach’, continual fevers, and ongoing extreme pain. In February none of this was improved and he was declared ‘extremely toxic’, and on March 11th at 10:35am, after being treated with his daily dose of whiskey mixed in egg nog, Private McBride died. He was awarded the Memorial Cross, the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal, and was buried at Toronto’s Prospect Cemetery (source: Library & Archives Canada).