#9175 Private Deric Broughall was born October 1, 1895, the son of Frederick William Broughall and Lillian Mabel Strathy of Toronto and London England, and grandson of the Reverend Canon A. J. Broughall, D.D., and of Mr. Henry S. Strathy.

He attended St. Andrew’s College, Aurora, Ontario from 1904 to 1905; Upper Canada College, Toronto from 1905 to 1908; Lakefield College, Lakefield, Ontario from 1909 to 1911; and Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ontario from 1911 to 1913.

In 1913 his family moved to London, England, but Deric after spending a few months there, returned to Canada and started work in the Metropolitan Bank. He later worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia at Dundas and Arthur Streets in Toronto and served for six months in the Active Militia as a private in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada.

He was unmarried when he enlisted at Valcartier, Quebec on September 22, 1914 with the 3rd Battalion (Central Ontario Regiment), 1st Brigade, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He went overseas in October of 1914 and to France in February 1915.

He was killed in action at St. Julien in the Second Battle of Ypres on 23 April 1915 at the age of 19 years (See 3rd Battalion, CEF War Diary entry for that date.)

“He joined the Q.O.R. in the spring of last year, and when war was declared he was one of the first to enlist for foreign service and went to the front in the machine gun section of the 3rd Battalion. On April 22nd, when the Germans began their attack with gas fumes and a very heavy artillery bombardment, the 3rd Battalion was being brought up from the reserves, and at one place where they got into the zone of the artillery fire a great many sought shelter for the time in a sort of ditch along the road. In this place several members of the machine gun section were killed by bursting shells, among them Lieut. Macdonald and Deric Broughall. He had been very happy in the army, and his good spirits added to the life of any group in which he happened to be.

Letters from his comrades speak of his death with very great regret.”

College Times (Summer 1915) pg. 8-9

As his grave is unknown, his name is recorded on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium – Panel 18 – 24 – 26 – 30. It bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War.