John Angus MacPherson (1882 – 1917)

John Angus McPherson was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He worked in Dawson as an electrician and lineman and enlisted to serve in the First World War in July 1916.¹⁾ His original unit was the 231 Battalion and the later transferred to the Canadian Engineers. Overseas he joined the 14th Field Company, 5th Canadian Division Engineers. He was on a training exercise when he was wounded by an exploding land mine.²⁾ It happened in the trenches during the preliminaries to the making a newsreel about the second battle of Arras.³⁾ He was evacuated to the Canadian Military Hospital in Branshott, England where he died. Sapper MacPherson is buried in the Milford Cemetery in Witley, Surry, England.⁴⁾ Witley was the site of a large encampment of Canadian Soldiers training for the war.⁵⁾