The first volunteer from Stratford to die a hero’s death, was Thomas Bain. He had been in his old home Scotland, when the war broke out and he volunteered in a Scottish regiment, which went to war in August 1914, long before any of the Canadian regiments had arrived in Europe. The news of his death reached Stratford in mid-December, 1914.
(„Der erste Stratford Freiwillige…“, Berliner Journal, 23 December 1914)