Ralph Messett was born on February 20th 1891 in Pennsylvania. Ralph was one of ten children born to Mary Ann Shuh and Henry Messett. In 1911 Ralph worked in Picton, Ontario as a laborer before later getting a job as a marble and granite cutter in the Waterloo region. Ralph also worked for the 29th Waterloo Regiment for four years prior to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Ralph joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a Bugler for the 2nd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. In May 1915 Ralph was shot in the pelvis in Wimereux, France. Ralph was treated at the Rawalpindi British General Hospital but on May 15th, 1915 Ralph succumbed to his injuries. Bugler Ralph Messett is buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France.
Service number: 7773
“Canadian Virtual War Memorial: Ralph Messett,” Veterans Affairs Canada, accessed March 21, 2015, http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/84380?Ralph%20Messett
“Wimereux Communal Cemetery.” Commonwealth War Graves Commission, accessed March 21, 2015, http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/8200/WIMEREUX%20COMMUNAL%20CEMETERY
“PTE. Smith is Well,” Waterloo Chronicle, May 20, 1915.