Joseph Bailey
Joseph Paget Bailey was born in St. Catherines ON on 20 December 1895. His parents, Christopher Joseph and Helen Jane Bailey, had 3 sons and lived on Russell Street East, Lindsay ON. Nothing else is known about the family.
Before enlisting, Joseph was a bookkeeper by trade and worked for the Bell Telephone Company up to at least 1914. He enlisted on 6 January 1916 with the 77th Battalion in Ottawa ON, and was transferred to the 38th Battalion. Joseph found himself quickly promoted up to the rank of Sergeant while with the 38th. After completing Command Riffle Course at Eastern Command School in May 1918, he was promoted to Lieutenant and reattached to the 38th and sent back to the front lines.
The 38th Battalion war diary notes the activity around the time that Joseph died:
"On August 30 the battalion took part in action east of Feuchy, and on September 1 relieved the 8th Canadian Battalion at Ostrich Trench. The Germans counterattacked and were repulsed; that night, the battalion assembled for an attack the following day on the Canal du Nord. By the late afternoon of September 2, the battalion reached the summit of Drury Hill. In the evening the Germans made a determined counterattack, but the 38th held on and by the mid-afternoon of September 3 the position was consolidated. Here the 38th broke the Drocourt-Quéant Line, capturing 325 prisoners, 4 trench mortars and 40 machine guns. The battalion's casualties were 3 officers and 57 other ranks killed, 7 officers and 176 other ranks wounded and 57 missing, for a total of 300."
Joseph Bailey was killed on 2 September 1918 by an enemy bullet during the attack on the Drocourt-Quent line, and is buried in Dury Mill British Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France. He was 22 years old.
