The Great War

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, 23-year-old Ralph Messett called at the home of Lt. Col. Adams of the 16th Prince Edward County Regiment asking to enlist. Adams would later recall that the young man told him, “Don’t forget me, I want to go.”

Messett, who had been born in Iowa, had been apprenticed as a stone cutter with a monument dealer there when only 12 years old. He continued to follow this trade and when his family moved to Canada, first to Berlin (later Kitchener), Ontario, he again sought work in this field. He was to find it in Picton with memorialist James E. Lent who had a shop on Main Street. He found living accommodations at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kinnear on nearby Washburn Street and was quick to earn their friendship and respect.

With his enlistment in the army as a bugler, he left his employment with Lent and sailed with the Eastern Ontario Regiment, 2nd Battalion. In a letter to his sister, he wrote that their mother should not feel sad if he should not return, for he believed in what he was doing and was prepared to die for it. In a letter to his mother, upon his departure, he wrote, “Mother, we are going to leave here soon but I can’t tell where we are going. Our kit bags have gone and we won’t see them again until we start for home after the war. There is one thing I want you to do and hope you will carry out my wish. If I don’t return, there will be a medal sent to you and I want you to give it to Miss May Valleau. You can have everything else but that.”

Not long after Pvt. Messett left to fight, the local press published a letter from Charles Kinnear, in whose home he had boarded while working in Picton. Kinnear stated that supposedly there had recently been a report in a Toronto paper, stating that the young bugler had been captured and executed as a spy. Apparently, some confusion had resulted from the fact that he had once lived in Berlin(Ontario). Kinnear was writing to the hometown newspapers to set the record straight. He explained that Messett had lived with him and his family during the time he worked for James Lent. He was a fine young man of good character, “a loyal British citizen” and certainly no spy.

Soon after this letter appeared, Messett was severely wounded and sent to the British General Hospital in Boulogne, France. From here, one of the nursing sisters wrote to his family telling them that the young soldier wanted them to know he was not afraid to die. Although, at first, there had been some hope of his recovery, his condition worsened and on May 15, 1915, he lost his fight. He was buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery in Boulogne.

Following his death, a newspaper report stated that he left a life insurance policy of $1,500, and $174. in cash. His only other asset was a motorcycle valued at $200. His mother inherited his estate. The fate of the medal she received upon his death was not revealed.

Pvt. Ralph Messett’s name is engraved on the Picton Cenotaph with those of the other young men from Prince Edward County who fell in the Great War.