Canada. A Service Medal Pair With Paybook, Canadian Engineers

British War Medal (784921 SPR. H. LAKE. C.E.); and Victory Medal (784921 SPR. H. LAKE. C.E.). Naming is officially impressed. Dark patina on the BWM, contact marks, original ribbons, very fine. Accompanied by his Active Service Canadian Pay Book (brown cloth moisture-resistant cover, with insert pages printed in black ink, measuring 95 mm (w) x 142 mm (h)), along with his Baptismal Card (printed in red and black inks, on a card stock, personalized inscriptions in handwritten black ink, measuring 88 mm (w) x 118 mm (h)) and his Communion Card (printed in red, blue, black and gold-coloured inks, on a card stock, personalized inscriptions in handwritten black ink, measuring 89 mm (w) x 126 mm (h)).

Footnote: Harold Lake was born on September 14, 1886 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, the son of John William Lake and Annie Lake. He was baptized on October 14th, at the age of one month and had Typhoid Fever in 1909 at the age of 23 but made a "good recovery". Lake later immigrated to Canada and was a resident of Winona, Ontario, when he signed his Attestation Paper as a Private (784921) with the 129th Infantry Battalion "Wentworth Battalion", on February 11, 1916 in Stoney Creek, Ontario, at the age of 29, naming his next-of-kin as his father, John William Lake of Beverley, stating that he had no previous military service, that he was not married, that his religion was Church of England and that his trade was that of Stenographer & Bookkeeper, also acknowledged as a Fruit Farmer. Before leaving for overseas service, he had his First Communion on May 4, 1916 at St. John's Church in Winona. The Battalion was raised in the County of Wentworth, Ontario with mobilization headquarters at Dundas, Ontario under the authority of G.O. 151, December 22, 1915. The Battalion sailed August 21, 1916 from Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard the S.S. Olympic, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W.E.S. Knowles with a strength of 32 officers and 807 other ranks, arriving in Liverpool, England on August 30th. Seven weeks after arriving in England, he was transferred to the 124th Infantry Battalion "Governor General's Body Guard" on October 18, 1916. Private Lake embarked for the French theatre on March 9, 1917, arriving in Boulogne on the 11th. He was posted to the Canadian Corps M.G.O. on July 16, 1917 and later saw a promotion to Acting Sergeant. He was awarded one Good Conduct Badge on February 11, 1918. As on March 18, 1918, the battalion was re-designated as the 124th Pioneer Battalion, Canadian Engineers, with Lake taking on the rank of Sapper. He was struck off strength to the Support Staff at Canadian Army Corps Headquarters on April 23, 1918. He was later attached to the Canadian War Records Department at London as Clerk Class II, between March 18, 1919 and August 15, 1919, seeing a grading to Clerk Class I on May 24th. Sapper Lake was granted permission to marry on two occasions, on July 6 1917 and November 30, 1918. By late August 1919, he was posted to the Canadian Discharge Depot at Buxton for return to Canada. He proceeded to Canada from Liverpool, England on September 19, 1919, aboard HMT Baltic, arriving in Halifax on the 26th. Sapper Harold Lake was discharged upon demobilization at the Halifax Depot, Clearing Service Command in Halifax, on October 2, 1919, credited with having served in Canada, England and France, entitled to wear the War Service Badge, number 399398. For his First World War service, he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In his Will, dated August 10, 1916, he stated that "I bequeath all my personal estate to my mother, Annie Lake" and appointed his brother-in-law, Edward Whitening of Beverley as his Executor but of course, the Will was never executed.