Major Gordon Ruthven Heron
PERSONAL INFORMATION
MILITARY INFORMATION
- Major, 78th Battalion, Infantry (Army).
- Captain, 78th Battalion, Infantry (Army).
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Son of Major William Lewis Heron and Emily MacKenzie Heron (nee Brown); younger brother of Major Victor William Synge Heron
He won the Humane Society Medal at the age of 15 for saving 5 lives.
LAC includes both an Attestation Paper (1st July 1915) and an Officers' Declaration Paper (29th March 1916.) In the latter he declared that he was active in the 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers militia, but did not mention previous military service, which would seem to be indicated by his earlier enlistment.
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Transcription, Toronto Star, 19 April 1917, pg. 5:
NOTED SWIMMER KILLED
Major G. R. Heron Had Two Medals for Saving Life.
Major G. R. Heron, who was first reported killed in a special cable from The Star's London correspondent Monday, appears in the official list of casualties yesterday as having been killed in action on the 9th. He was the son of Major W. S. Heron, of Ottawa, and a grandson of John Gordon Brown, former editor of the Globe, and a nephew of E. B. Brown, K.C., Osgoode Hall, Toronto. He was 33 years of age and unmarried. The late Major Heron was a noted swimmer, and had twice been awarded medals for life-saving. Since completing his education at the Harbord Collegiate school he had been connected with the Dominion Bank, and at the time he joined the colours was in their employ at Winnipeg. His brother, Victor, was twice wounded, and is now home at Halifax, where Mrs. Philip Weatherby, the surviving sister, resides.