McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Letter, 6 February 1879
Item
William Herbert Floyd was born on November 7, 1860, in Cobourg, Ontario.
He was a militia officer, merchant, and civil servant. He joined the 40th Regiment as a mess boy at the age of nine and retired as the Commanding Officer forty years later in 1909. In early 1916, he was appointed to raise the 139th Northumberland County Battalion, a unit of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, and he became Lieutenant-Colonel. The Battalion sailed to England and returned home in May 1917. In civilian life, he was a dealer of men’s shoes and clothing lines. He was closely involved in municipal affairs and served one term as Cobourg mayor in 1903. In 1919, he was appointed police magistrate for Cobourg, a post he held until his retirement in 1932.
In 1881, he married Jessie Reid Mackay Gordon. He died on June 24, 1936, in Northumberland, Ontario.
Letter from W.H. Floyd to John William Dawson, written from Cobourg.