Lieutenant Colonel Barry Combe
161st (Huron) Battalion

Had an attack of acute gastritis Aug 1917. Began to feel somewhat run down then and to lose weight.

He is slightly pale and his muscles show wasting—weight 160 lbs. He states that this is a loss of 20 lbs. He complains of being very easily tired, then he feels slightly dizzy.

(Medical Board, 11 Oct 1918)

Hugh Barry Combe was born on 23 September 1864 in Clinton, Canada West. He enlisted as a bugler in the 33rd Huron Regiment as a boy and rose to become the commanding militia officer. In December 1915, he offered to raise a battalion from his home county. The farmer families of the rural area were unreceptive to patriotic pleas, however, and largely unwilling to allow their sons to enlist.

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