Walter Wilson Stewart

Lt. Col. Moodie

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel R.R. Moodie
205th (Hamilton Tigers) Battalion

He is suffering from neurasthenia with insomnia, loss of appetite, general debility, severe headaches, nervous chills and constant pain in temporal region and back of neck. Mental concentration is impossible, and he is easily worried over trifles.

(Proceedings of Medical Board, 3 Sept 1916)

Born in Hamilton, Ontario on 6 August 1884, Robert Roy Moodie was a knitting manufacturer, prominent sportsman and president of the city’s Tiger Football club. A member of the 91st militia and the Canadian Field Artillery, Moodie first joined Lieutenant Colonel Walter Stewart’s 86th Machine Gun Battalion at the rank of major in October 1915. By early 1916, he had received authorization to raise a sportsmen’s battalion from Hamilton, the 205th Tigers, which took its nickname from the city’s sports team.

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The Kentuckian

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel W. W. Stewart †
86th (Machine Gun) BattalionStewart

The cost of this tremendous war cannot be stated in terms of the Stock Exchange, for life and happiness mean infinitely more than dollars and cents.

Who can assess the value of a genial disposition, a kindly, sympathetic nature, a forceful personality, a large heart, a noble, earnest spirit?

(The Canadian Machine Gunner, June 1917, 12)

Born on 1 June 1871 in Covington, Kentucky, Walter Wilson Stewart immigrated to Canada with his family as a boy. He pursued a career in architecture, working in Hamilton and Cleveland, Ohio. In the Canadian militia, he served for two years with the 13th Regiment and twelve years with the 91st Highlanders. Beginning in 1915, he organized the 86th Battalion based in Hamilton with former 4th Battalion commander Robert H. Labatt.

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