Gunner Clyde Elmer Myers—Died of Sickness March 17, 1944

 Clyde Elmer Myers was born in Glace Bay, NS, on April 3, 1925, the oldest child of Delbert Spurgeon and Gladys Maud (Horton) Myers. Delbert was born in Half Island Cove in February 1881, the fourth of William George and Hannah (Horton) Myers’ six children.

Gunner Clyde Myers' Headstone, Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough, NS

Two of Delbert’s older siblings departed for the United States. Emma Blanche (DOB December 25, 1874), William and Hannah Myers’ oldest child, married Herbert Roscoe Closson in West Beverly, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1899. The couple had one son, Roscoe Edgar. Blanche spent the rest of her years in the United States, passing away in North Carolina in 1962. Her brother, Howard Charles Myers (DOB May 15, 1879), arrived in Massachusetts in 1902. Howard married and settled in Beverly, where he raised a family of three sons. He passed away there in 1961.

The other four Myers children remained in Half Island Cove. Delbert’s oldest brother, James William, fished with his father from a young age. James never married, passing away in his home community on December 6, 1950, at age 74. Delbert’s two youngest siblings both died in middle age. Albert Isaac, also a bachelor and fisherman, passed away on June 27, 1924, at 41 years of age. Mae Ida, the youngest of the Myers children, also remained single. She died in the Red Cross Hospital, Guysborough, on November 1, 1940, at age 53.

On January 29, 1919, Delbert Myers married Gladys Maud Horton, daughter of of Moses C. and Carrie (Nickerson) Horton, in a ceremony held in Roachvale, Guysborough County. At the time of the 1921 census, the couple were living in the Cole Harbour census district, where Delbert worked as a fisherman. Their first child, Dolena Hortense, was born in Queensport on February 5, 1922.

While his attestation papers state that the couple’s only son, Clyde Elmer, was born in Glace Bay, the exact circumstances of his birth are unclear as Delbert and Gladys resided in Queensport for most of their lives. A second daughter, Joyce Muriel, was born there on August 5, 1927. Tragically, Dolena died of complications from chronic nephritis [kidney disease] on September 14, 1929. She was seven and a half years old at the time of her passing.

Clyde left school at age 16 having completed Grade 8, and went to work in the fishery with his father. Events overseas, however, soon impacted his life. Under the terms of the National Resources Mobilization Act (1940), all Canadian men and women 16 years of age and older were required to register with the Canadian government. This provided officials with a comprehensive list of all men of military age. In October 1940, the government “called up” the first group of unmarried individuals ages 21 to 24 for a 30-day training course.

The following year, the training period was expanded to four months, after which trainees could be assigned to military duty in Canada. While a 1942 national plebiscite approved the adoption of compulsory overseas service, the practice did not commence until late 1944, when a serious shortage of infantry reinforcements forced the government to to so.

Young men under the age of 21 years were permitted to voluntarily enlist for training and service in Canada. On January 26, 1944, Clyde Myers enlisted with the Canadian Army at Halifax, NS, He stood six feet and weighed 140 pounds at the time. An assessment in his service file describes Clyde as having “a neat clean pleasing appearance and notes that “he does quite a lot of reading. This recruit has high average ability and should become an efficient soldier…. Will be 19 years of age on April 3, 1944.” The assessor recommended assignment to the Royal Canadian Artillery, where Clyde commenced service with the rank of Gunner.

On February 10, Clyde was assigned to No. 61 Canadian Army (Basic) Training Center, New Glasgow. Nine days later, he “presented himself at the Medical Inspection Room complaining of [a] rather severe sore throat and generalized aches and pains.” Clyde was immediately admitted to New Glasgow Military Hospital, where an initial examination recorded a body temperature of 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit (39.2 degrees Celsius).

Clyde’s chest was clear at the time of admission, resulting in a preliminary diagnosis of influenza, an ailment that was widespread in camp at the time. He was examined daily and no signs of chest complications were observed. On February 29—Clyde’s tenth day in hospital—“a blotchy erythematous rash, coarse in type, appeared on [his] thorax [area of the body between the neck and abdomen], back and limbs.” He was immediately diagnosed with measles and placed in the hospital’s isolation ward.

Medical personnel concluded that “symptoms of the principle respiratory infection previous to the rash were… a forerunner of the dermatological lesion [rash] or possibly even occur[ed] in the incubation period. “Clyde’s case of measles was “of rather greater severity than the usual cases seen at the time.”

On March 3, staff conducted a medical examination of Clyde’s chest, “which had previously been clear [but now] showed definite coarse moist rales [small clicking, bubbling or rattling sounds] at [the] right base [of the right lung]…. The impression of possible bronchial pneumonia was entertained at the time.” Two days later, doctors detected a “definite dullness in [the] right base and right axilla up to the arch of the sixth rib posteriorly.” Breathing sounds were suppressed up to the arch of Clyde’s eighth rib, where “moist rales were audible.”

The new symptoms confirmed a diagnosis of pneumonia of the right lung. Medications were immediately prescribed and Clyde’s condition improved noticeably over the next few days. On March 15, however, staff noticed “a fine erythematous rash [a skin condition caused by a viral infection]… on the chest.” Assuming that it was a reaction to one of Clyde’s medications, doctors immediately discontinued its use. The following day, the rash showed signs of clearing and Clyde’s condition appeared to improve.

On March 17, “the patient was seen on daily rounds [and] seemed to be moderately well.” A chest examination detected “some resonance at right base and right axilla with medium and coarse moist rales, giving the impression of resolving pneumonia. At that time no anxiety was felt about his condition.”

About 2:00 pm that afternoon, the attending physician happened to be in Clyde’s ward and “suddenly noticed a distinct change in his condition.” He was gasping for breath and his skin was “almost a grey pallor.” His respiratory rate had never risen above 30 since admission, but was now elevated to between 40 and 60 breaths per minute. The physician “immediately recognized [that] the acute respiratory distress required oxygen therapy and he was immediately transferred to Aberdeen Hospital, New Glasgow, by ambulance.”

Military authorities promptly sent a telegram to Delbert and Gladys, informing them that Clyde was seriously ill. After his admission to the Aberdeen Hospital, the attending registered nurse, Ms. Mabelle Grant, placed a phone call to Queensport, in an effort to contact his parents. As the Myers did not have a phone, she left a message with a neighbour, stating that Clyde had been placed on the “Danger List.”

An x-ray taken at admission showed “pneumothorax [an abnormal collection of air in the space between the thin layer of tissue covering the lungs and the chest cavity] of the right thoracic cavity with collapse of the right lung.” Medical personnel immediately administered oxygen therapy “and other stimulant measures,” but “the course was gradually downhill and the patient expired four or five hours after admission.”

Clyde was officially pronounced dead at 9:40 pm March 17, 1944. While no autopsy was conducted, the attending physician concluded that “the collapse of the right lung following the pneumothorax was sudden in character, inasmuch as the respiratory rate was never elevated beyond 30 during his stay in the New Glasgow Military Hospital. The pneumothorax was probably a result of softening of the right visceral pleura [membrane covering the lungs] by the pneumonic process and consequent perforation.”

Gunner Clyde Elmer Myers was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough. A Court of Inquiry, held on June 7, 1944, concluded that he had received appropriate medical care from staff in both hospitals and that nothing further could have been done to save his life. As Clyde’s death occurred while he was in uniform, military authorities approved the provision of a standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone for his grave.

While Clyde’s passing approximately two weeks before his nineteenth birthday was no doubt a shock to his parents, the circumstances of two other deaths in the Myers family suggest a vulnerability to respiratory illness. His brother Albert Lewis’s 1924 passing was the result of “double pneumonia,” while his sister Mae Ida’s 1940 death was due to “lobar pneumonia.”

Clyde’s death was not the last tragedy for the Myers family. On December 18, 1947, his young sister Joyce died at St. Martha’s Hospital, Antigonish, at age 20. Her death certificate identified “cardio-vascular renal [kidney] disease” as the cause, with advanced secondary anemia [failure of the bone marrow to produce sufficient blood cells] as a contributing factor.

Myers Siblings' Headstone, Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough, NS

Gladys Maud Myers passed away at age 69 in Queensport on March 28, 1966, after suffering a heart attack. Her husband Delbert died at home on June 4, 1971, at age 90, the result of a “cerebral thrombosis” (blood clot in the brain). Both were laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery, Guysborough.