Name: Lester Pearl Durkee Rank: Private Service Number: 415855 (First World War) Service: 40th Bn, 164th Battalion, and 116th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force Date of Birth: June 5, 1899 Place of Birth: Wellington, Yarmouth Co., Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: August 12, 1915 Place of Enlistment: Aldershot, Kings Co., Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 16 Occupation: Painter Next of Kin: Asa P Durkee (Father) Date of Discharge: February 17, 1919 at Halifax, NS Age: 19 Date of Death: December 18, 1980 Age: 81 Cemetery: Hillside Cemetery, South Ohio, Yarmouth Co., Nova Scotia Lester Pearl Durkee was the son of Asa Porter Durkee (1865-1944) and Annie Amelia MacCormack (1876- 1909), the brother of Alonzo Willis Durkee (1897-1975), and the husband of Martha (Harley) Durkee (1891-1947). Lester and Martha’s children were Myrtle Annie Alva Durkee (1920-2003), Eileen Pearl Durkee (1920- 1979), William Lester Durkee (1922-2018), Marion Evelyn Durkee Maybey (1925-2017), Bruce Durkee (1930-1930), and Mary Amelia Durkee (1932-1986). After Martha’s death in 1947, Lester married Olive Levila Winters (1915-1975) in 1956, and the two had one child, Arthur Durkee. Lester’s brother Alonzo Willis Durkee also served Canada during WWI with the 112th Battalion, and the Royal Canadian Regiment with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Lester’s first wife’s brother, Private Samuel Harley (1898-1918), Service No. 58250, served with the 1st/4th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers during WWI and died April 10, 1918. He is remembered on Panel 2 of Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. Alonzo’s son Donald Allen Durkee died serving on the USS S-28 of the US Submarine Force, United States Navy, on July 4, 1944, during World War II. In WWI, Lester initially served with the 40th Battalion, was assigned to the 6th Reserve Battalion on January 4, 1917, the 12th Reserve Battalion on March 1, 1917, the 2nd Canadian Reserve Battalion on April 23, 1917, the 164th on July 19, 1917, and the 116th Battalion on June 5, 1918. Lastly, he was posted to the 15th Canadian Reserve Battalion on December 20, 1918. While serving with the 116th Battalion, Lester was buried by a shell on September 2, 1918, and gassed at the same time. After the end of the war, Lester married Martha Harley on January 1, 1919, in Birmingham, Worcestershire, England, and was discharged at Halifax in February 1919. Martha was born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England. By 1920, they were living in Brockton, Massachusetts, and Lester was employed as a telegraph operator. It is unclear what his military service entailed during the Second World War but there is record of his arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 19, 1943, from Miami, Florida. The flight’s final destination is recorded as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil via Camaguey, Cuba. He’s listed with 4 others as ‘Canadian Army’. Later in life, he was employed for a time as a guard at Field Aviation in Oshawa, Ontario (1950’s). He eventually returned to live in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. He is buried at the Hillside Cemetery in South Ohio, Yarmouth Co., NS.

Sources: findagrave.com Library and Archives Canada The Evening Mail, Halifax, NS, Wednesday, August 11, 1915