Name: Ernest Lester Dixon Service Number: 470373 Battalion: Canadian Machine Gun Corps 12th Machine Gun Company Place of Birth: Lower Woods Harbour, NS Date of Birth: July 4, 1897 (actual year of birth 1898) Place of Enlistment: Sussex, New Brunswick Date of Enlistment: September 17, 1915 Age at Enlistment: 18 (actual age 17) Height: 5 feet, 4 inches Complexion: Fair Eyes: Blue Hair Brown Martial Status: Single Trade: Machinist Religion: Baptist Next of Kin: Soloman Dixon (Father) Massachusetts, US. Date of Death: November 22, 1916 Age at Death: 19 Cemetery: Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, France Plot: I. I. 10. Commemorated on page 78 of the First World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on February 26 Listed on both the Yarmouth and Shelburne Monuments A native of Woods Harbour, NS. Ernest Lester Dixon was the son of Solomon Lester Dixon (1868-1918) and Joanna a. (Gipson) Dixon (1875-1930), Dorchester, Massachusetts, US. When Ernest Dixon enlisted he was under-age for service and added an year to his age. He enlisted with the 64th Battalion and departed Canada on the SS Adriatic on march 31, 1916 and arrived in Liverpool, England on April 9, 1916. While at Shorncliffe he volunteered for the machine gun section of the Battalion. It has been told that when volunteers were called for, Ernie said to the Officer, Lieutenant Stewart Henry, “Do you think, sir, I could take a man’s place in the Machine Gun Section?” He was undersized but his straightforwardness impressed the Lieutenant and Private Dixon was accepted on June 23, 1916. He continued to serve with the 64th Canadian Machine Gun Detachment in England. On November 22, 1916 he was hit by an enemy shell splinter while on sentry duty in a trench on the lip of Death Valley, the Somme. Because of his small size he was remembered by many of the 64th. He was buried in the Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, France