Private Ralph Beebe Rees, class of 1920, died of pneumonia in France on October 8, 1918. When he registered for the draft, Ralph was working at the Pacific American Fisheries cannery at Excursion Inset, Alaska. He left the UW in June, 1918, to enter military service. Within five weeks of his induction on June 25, 1918 – following short stints at Camp Lewis and Camp Kearny – Ralph was sent to France with the headquarters company of the 158th Infantry. Before seeing active service, however, he contracted pneumonia. He is buried at St. Mihiel American Cemetery in France. (bit.ly/uw_rbrees).
A native of St. Joseph, Illinois, Ralph was the middle of three children born to Dr. William Rees and his wife, Almona Beebe. The family moved to Portland in 1911 and Ralph graduated from Washington High School there in 1915. Ralph entered the UW following a year of study at Reed College. He was majoring in electrical engineering in the hopes of serving with the signal corps and was ranked at the top of his class academically. He was a member Pi Tau Upsilon Fraternity.
Before the United States had even entered the war UW Forestry student Hugh Arthur Rees enlisted in the 16th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Division). Born in England in 1892, Hugh and his parents immigrated to Canada in 1912. Critically wounded in battle, Rees died in Reading, England, on 12 August 1916. (bit.ly/uw_harees)
In Mark Zuehlke’s book, Brave Battalion, Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish), Rees’ heroic action in battle is described: “Groups of Germans could be seen near the trenches attempting to rally a counterattack. Seeing this and also spotting a German machine gun nearby, Cpl Hugh Arthur Rees, a machine gunner with No. 2 team, brought the weapon into action. For the next four hours, as Vancouver was increasingly pounded by German artillery, Rees kept the gun in operation and broke up one attempted counterattack after another, even when it became clear the enemy artillery were attempting to zero in on him. Finally a shell found the mark and the crewmen with him were all killed while Rees was badly wounded. It was an act of heroism that would see the British born twenty-three-year-old awarded a Military Medal for valour.”
Corporal Hugh Arthur Rees was awarded the United Kingdom’s Military Medal for action at the battle of Mont Sorrel, Ypres Salient between June 2-14, 1916.
“It was Sunday morning in the Argonne. There was a gap to the left of the “Wild West” section. Two companies of the engineers went in and over the top, driving the Boche before them. Lieutenant Lester B. Pickering, ’17, led his men through the red hell of machine gun fire. A bullet pierced his right leg, glancing off the bone. Adjusting his own first-aid, and neglecting the advice of his fellow officers, he continued the advance.” (TYEE, 1918, pg. 46.) He had to be ordered to fall back and recover from his wounds at a base hospital where he developed pneumonia following a bout of influenza and died on October 15, 1918. Originally buried in France, Lester was reinterred at Novelty Cemetery, in Duvall in 1922. (bit.ly/uw_pickering)
Lester Bert Pickering graduated from the UW in 1917 with a degree in civil engineering. He was selected for the first Officers’ Training Camp at the Presidio, and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in May of 1917, and then assigned to the 316th Engineers, with the 91st Division. The third of ten children born to English-immigrant Alfred Charles Pickering and his wife, Adah Jeanette Long, Lester was a native of Novelty, Washington. He married Lela Ada Thayer, of Monroe, in Los Angeles, California on December 19, 1917. American Legion Post No. 102 was named in honor of Lester B. Pickering when it received its charter on January 30, 1922.
Private Frank Peterson died of spinal meningitis in France between October 22 and November 6, 1918. Currently little else is known about Frank other than he was serving with the Quartermaster Corps. Frank was a freshman studying business administration at the University of Washington at the time he enlisted and a pledge of Phi Kappa Psi. He is buried in Wenatchee, Washington. (bit.ly/uw_peterson)
“Hit by an enemy shell while marching through a small village in Northern France, a few miles back from the firing lines, Sgt. Gerald S. Patton, graduate of the 1915 class at the University of Washington, sustained injuries that caused his death” according to a telegram to his father from the War Department. (Seattle Times, 20 May 1918.) Gerald’s leg was broken in two places and he sustained a head injury in the shell attack on April 19, 1918. Letters to his father from hospital personnel suggested he was recovering and his death on May 14th was unexpected. Gerald was attached to the Gas and Flames section of the 30th Engineers.
The only child of George Edgar Patton and Althea May Shields, Gerald’s mother died just two weeks after his birth. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Gerald was raised in Monmouth, Illinois, before moving to Seattle. While at the UW, Gerald studied pharmaceutical chemistry and accepted a position at Parke-Davis laboratories in Detroit following his graduation. An accomplished entertainer and piano player, Gerald was an active member of the University Dramatic Association and starred in many campus productions. He was member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Gerald Patton was buried at Somme American Cemetery in France. (bit.ly/uw_patton1). A cenotaph in Gerald’s memory was also installed at Seattle’s Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_patton2)
“By September, 1918, the overwork was beginning to show on the men, and this, along with bad drinking water, put a large number of our own men in the hospital. … It was at this time that the unit lost its first man, Sam Parker, who died the evening of September 7, just as taps was sounded. He was run down from overwork and contracted diphtheria.” (The History of Base Hospital Fifty, 1922, pg. 69.)Private Samuel Nichols Parker served with Base Hospital 50 near Mesves-Bulcy and is buried at St. Mihiel American Cemetery in France. (bit.ly/uw_parker)
Samuel was finally accepted for service with the base hospital unit after repeated attempts to enter the army. He was a member of the Post-Intelligencer editorial staff and a reporter at the Olympia Recorder prior to that. Samuel, Class of 1919, was a member of Pi Tau Upsilon Fraternity at the University of Washington, writer for The Daily and a member of Sigma Delta Chi, an honorary journalism fraternity. Samuel enlisted early in the summer of 1918 traveling to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, for training and then departing on July 14, 1918, for action overseas under the command of Major Eagleson. Born in Illinois, Samuel was the only child of Sarah E. Nichols and John W. Parker.
During World War I, the University of Washington had a U.S. Navy training station on the shores of Lake Union. Before the camp closed in 1919, over 5,000 men had been trained there for both naval and naval aviation units. There were 724 cases of influenza at the camp between October and December, 1918, and thirty-four deaths. One of those who perished was Allen Cooper Ostrander, a freshman in Electrical Engineering. Allen enrolled with the UW Naval Reserve Force as a Seaman second class on June 6, 1918, and died of pneumonia brought on by the flu at the camp on October 17, 1918.
Born in Detroit, Allen had a twin brother, Arthur Peter, who died shortly after birth. Together with his parents, Arthur Dale Ostrander and Harriet Mary Cooper, and younger sister, Ruth, Allen moved to Buffalo, New York, and then to Outlook, Washington, in Yakima County. His father also served in the Navy during the Spanish American War and World War I. Allen’s sister Ruth Elizabeth Ostrander was a 1922 graduate of UW. An endowed scholarship in the School of Public Health is awarded in her memory to students in Nutritional Sciences. Allen, his parents and sister, are all buried at Seattle’s Evergreen Washelli Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_ostrander)
Corporal Merle Wesley O’Rear died on July 12, 1918, near Cote d’Or, France, when he was knocked from the convoy train he was traveling on as it was passing through a tunnel. A telegram from the adjutant general’s office at Washington, D. C., announcing Corporal Merle O’Rear’s death in France, reached his parents an hour after they learned of it by a letter written a month before by Capt. R. B. McClinton of the University of Washington company of which Corporal O’Rear was a member. Capt. McClinton, expressing the deep esteem in which the dead soldier was held by all his comrades, told of his death on July 12th and burial with military honors on July 13th. Merle served as a corporal with Company A, 161st US Infantry. He arrived in France with his unit on his twenty-first birthday. He was entrusted with important details related to convoying materials, completing a mission into German Territory in Lorraine just the date before his death.
A native of Port Townsend, Merle was the younger of two sons born to Newton O’Rear and Ruby Shaw. Merle was a graduate of Queen Anne High School and a student of the University. His brother Clyde Shaw O’Rear served at the 116th depot ordnance at Camp Lewis. Merle entered the University as a freshman in September 1914. He was studying mechanical engineering and played tennis and basketball while at the UW. Merle left the University school to enlist. Prior to WWI, Merle served with the UW company of the National Guards and accompanied the regiment to Calexico where the unit was involved with border protection during the hunt for Pancho Villa. Originally buried in France, Merle’s final resting place is Arlington National Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_orear)
For four years Elmer John “Cy” Noble was a standout halfback on the UW’s football team under legendary undefeated coach Gilmour Dobie. His pigskin skills would come in handy when he was called to provide instruction in bayoneting and bomb throwing at Fort Lewis for army recruits. Commissioned as a Lieutenant at the first Officer’s Training School at the Presidio, Cy led the men of Company D of the 364th Infantry with the Wild West Division. Cy was killed in action on September 26, 1918, when he was struck by a cannon shell. Originally buried near the battlefield, he was later reinterred at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_noble)
Elmer’s heroism and bravery were recognized with a Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry when he “led his men under heavy fire in an attack through barbed-wire entanglements on the enemy positions before Bois-de-Cheppy. His conduct had a marked moral effect upon his men and he continued leading the attack until killed by enemy fire.” (Congressional Commendation.)
While at the UW, Cy majored in Commerce, was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and the Oval Club and Fir Tree honor societies. In 1917 he married Doris Smith “the culmination of a college romance extending over his entire college days.” (The Delta of Sigma Nu Fraternity, vol. 36, pg. 711.) Born in Snohomish, Washington, Elmer was the youngest of John Noble and Sarah Hoskinson’s three children to survive infancy. Raised in Centralia, to Centralia High School’s Noble Field was named him. The first American Legion Post founded in Seattle in 1919, Post No. 1, was also named in Elmer Noble’s honor.
A poem dedicated to Howard appeared in the 1907 TYEE recalling his Harvard education:
Howard D. Hughes is a Hahva’d youth,
A polite young man he is, for sooth!
His luncheons he shares,
From soup to eclairs,
With Artless May Crahan – the gooth!
On the February 5, 1918, the troop ship Tuscania – en route to Great Britain with more than 2,000 American soldiers on board – was torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Channel and sank seven miles off the coast of Scotland. More than 200 men drowned in the seas off Islay or were dashed to their death on the rocks including Roy Muncaster, D Company, 6th Battalion, 20th Engineers.
A native of Colorado, Roy was of nine children born to English immigrants William Muncaster and Elizabeth Ewing. He attended Colorado College and then enrolled in the Forestry program at the University of Washington, graduating with the class of 1917. A member of Phi Gamma Delta at the UW, the FIJIs named their fraternity house Muncaster Hall in his honor.
The Tuscania’s casualties were exhumed from their original burial in Scotland with the exception of Private Roy Muncaster. His family requested that his body remain undisturbed. (bit.ly/uw_muncaster). At the time of his enlistment Roy was working as a forest ranger in the Quinault District of the Olympic National Forest. The US Forest Service named Mount Muncaster in honor of Roy following his death. (bit.ly/mt_muncaster)