Lieut. Errol Platt Killed.

“My colleagues and I send our deepest sympathy in the great bereavement you have sustained in the death of your gallant son.” This is the text of a telegram received from the Right Hon. Sir Robert Borden, Premier of Canada, by Mr. A. T. Platt, of 1574 King street west, whose son, Lieut. H. Errol B. Platt, M.A., has been killed in action. It supplements cable information to the effect that Lieut. Platt had met death while leading his men on patrol duty. He was 25 years old and came of an old United Empire Loyalist family. For six years before the war he had been a member of the Queen’s Own Rifles. Although unable to proceed overseas with the first contingent, he at once took out a commission, and was put in charge of the guard at the filtration plant at the Island during the winter of 1915, and continued there until his appointment to the staff of the 35th Battalion.

Lieut. Platt was one of the officers selected to go overseas with the first reinforcing draft from the 35th, and after being with the battalion at Niagara left for England on June 3, 1915, and after some delay he reached the trenches in  September last, there joining the 3rd Battalion, and was continuously in the trenches up to the time of his death. He was in command of the bomb detachment at the front. Recently he was ordered to the military college at St. Omer for a course of instruction on the Lewis quick-firing gun, and while awaiting the arrival of the new gun he was placed. in command of the snipers and patrols, and latterly was attached to headquarters staff as intelligence officer.

Lieut. Platt received his secondary education at Parkdale Collegiate Institute. He graduated from the University of Toronto with brilliant honors in the class of 1913, being awarded the Mackenzie Fellowship in political science. During the year following his graduation, he tutored in the Economics Department of the University under Prof. James Mavor, taking the master’s degree at the same time. He was a first-year student at Osgoode Hall when war broke out.

While at college, Lieut. Platt was prominent in all student and social activities. He played on the first University of Toronto football team, was a member of the Psi Delta Psi Fraternity, Bloor street, the Thirteen Club, the Historical Club, and was active in the “Lit.” He was also a promising oarsman, being a member of the Argonaut Rowing Club.