Search The Archive

Search form

Collection Search
  • Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in oa_core_visibility_data() (line 607 of /app/profiles/viu/modules/contrib/oa_core/includes/oa_core.access.inc).
  • Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in oa_core_visibility_data() (line 607 of /app/profiles/viu/modules/contrib/oa_core/includes/oa_core.access.inc).
Date: 1916
Newspaper Article

LIEUT. ERROL B. PLATT IS KILLED IN ACTION
Toronto Officer Was a Brilliant Student

ON HEADQUARTERS STAFF
Had Been in Command of Bomb Detachment—Went Overseas With 35th—Prominent in Economics at University of Toronto

Cable information was received yesterday, supplemented by official notice from Ottawa, by M., A. T. Platt of 1,574 King street west, that his only, son, Lieut. Henry Errol Beauchamp Platt, M.A., had been killed while leading his men on patrol duty. No particulars have as yet been received.

Lieut. Platt, who was twenty-five years old, came of an old United Empire Loyalist family. He was a member of the 2nd Q.O.R. for some six years prior to the outbreak of the war. He was unable to go overseas with the first contingent, but at once took out his commission, and was in charge of the guard at the filtration plant at the Island during the winter of 1915, up to the time of his appointment on the roll of the 35th Battalion.

Went Over With 35th.
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.

A Brilliant Student.
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 Professor James Mayor, 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.

Original Scans

Original Scans