William Merrifield
English-Canadian soldier (1890–1943); recipient of the Victoria Cross
William Merrifield VC, MM (9 October 1890 – 8 August 1943) was an English-Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, he was awarded the VC for his actions on 1 October 1918, during the Battle of the Canal du Nord. Earlier in the war he had been awarded the Military Medal.
Early life
William Merrifield was born at Brentwood, Essex in England on 9 October 1890. When he was 12 years old, he and his uncle emigrated to Canada for employment, settling in Ottawa. He later moved to Sudbury where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway before moving to Sault Ste. Marie to work for the Algoma Central Railway as a fireman. He also joined the 97th Regiment, known as the Algonquin Rifles, a unit of Canada's militia.
First World War
On 14 August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Merrifield enlisted at Sault Ste. Marie and was among the first contingent of 129 men to leave the city for the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
“William Merrifield” enters the record as english-Canadian soldier (1890–1943); recipient of the Victoria Cross. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Merrifield and English-Canadian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8015579. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1943, 1918 and 1914.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Merrifield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.