Background
Earle Alexander Moore was born October 13, 1892 in Fredericton, New Brunswick to Christina and Joseph Moore. Census records show the Moores had five children named George, Ethel, John, Earle, and Helen. Elsewhere documents suggest there may have been two additional children in the family named Frank and Nettie. Earle grew up in downtown Fredericton at 289 Westmorland Street, however, by the time he was a young adult he was living on and operating a farm in the Lincoln area. Earle's father worked as a carpenter in Fredericton and newspapers highlight how well the family was known in the area, describing Earle as a "clean-cut man, held in the highest esteem by all his friends and associates in the city". Although there are few accounts of his early life growing up in Fredericton records illustrate that Earle had no military training prior to the war and that he was unmarried. At the time of his formal enlistment in Saint John, New Brunswick on March 1, 1916 with the 115th Battalion, he was 23 years old and had blue eyes and a light complexion. Earle was also described as standing five feet nine inches tall. Both he and his brother, John C., would enlist in Saint John together, along with other young men from the area. Together they trained in Valcartier, Quebec for a few months in preparations for going overseas. It is unclear if he ever saw his family again after his enlistment.
Wartime Experience
On July 23, 1916, Private Earle Moore embarked with his brother from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the S.S. Olympic for England. Upon arrival Earle remained with the 115th until being transferred to the 112th at Bramshot in October. While still in England, Earle wrote his military will naming his mother, Christina, as the sole beneficiary. After more than a year of training in England, Earle left the 112th for the 26th Battalion landing in France in the summer of 1917. Although his record offers few details of his movements in late 1917 and early 1918, it is likely he was with the 26th Battalion at Passchendaele in November and later in the area of Vimy during the German offences in the spring of 1918. Newspapers report him steadily on the Western Front during this period of time and so it likely that he was in these areas of northern France and Flanders. By the summer of 1918 the German Army had pushed as far as Amiens and Canadians were given an opportunity to punch through German defenses like they had done elsewhere during the war. At Amiens, the 26th Battalion would be part of a combined force with French and Australians on the early morning of August 8, 1918 to finally break the German Army. According to the war diary of the 26th Battalion, the Battle of Amiens began at 4:20am under good conditions and by the afternoon they had reached their objectives just beyond the villages of Wiencourt and Guillaucourt. While taking part in the attack from the north east, Private Moore's circumstances of death record reveals that he would be hit by enemy machine gun fire during the opening day of attacks. Earle died instantly. Considered the "black day of the German Army" Private Moore's sacrifice along with many other Canadians over the coming months would eventually force Germany to seek terms to end the war in November of 1918. Shortly after Earle's death, the Daily Gleaner reported a community losing a "young man of great promise... a hero every inch of him to make the supreme sacrifice so that the world might again be a decent place to live in". Private Moore was twenty-five years old.
Lest We Forget
Private Earle Alexander Moore is buried with honour at the Villers-Bretonneuax Military Cemetery located near Amiens, France. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Earle is one of approximately 1547 identified casualties from the First and Second World Wars.