Lt.-Col.
Coombs died in London
Simcoe, 23 Oct 1921 --
Advice was received here yesterday of the death at London yesterday
morning of Lt.-Col. Harry L. Coombs, whose name was closely
connected with public life in this county for more than half a
century.
Col. Coombs spent most of
his long life as a highly respected citizen of the town of Simcoe.
On 9 Dec 1918, Col. and Mrs. Coombs celebrated their golden wedding
at their home on West Street here.
Col. Coombs, as a young man,
engaged in farming near Forestville, Norfolk County. There he met a
school teacher, Miss Catharine Brackinreed, who stood at the
hymeneal alter with him in the Polley home in North Simcoe
(Wellington), while the marriage ceremony was performed by Rev.
Martin Livingstone, father of the late Mrs. W. P. Innes. Of the
guests at this wedding there are but four survivors: Misses Polley,
Mrs. D. Palmerston, and Mr. Samuel Chadwick.
Col. Coombs was essentially
a soldier. In youth he enlisted in the Fenwick Rifler and advanced
from the ranks. He saw active service in the Fenian raids, and was
in 1865 a sergeant in the Simcoe company of the Fenwick Rifles, that
was quartered in a school house on the Niagara frontier for some
months.
Of this company, C. C.
Rapeleh [sic], Robert Osborne, Alex. Young, Wm. Bottomly,
James Dell and James Thompson were the only other survivors
mentioned in a review which appeared in The British Canadian
of 16 Apr 1919. He was called up again in 1866.
His eldest son, Frank, was
in the South African War as an artillery-man. Two other sons, Harry
and Arthur, served in the Great War, the former winning the Military
Medal, and the latter acquitting himself with distinction until
discharged as physically unfit for further service. Both of them
responded to the call from the western frontiers.
