Description
Canada General Service Medal, bar Fenian Raid 1866, Private Xavier Lajuenesse, 18th Prescott Bn, Canadian Militia.
Officially impressed: “Pte X. Lajuenesse. 18th Bn.”
Good preserved condition.
Xavier Lajuenesse, was born in 1841 in Quebec, being a Catholic French Canadian “Québécois”
He spent most of his life in Vankleek Hill, Ontario
He is present on the musters and pay lists of the 18th Battalion during the Fenian Raid period of 1866-1870.
The Medal Roll confirms the medal and clasp, noting that when earning the medal he was a Private with No 5 Company, “From 3rd to 18th June 1866 at Prescott, Attack Expected.”
The Canada General Service Medal was not instituted until decades after the Fenian Raids, his medal was issued during 1900, when he was about 60 years old, the medal sent to him at Vankleek Hill, Ontario.
He died a few years after receiving his long awaited medal, on 10th June 1905, the local Vankleek Hill Burial Register reading:
“10th June, Xavier Lajeunesse, The 21st of August 1905, the undersigned Parish Priest have interred into this cemetery of this parish the body of Xavier Lajeuenesse deceased day before yesterday aged 65 years old, Husband of Philomene Sauve”
The Ottawa Journal 19th May 1887 recalls:
“L’ORIGINAL
Xavier Lajeuenesse, stagedriver between Vankleek Hills and L’Original has commenced his daily trips.”
