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Note: When Spencer's father died in a railroad accident, Spencer was not quite 5, his older brother was 7 and his younger brother was not quite 2. His mother put them in an orphanage so that she could earn a living. He was taken at a young age to the farm of Roland and Margaret McKenzie in Louth Twp and raised by them.
On February 9, 1916 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Spencer signed up with the 81st Battalion, Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He had been active in the G.G.B.G. Militia. He stated that his nearest relative was his mother, Mrs. Nellie Smith. His eyes and hair were brown. He said that he was a Methodist. A doctor found him fit to be a soldier.
After World War I he lived with his mother for a while. However she stole several of his army cheques so he moved out to live at a boarding house owned by Margaret Orrett Stull. This is how he met his future wife, Margaret Stull, daughter of the above Margaret and Murray. The boarding house was at 55 Queenston in St. Catharines.
Spencer belonged to the Oddfellows for years.
He often marched in the Remembrance Day parades and was in the group of veterans who lined the road when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited in 1939. In fact after they lined the road in St. Catharines, they were bused to Niagara Falls where they did it all over again!
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