On the night of Aug 2, 1918, his story takes a bizzare turn.  His uniform was found on the shore of Lake Ontario in downtown Kingston, near the train station, and it first appeared that he was a drowning victim.  The newspaper clippings on the pages listed below pick up the story.

Kingston Daily British Whig
August 10, 1918

In Effort to Locate Body of Major W. J. S. Sharp

The Authorities Trying to ‘ascertain if the Missing Casualties Officer has Really Been Drowned.       

Lieut. Askwith said   “We are doing our best to ascertain whether or not Major Sharp’s body is in the water an we have made a thorough search in the water for a considerable distance around the spot where the clothing was found.”            

The military police are rendering assistance in the solution of the mystery and a special agent is also employed. The work will be carried on unremittingly and every clue will be traced in an effort to account for Major Sharp’s disappearance.            

Major W.J. S. Sharp was a native of Dundee Scotland. For five years before he enlisted to go overseas with the 21^st Battalion, he was employed in the Timber and Grazing Branch of the Department of Interior, Ottawa. He was born April 26^th 1886 and came to Canada about 10 years ago.

Kingston Daily British Whig
August 12, 1918

Has Identified Towel Found
Mrs. W. J. S. Sharp Says that it is Her Property

His Discharge Button Found at His Home

Dominion Police Detective Making Enquiries --- Military Enquiry Merely as to Major Sharp’s Absence.

What Mrs. Sharp Says

Mrs. Sharpe states that the towel found near the spot with the clothing is her property. When asked her views respecting the disappearance, she stated that she believed her husband was drowned while bathing, but she is unable to account for him going to bathe at the point indicated. When he left home on Friday evening he said he was going to the office to work and did not take a towel with him from the house. Yet this towel is her own and is quite different from the towels used in the offices at the armouries. She is positive on this pint because she hemmed it herself. She had heard him say that he missed the opportunities for bathing he enjoyed when on duty at the camp.            

Regarding the possibility of foul play, she had heard his orderly hint at it. He thought some discharged soldier might have harbored resentment over his discharge and brooded over it till he found an opportunity to take revenge. The idea of desertion is repugnant to her and is not at all acceptable. To her knowledge he had formed no intimacies. She is strongly of the opinion that he is dead and had considered communicating with the family lawyer about a settlement of the estate, but had been to upset to do so. She was the beneficiary in two life insurance policies. Sharp’s civilian clothing is all at home.            

There is a growing opinion that there was a row, that Major Sharp received fatal injury, that his body was disposed, of and that a plan was conceived of.

Kingston Daily British Whig
August 14, 1918 

The Sharp Case. 

            Detective Carroll, of the Dominion Police, has left the city again and his subordinates are still working on the Major Sharp case. A search has been made of some buildings in the vicinity where the clothes were left, but nothing was found beyond a couple of bottles of whiskey which some bootlegger had apparently left there. These were promptly broken on the rocks nearby by the police.

Dec 19, 1918

Apr 17, 1919

Apr 30, 1919

Apr 18, 1919

Summary of Service File

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