Assigned Pay Records
489365 Private Thomas Mercer
It was customary, and in some cases mandatory, that military personnel "assign" or make a portion of their salary payable to their wives back home, or as in the case of Private Thomas Mercer, to their mothers. As can be seen by the following images, he assigned the sum of $20 per month to be paid to his mother, back home in Newfoundland. It may not seem like a lot of money today, but it has to be remembered that a lot of labourers back then only made 5 or 10 cents an hour.
