William was the first of the brothers to enlist. As soon as the news reached him upon his fathers farm in Fredericksburgh, that war was declared, he quit the harvest field and enlisted at Kingston, in the 47th, as No. 8154. He trained at Valcartier, crossed the Atlantic on the Cassandra with the first contingent, and spent the winter on Salisbury Plain. As a member of the 2nd Battalion of the First Canadian Division, he went to France in February, 1915, and was one of the first, if not the very first, from this county to lay down his life for the flag he loved so dearly. It was at the battle of Langemark. Volunteers were called to lay a telephone line across open country exposed to the fire of the enemy, and install an instrument in a trench a thousand yards in advance of the main body of the Canadian army. Private Unwin and a comrade were the first to tender their services and were assigned the important but dangerous task. They had proceeded about half way, and the German bullets were whizzing past them, when Unwin remarked to his friend that it was senseless for both of them to expose them selves, as the burden had been greatly reduced, so that he could carry the remaining portion of the line through alone. This he did and set up his instrument in the advanced trench and all day long received the messages from the rear. His brother, Sergeant Valentine Unwin, was at the other end of the line and at dusk he passed along a message from the Commanding Officer that the men were to retire. William received and delivered the message and the trench was successfully evacuated. Sgt. Unwin was busy for hours in rescuing the wounded and, when this was accomplished, he tried to recall his brother, who had remained at his post, but received no reply. No trace of him was ever found and nearly a twelve month later he was officially reported "Killed in action".