Pattison enlisted at Calgary, Alberta on 6 March 1916. One of four soldiers to earn the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, (the others were Thain Wendell MacDowell, Ellis Wellwood Sifton and William Johnstone Milne), Pattison was 41 years old, and a private in the 50th (Calgary) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. He was killed in action at Lens, France, on 3 June 1917. He is buried at La Chaudière Military Cemetery, France located 7 miles north of Arras (plot IV, row C, grave 14).