Digging in the Dirt: Canadian WWI Soliders Grave located in France

Richard Jack's painting of the Canadian's at Vimy Ridge, Library and Archives Canada. No zombies were present.

We often think that World War One is in the far off land of the past: a place we read about but has no affect on our daily life. Well, we're wrong. Not only does the outcomes of the war still affect us today, as my rant about Israel and Palestine covers, but the men who died still keep popping up. No: I don't mean some tacky war-splotation (my new word) zombie film like Dead Snow where the Nazis live again. Because nothing makes my skin crawl more than real suffering being reduced to zombie SS eating Sweeds.

Oh...some tacky bastards did make at WWI horror film...with Jamie Bell. So disappointed in you Mr. Bell.

Norm Christie, an Ottawa historical researcher, has located the remains of possibly 44 members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (16th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Canadian Division) who were buried in a shell crater following the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Their deaths were registered, but their remains were never exhumed and reburied in any of the military cemeteries established after the First World War.

The Canadian Encyclopedia states that:

The Battle of Vimy Ridge, during the First World War, is Canada's most celebrated military victory — a sometimes mythologized symbol of the birth of Canadian national pride and awareness. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps (see Canadian Expeditionary Force), fighting together for the first time, attacked the ridge from 9-12 April, 1917 and succeeded in capturing it from the German army. More than 10,500 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. Today an iconic white memorial atop the ridge commemorates the battle and honours the 11,285 Canadians killed in France throughout the war who have no known graves.

In an interview last month with the National Post, Christie states that it is time to exhume these men and place them in properly marked graves.“One of the key aspects of history is the spiritual dimension. How you treat your dead is very reflective of the spiritual state of your society. We should be honouring our dead because they are so much a part of our history.”

That spiritual aspect is physically represented by the amazingly beautiful Vimy Ridge Memorial. Work began on the monument in 1925 and eleven years later, on July 26, 1936 it was unveiled by King Edward VIII. It cost approximately $1.5 million, including site preparation and the building of roads.

Wow.

Finding this possible grave site also brings up the issue of ongoing duty to these men: the call for the re-burial of these men, and the continual search for others lost in both world wars, is expensive, but necessary in many people's opinion. The Government of Canada is always under pressure to fund these initiatives, but mostly rely on the Commonwealth Graves Commission, which Canada is a member of.

The other issue is of glorifying way: modern opinions may not be to many modern people's taste of military history. Christie cites the attitude of dismissing our military history in the 1950s onwards as deplorable. “History is the heart and soul of your society. That is where you get your pride from, your sense of identity, and because Canadians lack a sense of their history, they lack a certain pride.” Christie has certainly done what he can to instill historical pride. Over the last two decades, the former Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s chief records officer has written nearly 20 books on Canada’s military history.

For my two cents: I'm biased as hell. Two great-grandfathers fought in the war, my father and brother are ex-Canadian military. The idea of them not being honoured or buried properly would bother me forever. These were men whose families loved them and despite the dangers, did their lives to a cause they believed in, whether you agree or not with that cause.

And as we all know, war is horrific and as a hard core pacifist, I don't want Canada ever involved in anything like this again. But we were, and I don't think honouring the dead is promoting any idea of how we should be conducting our military now. This was suppose to be the War that Ended All Wars because it was such a horrific loss. So while we re-bury the dead, let's recall how they got there in the first place and maybe we won't be so quick to send people to their deaths again.

Going Home: World War I Solidiers Identified

First off, much thanks to you all for reading my little blog. I finally have about ten of you reading it on a daily basis, and that's really nice. I just love history so I'm glad to share some of this love with you.

Now, enough of the mushy stuff...oh actually there is more. Get your Kleenex out.

Sidney Halliday

Good news from the field of muck. No, not the much-embattled CBC, but their report on the identification of soldiers from WWI from the mud of France. The remains of a unknown soldier have now been identified as Canadian Pte. Sidney Halliday. The Department of National Defence (DND)announced today that they had identified Halliday's remains. His remains was one of eight discovered together in France in 2006. DND revealed the identities of four others September 27.

The feel good part is how he was identified.  His sweetheart Lizzie gave him a locket with her hair. He carried that all though the war and it remained on his body when he was killed by a bullet to the head in 1918. When they found the locket, they could see her name etched on it.  Thanks to meticulously written war records, Sidney's records indicate that he had left most of his meagre wealth to his mother but at some point had asked for a change to be made. He asked that $10 go to Lizzie Walmsley of Winnipeg. The researches put all of it together and realized that these were the remains of Sidney.

How'd he get there?

 

Tim Cook write in Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting The Great War 1917-1918 about the Battle of Amiens, where Haillday died. It began before dawn on Aug. 8, 1918.That offensive included four Canadian divisions and the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Canadian troops would be the spearhead of the attack.There were 300,000 Allied troops in total, a third of them Canadian. The Allies also had "the largest tank force ever assembled to that point in history," he writes. Cook also says that on Aug. 11, near the eastern edge of the battle, infantrymen in Canada's 78th Battalion found themselves surrounded as they tried to hold on to the village of Hallu. 100 men were killed or went missing that day. These men were unknown and were buried there where they fell. 

Hallu, France today. Yeah war has a funny way of destroying everything

How did they do this after he and his fellow soldiers were in the dirt for 96 years?

 

First thing is someone has to find them. France is littered with the bits and bones of the dead from two world wars. A teenager in this case, Fabien Demeusere, was poking around in his backyard which use to be the town of  Hallu for military belts and other items. Surprise: He found their bodies instead. I imagine he pooped his pants at finding some dead guy's skull in his yard.


He did the right thing and called the police and government, They realized these were probably Canadians and called the Department of National Defence. The task of identifying the remains fell to Casualty Identification Coordinator, Laurel Clegg. Using official war records that contained ages and heights of the missing, Laurel was able to narrow down the possibilities. Genealogist Janet Roy helped find descendants of the missing men from the 78th. DNA was used to positively identify five of the eight: Lieutenant Clifford Neelands and Privates Lachlan McKinnon, William Simms, Sgt. John Lindell, and now Halliday.

 For more on the men of his regiment, I suggest the documentary Forgotten No More, The Lost Men of the 78th, which will be broadcast on CBC on November 7th.

Why you should give a toss?

 

I always like to give a reason why you should give a shit about a 96 year old dead guy. For one, the amazing work of the team at DND should be recognized and celebrated. No way was this easy to do as they crawled through documents and details for the last six years.

Also he's just not a name - Halliday was a human being who died from a gun shot to the head in a stupid war. He had dreams, friends, a girlfriend, family who missed him and never got to bury a body. His surviving nephew Jim Halliday said to the CBC:

"I guess it makes you feel as if he just passed away, instead of all those many years ago...it's a strange feeling. It's one you can't really explain all that well, brought some sense of closure, as they say."

And maybe when we honour all our dead, we find maybe we think long and hard if we want to add to the list of our war dead with our modern wars and military actions.