Amazing Story
Remains of First World War Alberta soldier finally identified
"The remains of a First World War soldier from Alberta who died in France nearly 94 years ago have finally been identified, the Department of National Defence announced Thursday.[---]
The soldier was identified as Pte. Thomas Lawless, a member of the 49th Battalion."
"Lawless’s unidentified remains were found in October 2003 by construction workers in northern France, near Vimy Ridge, and were returned to Canada because of metal insignia identifying his battalion.[---]
Lawless was born on April 11, 1889, in Ireland but moved to Calgary before he enlisted.
He died during a two-day battle near Avion, France, which was a well-rehearsed raid that intended to move enemy German lines, said Hans Brink, a volunteer with the museum. There were many casualties during the confusion of the night raid, he said.
“At the completion of the raid, 16 members were missing,” he said.
One of those missing soldiers was Lawless, a fact which helped doctors and scientists narrow down their search when they set out to identify the remains."
"Pte. Lawless’s remains will be buried at La Chaudière Military Cemetery in Vimy, France, on March 15, with members of his Irish family in attendance."I don't think I'm being too much of a sop when I say stories like this bring tears to my eyes.
Labels: tearjerker
posted by Louise at 3:12 pm
3 Comments:
No shame in that, Louise. It's been wisely said that the person with no tears has no heart.
Now, Private Lawless' remains have the dignity of a named resting place in a Canadian military cemetery, among other Canadian patriots who all, to borrow Lincoln's words, gave their last, full measure of devotion.
I did a bit of searching and found this description of that Military Cemetery and a photo showing a bit of the cemetery and one of those Canadian heros' headstones, this one of Private J.G. Pattison, VC. It looks like a beautiful, peaceful place.
"La Chaudiere Military Cemetery is approximately 3 kilometres south of Lens and is situated on the north-western outskirts of Vimy.
Vimy Ridge was taken by the Canadian Corps in April 1917 in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, although the 25th and 47th (London) Divisions had also been involved in heavy fighting there in May 1916. The cemetery was made at the foot of the ridge, on the north-eastern side, next to a house which had contained a camouflaged German gun position. It remained very small until the summer of 1919, when graves were brought in from many other small cemeteries and isolated sites (some of these from the 1916 fighting) on or near the ridge. At this time, the cemetery was known as Vimy Canadian Cemetery No 1.
There are now 907 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 314 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to a number of casualties known to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate men whose graves in some of the concentrated cemeteries had been destroyed in subsequent fighting. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker."
Cemetery photo
Oh, another thing...
Here is the Wiki article about Canadian Peter C. Lemon, who was a US Army soldier in Vietnam and, at the age of 20, was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read the Citation for his Medal. Wow...
Well, you've gone and turned on those taps again.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge is a big part of Canadian folk lore, if that's the right phrase. Very symbolic.
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