Hubart Cunningham 223245 born 20 October 1892 in Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (not to be confused with Sable Island). His mother Mrs Jessie Cunningham, also of Cape Sable Island. A lobster fisherman, like his great-nephew today, Michael S. Cunningham of Cape Sable Island.
85th Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders)
Hubart attested 16 September 1915 in Halifax with the Nova Scotia Highlanders – 85th Canadian Infantry Battalion. At this time, Hubart stood 5′ 3″ tall, 114 pounds, with medium complexion, blue eyes and black hair. He was a Baptist.
In April and October of 1916, while still in training camp with the 85th Bn, Hubart is sanctioned twice for being AWOL. He embarked Halifax on 13 October 1916, disembarking SS Olympic, the sister-ship of the Titanic at Liverpool, 19 October 1916.
13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada)
Transferred to 13th Battalion, 5 December 1916 at Witley Camp, joining 13th Bn in the field 21 December 1916. Hubart spends less than four months in the field in the Vimy sector. Private Hubart Cunningham killed on the fist day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Location of Death
Hubart’s body found on the battlefield very shortly after, or during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Not buried where he fell. Conveniently, a light rail facilitated the removal of his body, and many others, to a location known as CA 37. The 37th battlefield cemetery of the 1st Canadian Division at Vimy Ridge.
The red star indicates where Hubart’s body found. His remains then transported along a light rail back to CA 37 (the red circle).
CA 37 located back at the front lines on 9 April 1917, south of Moulin Rouge (the Old Red Mill). Before the concentration years of the IWGC/CWGC (1919-1923), and the end of the war, Hubart’s remains moved to CA 37, by Arras Road Cemetery (CA 39). Perhaps during the final German Spring Offensive in 1918, the cemetery subject to severe shell fire, and Hubart’s grave, and so many others, destroyed.
Though Hubart’s original GRRF form contains a clerical error (36c.A.16.a.1.1), the battle field clearance teams realized the correct location 51b.A.16.a.1.1, a corn-field west of Thelus.
The site of dead bodies, comrade or foe, very demoralizing to troops. A day or two following the battle, his body, and many others, relocated back to Grave CA 37, used by the 13th Bn for the Battle of Vimy Ridge, at 51b.A.11.c.9.1 which is very close to the A26 autoroute today.
This location under constant threat of shellfire for the remainder of the war, and we presume Hubart’s grave and several others shelled and little if anything could be recovered. Therefore, his name, and others from the 13th Bn are found on the Vimy Memorial today.
Sergeant Bellamy
Oddly, an instance of one man buried with Hubart, whose remains also lost. But, Sergeant William Orange Bellamy 46456, also of the 13th Battalion, not commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. Sgt Bellamy commemorated by a Kipling Memorial at nearby Nine Elms Military Cemetery. Why not Hubart too?
Though Sgt Bellamy did not fall at the same location as Hubart, at one time he did share the same battlefield cemetery (CA 37). Appears to be an arbitrary decision to have erected a Memorial Cross (Kipling stone) in Nine Elms Military Cemetery for Sgt Bellamy, but not for Private Cunningham, and many others.
8 October 1917
Private Hubart Cunningham’s next of kin notified on 8 October 1917 as to the location of his grave. The family would have been informed of his death earlier in April 1917.
The reference above, 3/4 of a mile SSE of Neuville-St-Vaast, unmistakably the second burial location of Hubart’s remains at CA 37.
12 July 1927
Letter re loss of grave, and Memorial Register sent to Mrs Jessie Cunningham on this date.
1 August 1936
This the date when Hubart’s name registered on the Vimy Memorial.
These soldiers, once buried, and re-buried by their comrades, either commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, or on a Kipling Memorial in Nine Elms Military Cemetery, signifying the location of their bodies once known, but have since become lost.
Graves lost from Grave CA 37 or Arras Road Cemetery, and like Private Hubart Cunningham, commemorated on the Vimy Memorial.
Michael Cunningham’s Pilgrimage
During June of 2023, Hubart’s great-nephew Michael Cunningham visiting Vimy Memorial, and the former (or present?) locations of Private Hubart Cunningham’s body. Upon the Vimy Memorial, Michael will find Hubart’s name, and in Nine Elms Military Cemetery he will find the memorial stone for Sergeant William Orange Bellamy, the only soldier of the 13th Battalion so recognized.
Many rewarding cemeteries and memorials in the immediate area. Within walking distance, at least a dozen historic places for Michael to visit.
Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Neuville-Saint-Vaast
The majestic Maison Blanche Cemetery (Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Neuville-Saint-Vaast).
It is the largest German Military Cemetery in France with 44,533 burials. After the war ended French authorities started the cemetery at this site. German dead brought into the site from the area north and east of Arras between 1919 and 1923.
La Targette British Cemetery Aux Rietz
La Targette British Cemetery, formerly known as Aux-Rietz Military Cemetery, begun at the end of April 1917 and used by field ambulances and fighting units until September 1918.
Nearly a third of the graves have an artillery connection. In March-April 1917, the artillery of the 2nd Canadian and 5th Divisions, and certain heavy artillery units, had their headquarters in a deep cave at Aux-Rietz.
Mémorial Augustin Leuregans
The memorial located in an area known as le cagin, on a back road leading behind the German Soldatenfriedhof at Maison Blanche, Neuville-St.-Vaast.
Mémorial Augustin Leuregans also north west of Grave CA 37.
Moulin Rouge
The war journals of Louis Barthas rare testimony to the fraternization between French and German soldiers in December 1915 at Moulin Rouge.
One century later, in October 2015, the archaeology service of the city of Arras and Inrap explored, with authorization by the State (Drac Nord-Pas-de-Calais), the “Moulin Rouge”, a favored venue for
these unofficial ceasefires.
On 10 December 1915, Louis Barthas’ unit ordered to maintain the “Trench of the Moulin”, flooded by rain. As the soldiers fled the trench so as not to perish inside it, the two camps lowered their arms and exchanged words, handshakes, tobacco and alcohol.
“Who knows! Maybe one day in this corner of the Artois we well erect a monument to commemorate this surge of fraternity among men who hated the war but were obliged to kill each other against their will”.
Soldat Louis Barthas
This wish of Louis Barthas at the origin of the first French monument in honor of fraternization, inaugurated on 17 December 2015 in Neuville-Saint-Vaast.
Zivy Crater Cemetery
Zivy Crater one of two mine craters (the other Lichfield Crater) used by the Canadian Corps Burial Officer in 1917 for the burial of bodies found on the Vimy battlefield. The numerous groups of graves made about this time by the Canadians not named as a rule, but serially lettered and numbered.
The original name for Zivy Crater was CB 1 (1st battlefield grave of 9 April 1917 for the 2nd Canadian Division).
Arras Road Cemetery
Arras Road Cemetery begun by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade soon after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and until the Armistice it contained only the graves (now at the back of the cemetery) of 71 officers and men of the 7th Canadian Infantry Battalion (British Columbia Regiment) who fell in April, May and June, 1917.
In 1926-29 (during the time Pte Hubart Cunningham’s grave lost), enlarged by the addition of 993 graves from a wide area, mainly North and East of Arras. Quite possible, Hubart’s remains brought into Arras Road Cemetery as an Unknown Canadian Soldier (UCS).
This graveyard, originally called CA 39, contained the graves of 46 Canadian soldiers, 39 of whom belonged to the 15th Battalion, and most of whom fell on the 9th April 1917.
Arras Road Cemetery, Michael Cunningham’s final destination before he reaches Nine Elms Military Cemetery.
Nine Elms Military Cemetery
Nine Elms the name given by the Army to a group of trees 460 metres East of the Arras-Lens main road, between Thelus and Roclincourt. Subject to shellfire during the war, all but one of the original elm trees remain today.
The cemetery begun, after the capture of Vimy Ridge, by the burial in Plot I, Row A of 80 men of the 14th Canadian Infantry Battalion, who fell on the 9th April 1917. This and the next row filled by June 1917.
Canadian Field Artillery Memorial
The cross inaugurated by General Sir Julian Byng on 9 April 1918. It carries the emblem of the artillery — a canon supporting the crown — and the motto of the gunners :
Ubique quo fas et gloria ducunt — Everywhere that duty and glory lead
Erected in memory of officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Canadian Corps artillery who fell during the Vimy operations, April 1917. Canadian Field Artillery, Royal Field Artillery, Canadian Garrison Artillery, Royal Garrison Artillery, South African Heavy Artillery.
Michael, if you pass through the town of Thélus, you surely will not miss this memorial at “Thelus crossroads”.
1st Canadian Division Memorial
The cross marks the area of final objective of the 1st Canadian Division during its assault on Vimy Ridge. On the far right of the Canadian Corps that day, it had the furthest to advance before actually reaching the ridge.
A remarkable, original memorial located in a farmer’s field. All due respect to the generations of land owners in the area that continue to help support and maintain these memorials.
The 1st Canadian Division Memorial located within eyesight of Bois-Carre Military Cemetery.
Bois-Carre Military Cemetery
The cemetery begun by units of the 1st Canadian Division in April 1917, and used until the following June.
These 61 graves in Plot I (a Canadian soldier, Wilfred Acey Nickerson 318176) accidentally killed in 1919, also buried in Plot I, Row F).
Walking towards Roclincourt, Wilfred picked up the nose cap of a shell, and proceeded to open it causing an explosion which killed him almost immediately.
Vimy Memorial
Though the back of the Canadian $20 bill reveals an image of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, less than one in ten Canadians recognize the world’s most magnificent war memorial. Further, only one in a hundred Canadians can name it!
Mrs Charlotte Susan Wood
To visit Vimy, is to experience the feeling of Mrs Charlotte Susan Wood from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
On August 24, 1914, her son, Private Frederick Francis Wood, killed at Mons, Belgium while serving with the Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment).
On May 5, 1917, a second son, Private Peter Percy Wood, killed at Vimy Ridge while serving with the Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment).
National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother
In 1936, Mrs Wood became known as the first National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother when she placed a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey in London, England, on behalf of all Canadian mothers who have lost a child in military service to their country.
Mrs Wood awarded the George V Jubilee Medal in 1935. While on a pilgrimage to attend the unveiling of the Vimy Ridge Memorial in July 1936, Mrs Wood presented to King Edward VIII. Seizing the opportunity she said to him, “I have just been looking at the trenches and I just can’t figure out why our boys had to go through that.”
“Please God, Mrs. Wood. It shall never happen again.”
King Edward VII
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