No.1 Canadian War Graves Detachment
Private Nathanael Earl Kern likely the last casualty and member of the CEF buried in France during the Great War. Son of Cyrus and Emily Walker Kern, of Brant Co., Ontario.
Burying the Fallen
The British Empire chose to bury its battlefield dead from the Great War near the sites where they had fallen, and not to repatriate remains to their home countries, as many grieving families and politicians had demanded. After battles, special grave detachments attempted to collect the unburied dead for proper burial, and to disinter remains from temporary graves for proper reburial elsewhere.
After the Armistice, this process began in earnest with the vastly expanded Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) moving remains into newly established imperial military cemeteries. The process involved tens of thousands of burials and took many years. It still continues on a smaller scale as agricultural or construction work across old battlefields regularly uncovers additional human remains.
Enlistment of Private Nathanael Earl Kern
Pte Kern 3232399 signed up late, 26 February 1918 at Toronto with 1st C.O.R. Aged 25, standing 5′ 11″ tall, with medium complexion, brown eyes and hair.
England
Pte Kern arrived in England on 15 August 1918 aboard SS BELLEROPHON (13,000 tons – a cargo steamer of the Blue Funnel Line).
Kern treated at No. 11 Canadian General Hospital, Moore Barracks during September 1918 (mild scabietic rash on ankles).
France
Private Nathanael Earl Kern arrived in France with No. 1 Canadian War Graves detachment on 18 May 1919.
No. 1 Company, Canadian War Graves Detachment
No. 1 Company, Canadian War Graves Detachment formed at Etaples on 18 May 1919 with 10 Officers and 450 Other Ranks. The Company divided into one HQ platoon and four working Platoons, with each working party under command of two Officers.
Bully-Grenay
The detachment entrained for Bully-Grenay on 24 May 1919, arriving at 19h00. Camp site close to the station with tents pitched for the whole company. Water facilities bad.
On 27 May 1918, special orders printed regarding the care to be taken with Unexploded Ammunition found in the devastated areas. The following day, Pte H T Miller 2355758 and Pte E MacMillan 3323615 accidentally injured through a Lorry passing over a Mills grenade which was half-buried. Again, on 21 May 1918, the men warned regarding the Unexploded Ammunitions.
Death of Private Wilfred Acey Nickerson
On 4 June 1919, while walking towards Roclincourt, Pte Wilfred Acey Nickerson 318176 picked up the nose cap of a shell, and proceeded to open it causing an explosion which killed him almost immediately.
Death of Pte Nathanael Earl Kern
On 12 June 1919, Private Nathanael Earl Kern accidentally killed in explosion of a gas cylinder. He died from phosgene gas exposure at No. 15 CCS.
Houchin British Cemetery
The cemetery opened in March 1918 when the 6th Casualty Clearing Station came to Houchin. From April to September the German advance made Houchin unsafe for hospitals, and the cemetery used by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. In September 1918, the 6th Casualty Clearing Station returned to Houchin and joined by the 15th CCS in October.
Houchin British Cemetery contains 700 Commonwealth burials of the Great War and two from the Second World War, along with 39 German and one Belgian war graves. The cemetery designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
SADLY MISSED BY HIS LOVED ONES
Houchin a village situated between Barlin and Bethune, about 5 kilometres south of Bethune in the Pas-de-Calais. HOUCHIN BRITISH CEMETERY found in open farmland on the south-west side of Houchin village.
