Of Canada’s 66,000 deaths in the Great War, over 20,000 of the men have no known grave. These men inspire many stories, and the Identification and Recovery Cases of CEFRG. The Missing are on either the Vimy Memorial, or the Menin Gate, should they have made the Ultimate Sacrifice in Belgium. Their comrades, or foe, on the battlefield, had once buried these missing men. CEFRG is active in recovering, and/or, identifying the Missing, for we have a moral obligation to do so. The Canadian Government cannot make the same claim.
Cases of CEFRG
The “Winnipeg Grenadiers” and the “Canadian Scottish” are two important Identification and Recovery Cases of CEFRG. They present opportunities to recover, and identify, more than eighty men. The Winnipeg Grenadiers case may lead to a collaborative effort with our friends from Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany is the most active country in the recovery remains since the Fall of the Iron Curtain. The Canadian Scottish case may lead to the location of one of Canada’s Greatest Heroes, the body of Private William Johnstone Milne, VC.
Winnipeg Grenadiers
Discovery
In the fall of 2006, Fabien Demeusere discovered three sets of skeletal remains on his family’s property in Hallu, France. Fabien, the teen-aged son, had discovered his passion for the Great War. In the winter of 2017, Fabien discovered five more sets of remains. It was determined the remains were Canadian soldiers from the Great War. They were from the 78th Infantry Battalion – The Winnipeg Grenadiers. The Winnipeg Grenadiers the first of the Identification and Recovery Cases of CEFRG.
Identification
The Directorate of History and Heritage (DHH) of the Department of National Defense (DND) took eight years to identify five of these soldiers as part of their Casualty Identification Programme. Known Only to God are the remaining three men.
The German Alpine Korps, unknown to the investigative DHH team, and Fabien, had buried the men on the battlefield. It was a very hot afternoon of 12 August 1918, during the fifth day of the Battle of Amiens. At Caix British Cemetery on 13 May 2015, the Hallu Eight were re-buried.
Research
A photo from Herbert Hunter, revealed he visited the grave of Lt. Clifford Abram Neelands in September of 1919. The London War Graves Office had supplied Herbert with the coordinates. Herbert was a relative of Lt. Neelands. This is significant, for we now know these graves had been lost. The German Alpine Korps would have also buried their casualties.
Herbert noted Clifford’s inscription on his headstone, inscribed in German, read, “Here lies a Lieutenant of the Winnipeg Grenadiers.” Shortly after Herbert’s visit, the people of Hallu returned to their destroyed village. The villagers wantonly destroyed any grave recognized as being German. The property adjacent to the Demeusere family likely contains another eight to twenty-two missing Winnipeg Grenadiers, and an unknown number of German soldiers.
Battle of Amiens
Canadian Scottish
Identification
Forty-four men of the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Infantry Battalion, killed on 9 April 1917, during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, lay in a collective grave known as C.A. 40. Four of these men now lie in the CWGC cemetery named Zivy Crater. The Canadian Scottish second of the Identification and Recovery Cases of CEFRG.
Research
On 1 March 2016, an investigative report was submitted to the CWGC by the CEFSG (Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group), suggesting the other forty missing men are buried among the Unknowns in Nine Elms Military Cemetery. Photographic evidence was discovered earlier this year, in the form of MIKAN image No. 3403400 – Cemetery of the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Scottish Regiment). The CWGC has yet to confirm, nor deny the investigative report.
Kipling Memorial Ceremony
Twenty years ago, our DND and the CWGC would be overjoyed with the prospect of holding a “Kipling Memorial Ceremony.” Family members of each of the soldiers attend a ceremony whereby a memorial, states the names of the forty men are among the Unknown graves, specifically in Plot V of Nine Elms Military Cemetery.
Unfortunately, for these Heroes, the Winnipeg Grenadiers case consumed too much in the way of resources for the Department of History and Heritage. Canada is unofficially, no longer pro-active in identifying and recovering human remains of the Great War. Ironic the Canadian Government not interested in the Identification and Recovery Cases of CEFRG.
Among the forty missing men of the Scottish Regiment was Private William Johnstone Milne VC. Milne earned the Victoria Cross for his actions in the morning of the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Killed later that day, his body lay in Grave C.A. 40. His remains, and those of another 39 men of the Canadian Scottish, moved to Nine Elms Military Cemetery in 1919. The Vimy Memorial, inaugurated in 1936, lists the names of these forty men. The names of these Canadian Heroes should be on a Kipling Memorial at Nine Elms Military Cemetery.
Update 5 October 2022
In April and May of 1919, Lt William Rider-Rider sent back to the Western Front to capture over 200 images of significant places where men and women of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had fought and died in the Great War.
Canadian Military History
Photographs of great importance in Canadian Military History, including the Knighthood of Sir Arthur Currie and the crossing of the Second Canadian Division over the Rhine at Bonn, Germany, on 13 December 1918.
Unfortunately, the annotations of so many images in the MIKAN collection, and it’s counterpart in the Imperial War Museum, leave much to be desired. Riddled with errors, and more critically, omissions, the annotators of the time could not realize their work would and has become the reason for much confusion, and debate.
The “O”-Series (overseas) contains over 4,700 images captured by the three official Canadian CWRO photographers from 18 June 1916 to the Spring of 1919. Lt William Rider-Rider had captured all images after replacing Captain Ivor Castle in June of 1917.
O.4540
The most significant image in the O-Series has become O.4540 as it pertains to the location of the Missing – 40 men of the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Canadian Scottish Regiment) who died on the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
1919-May, MIKAN No. 403400, PA-004458, O-4540, Cemetery of the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Scottish Regiment).
Note the annotation does not identify the cemetery, nor correct month. It also suggests there is a cemetery for a battalion or regiment, when there were none. More accurately, CWGC cemeteries may contain plots for battalions or brigades, there are no cemeteries dedicated to battalions, even though some contain the name, e.g., H.A.C. Cemetery.
By coincidence, serendipity, or perhaps fate, the final image in the O-Series collection catalogued by CEFRG happened to be O.4540 on 27 March 2020. I have been patient through a long COVID delay, and finally, more than two years after requesting a high-quality scan of the original image plate from Library and Archives Canada, we have information which further confirms Nine Elms Military Cemetery in Thélus contains the graves of the 40 Missing, including that of Victoria Cross recipient, Private William Johnstone Milne.
Plot IV
Initially, the image gave credence to the hypothesis that this is Nine Elms Military Cemetery. Confusion arose over the placing of the rows A and B in Plot IV, leading us to believe Plot IV later became known as Plot V. This is not true. The confusion now resolved – this is Plot IV, but Rows A and B are now swapped.
The location, without a doubt, is the north-northwest corner of Nine Elms Military Cemetery in Thélus, Pas-de-Calais, on the battlefield of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The elm tree, bearing the sign, without a doubt, the same tree still growing in Plot IV today. Note there are only eight elm trees in Nine Elms Military Cemetery. The destroyed elm, at the south-southwest corner of the cemetery.
The image had to be captured before 14h30. Even though overcast, it is possible to discern shadows.
Completion of Row B
The image had to be captured on or before 25 April 1919. On that date, the remainder of Row B (now Row A) completed with all but one man of the 5th Canadian Infantry Battalion. By 5 May 1919, Row B completed with all but one Unidentified Canadian Soldier of the 16th Battalion. The final row of Plot I, with the other half of the Missing 40 Canadian Scottish had been completed, presumably just before O.4540 captured.
We see the two rows are currently being worked on. There are newer, larger white crosses directly in front of the simple, smaller crosses. Quite possibly, the exact date was 25 April 1919.
Lt Harcus Strachan VC
Corporal Percy Reeves, Rider-Rider’s assistant, not the officer in the photo. Though a member of the Fort Garry Horse (no participation in the Battle of Vimy Ridge), CEFRG suspects this is actually Lt Harcus Strachan VC. Harcus likely here, paying his respects, perhaps looking at the grave of another Victoria Cross recipient – Private William Johnstone Milne. Lt Harcus Strachan VC still in France, returned to England on 30 April 1919.
The sign on the tree, without a doubt, reads as follows.
THE
CANADIAN SCOTTISH
16TH CAN. BATTN
50 REGT. GORDONS VICTORIA, B.C.
72 REGT. SEAFORTH H of C VANCOUVER, B.C.
79 REGT. CAMERON H of C WINNIPEG, MB.
91 REGT. CANADIAN HIGHLANDERS HAMILTON, ON.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge
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