Remembrance

On the 100th year anniversary of the Great War battles that defined Canada as a nation, I remember my great-great-uncle, Samuel Maxwell McKinnon and the friends who surrounded him (Amos Leslie, Archie Battrum, Jack McEachern, Artur Joy, and others).

It makes me sad to think that he, like so many other men of fought in the Great War, never completed their right of passage or lived to experience all the big changes that happened between the 1920s and 1960s.

His life was snuffed out quickly and like so many from the Great War, he was forgotten and lost to the mists of time until my grandfather (also named Maxwell) found a picture and started to search for more information about his namesake.

The posts below come from years of research. We started with one photo. Please reach out to me if you have information about any of these men. We’re still searching for Max’s body; I’ve tracked him to the spot where he died. The assumption is he is in one of the unmarked graves in the Orchard Dump Cemetery.

The 209th Battalion CEF (World War 1)

World War 1: The Mill Village Boys (Part 1)
World War 1: the 209th Waiting in Swift Current (Part 2)
World War 1: the 209th Training at Camp Hughes (Part 3)
World War 1: the 209th Waiting in Digby (Part 4)
World War 1: the 209th’s Journey and Arrival Overseas (Part 5)

The 9th Reserve Battalion CEF (World War 1)

World War 1: the 9th Battalion in Shorncliffe (Part 6)
World War 1: the 9th Reserve in Bramshott (Part 7)
World War 1: Taken on Strength… to France (Part 8)

The 10th Battalion CEF (World War 1)

Arleux-en-Gohelle (a.k.a Finding Max)
The Dominion British Cemetery (a.k.a. Finding Jack)
Who is buried in the Orchard Dump Cemetery? (a.k.a. Finding Max)

McKinnon Family Heros

Finding Joseph… at the Cabaret-Rouge Cemetery in Souchez
Finding Frank… at the Menin Road South Cemetery, Ypres