Anne Strickland was very glad to be on our Return to Vimy 2017 tour. It is here that she knew she was retracing the steps of her uncle Hugh Gordon Munro. From Oakville, Ontario, he signed up to fight in May 1915 at 18 years old. In a letter he sent home to the family, he writes, " The best thing that we can do, is to lay in the bottom of the trench and chew gum." He was wounded in The Battle of the Somme, near the Regina Trench, France on the 9th October, 1916. The nurse, who cared for him at the Casualty Clearing Station, wrote a "lovely letter home" to his family when he succumbed to his battle wounds. He is buried at the Contay British Cemetery, on the main road from Amiens to Arras. The family possessions that have been passed on to Anne included the temporary wooden crossbar grave marker with his name on it, his "death penny", and a personal identification bracelet. Anne wore his bracelet on the return to Vimy Tour as she walked the preserved trenches of the Somme.
Anne Strickland, on the path of remembrance for her great uncle, 100 years later.
Anne's Great Uncle's personally made identification bracelet, 15th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.